printSeptember 12, 2008
Inside Scoop
The latest on what’s hot around town, great recipes, book ideas.
Elinor Spokes
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Made In Israel
The next time you sit down for an evening of television, you may be watching an adaptation of an Israeli TV show. According to a recent article in Newsweek magazine, Israel is fast becoming the number one breeding ground for American television.
This fall, CBS will air “The Ex List,” adapted from the Israeli series, “Mythological X,” a romantic comedy directed by Timothy Busfield of “Thirty-something” fame and starring Elizabeth Reaser. “The Ex List” is about a woman who commits to revisiting all of her “Exes” after she learns from a psychic that she has already dated her future husband.
In addition, HBO’s show “In Treatment” is the American version of the Israeli “Be Tipul” about a therapist and his challenging patients. There are also two other Israeli-adapted shows in the pipeline.
“Going to where the silence is. That is the responsibility of a journalist: giving a voice to those who have been forgotten, forsaken, and beaten down by the powerful,” writes Amy Goodman in her 2004 book, “Exception to the Rulers.” A journalist, author and the host and executive producer of “Democracy Now!,” a national daily independent, award-winning news program airing on 700 radio and television stations in North America, Goodman will be making an appearance at the Baltimore Book Festival on Saturday, Sept. 27 at 1 p.m. in the Literary Salon.
In her latest book, “Standing Up to the Madness,” Goodman closely examines who in America garners the greatest power. She argues that, in fact, it is everyday people who take a chance and stand up for what they believe in, offering advice on what individuals can do to help. For information on the festival, go to baltimorebookfestival.com
Dateline Israel
On exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Maryland currently through January 4 is “Dateline Israel: New Photography and Video Art,” on loan from The Jewish Museum of New York. Featuring works by noted artists from Israel, Europe and America, the exhibit presents varied artistic viewpoints as influenced by the current state of affairs in Israel. “All the artists are intensely sensitive to the shifting order in Israel,” says exhibition organizer Susan Tumarkin Goodman, senior curator at The Jewish Museum in New York. The result is a complex, nuanced view of contemporary Israel.
Artists represented in the exhibition include Rina Castelnuovo, Gillian Laub, Yaron Leshem, Wolfgang Tillmans and Catherine Yass. Thirteen of the participating artists are Israeli by birth or through aliyah [immigration to Israel].
For general information on Dateline Israel, visit the Jewish Museum of Maryland’s Web site at http://www.jewishmuseummd.org or call 410-732-6400.
Dining with...Lynn Straus
With school back in session and life moving along at a revved-up pace, getting dinner on the table for an active family is frequently challenging.
Lynn Straus, Internet marketing consultant and mother of Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School students Jason, 7, and Samantha, 12, has found a solution to feeding her family and eliminating the stress. “I buy things in bigger quantities, make batches and freeze them so I always have a freezer full of food,” she says.
One of the family favorites is her recipe for sweet and sour meatballs which she serves over a plate of steaming hot whole wheat pasta.
Sweet and Sour Meatballs
2 lbs of extra-lean ground beef
1 egg
1 cup bread crumbs
Pepper, salt and onion powder; to taste
Sauce
1 32 oz can tomato sauce
1 16 oz can jellied cranberry sauce
1. Combine the meatball ingredients and make medium-size balls. Set aside.
2. Combine sauce ingredients in a large saucepan and simmer until dissolved. Place meatballs in sauce and cook, covered, over a low flame for two hours.
You can freeze the meatballs in the sauce in batches at this point.If serving immediately, serve over a plentiful plate of pasta of your choice.
On Bookshelves
“Goldengrove: A Novel” by Francine Pose Harper 2008, hardcover 288 pages, $24.95
The latest release from author and Jewish Book Council award-winner Francine Pose is a tale of adolescence and revelation as the 13-year-old protagonist struggles with a family tragedy which necessitates self-reliance and independence in its aftermath.
Prose’s first novel, “Judah the Pious,” for which she won her award, is about an eighteenth-century rabbi who becomes an advisor to the King of Poland. She has since written over a dozen other novels in addition to children’s books and is a contributor of fiction to Mademoiselle, Redbook, Harper’s Bazaar and The New York Times Magazine, among others.