Monday, December 27, 2010

Winter Weather Washes Away East Coast

As the song goes, "the weather outside is frightful..." Well, I don't have a fire to delight me, but I think that most of my readers have spent the day indoors hiding from the cold, as I have. Though, perhaps they've been outside playing in the snow. Yesterday, I finished off my half gallon of milk having some hot chocolate and cookies. Now, I'm out of milk and so I'm drinking tea and munching on a nice turkey and fake cheese sandwich. I just don't want to go out to the store, though I really want to make chicken soup and I lack carrots and celery.

So, I was reading about the weather on VIN. It seems, according to the VIN article, that we only had about 24 inches of snow. I can't believe, I'm such a baby and I'm staying inside, for TWO MEASLY FEET OF SNOW. You have to understand, I'm from Buffalo. During the "Storm Of The Century that took place in November of 2000, they had predicted 2 to 4 inches of snow-nothing by Buffalo standards. People made the joke that when they said 2 to 4 inches, they made a mistake and that instead it was 2 to 4 feet. It was actually about 2 to 4 inches an hour combined with high winds, lightning, rush hour traffic and idiots who should know how to drive in it (all Buffalonians should), but they didn't. Since some of these idiots were bus drivers, many buses went sideways blocking the roads.

I had been working at the time at a customer service call center. A small number of us stayed in a hotel that night and actually went back to work the next day. They turned off the phones and put on a recording that we were closed because of the weather. We didn't have enough staff to handle incoming calls but we returned calls, instead. One woman I had been dealing with the previous day, I called her back and she said she had just called and gotten the recording that we were closed. I had to explain it to her. She was thrilled she happened to be on the desk of someone that was working that day. The buses weren't runing and I couldn't get home (I didn't have a car then for some reason) so, I ended up staying with a co-worker and her family. I used a barbie sweater maker with one her daughters.

Hmmm.... it's funny how a casual acquaintance was so welcoming.... Often Jews act like they are the only ones, but this non-Jewish co-worker extended hospitality that I haven't really seen from most Jews.

SWF, 41 hasn't given up like I have

I came across this article online about a woman named Tamar. She was desperate to have somewhere to go on Shabbos. She wanted a family to make her a weekly fixture at their Shabbos table.

NO ONE replied.

I take that back. A man replied. The article doesn't really say why she turned the man down after spending 45 minutes on the phone with him.

I've seen many single women who are BTs and converts pushing their way into a family they borrow on Shabbos or Yontiff. I tried to find a family of my own like that but, too many times did I see others who weren't really welcome to intrude upon the family they think has adopted them. One woman says to me about another convert that frequented her Shabbos table, "she thinks she's a part of our family..." Yet another convert gleefully told me about a month post-conversion that she figures one of the families she goes to for meals will find her a man. Little did she know the family she mainly went to thought she was about twenty years older than I am and she's actually younger. I don't know what happened with that, perhaps she did find someone through them or another family that had her to their Shabbos table.

Seeing all of this, I thought to myself, if this is what they are sharing about another convert, what do they think of these other converts that they aren't slipping up and telling me? I can only imagine! Furthermore, as an intelligent women, I drew conclusions about what they would be saying about me and even more so about what they don't EVEN say about me but that they think. I know husbands and wives sit around and talk about their Shabbos guests they don't like after they leave. They will deny it, too.

So, I commented on this article and explained to the woman that no one is going to "adopt" her, as she wants. People feel like it's on us single women to find someone. The problem with that is that most men aren't really trying to get married. So, who are we supposed to marry?

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT HEBRON

The following article was published in the Jewish Press in March and it's written by my friend, Rachel  Sommer.


THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT HEBRON
By Rachel Sommer
Posted Mar 03 2010



Recently, I traveled to Israel with a group of college students. We were taken to visit the West Bank, including Hebron. While Jews make up only 20% of the population, (the other 80% are Muslims) we were reassured that Jews still manage to live full-fledged lives in Hebron.



When walking into Me'arat Hamachpela, I felt a chill run down my spine. This was where our forefathers are buried, where Judaism began! As we entered the cave we felt the holiness in the air, and praying there was a one in a million kind of feeling.



Hebron is the oldest Jewish city. It was here that a Jew first purchased real estate, when Avraham bought a piece of land to bury Sarah. Here was where our founders are buried; Avraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah and Adam and Eve as well. Hebron was King David's first capital city, until he moved to Jerusalem.



Hebron, located south of Jerusalem, has been the capital of the area since ancient times; there roads connect - east, west, north and south until Yemen. The name Hebron comes from the Hebrew word chibbur, meaning connection: the connection of the Jews to their ancient fathers and mothers.

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By the Second Temple era, Hebron had been settled by Jews, and King Herod erected a huge building over the cave in a similar style to the Wailing Wall. The Machpela cave is the only public building in the world which has been active for 2,000 years! Over the years, one occupier followed another, and Jews suffered humiliation, pogroms, and explosions. The Romans sold tens of thousands Jews as slaves near Hebron. The Byzantines modified the cave and turned the left wing into a church; the Arabs imitated the Jews by transforming it to their holy place. The Mumlucks built towers on Mearat Hamachpela, turned it to a Muslim shrine, and prohibited Jews from coming closer than the seventh stair leading to the graves.



Jews have never stopped coming to Hebron whether as pilgrims or by coming to settle there - including famous Jews like the Rambam, Benjamin of Tudella, the Ramban, and the philanthropist Moshe Montefiore. To help the visitors there were those who carried the title "member of the patriarchs'graves" - their duty was to escort Jews who came to visit and pray at the cave.



When the Turkish Empire took over in 1517, many Jews were killed during pogroms while others were expelled. However, the Jewish community soon re-established itself and many Sephardic Jews arrived expanding the community. A large plot of land was purchased to establish the "Ghetto" and the Avraham Avinu Synagogue was erected. The first aliya of Chasidim to Hebron was in 1748. The Jewish population expanded slowly and in 1807 the community in Hebron purchased land in two locations; one is which is now called the market and the second called Tel Hebron. This purchase of land was signed and agreed to by the Waqf, the head of the Muslims. Most of Hebron's income in those days came via donations from abroad which were collected by shelichim (envoys).



In 1819, representatives of the Lubavticher community came to Hebron building the first Chabad community in Israel. In 1840, a second wave of Lubavitch Chasidim moved to Hebron, along with the famous Rabbi Slonim and his family. Thanks to his influence, an agreement of cooperation was signed between the Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities; they organized and maintained many public institutions. However, life was not easy, the Jewish community suffered from oppression and robbery from the neighboring Arab sheikhs, who blackmailed them and demanded money.



Slowly, Hebron began to develop. In 1907 a bank was opened in the city and wealthy Jews built new homes outside the "Ghetto" walls. Hadassah opened its first clinic in Hebron housed in the same building as the Lubavticher yeshiva Torat Emet - Chaim Israel Romano, a wealthy Turkish Jew, had purchased the building. The Jewish community grew to 1,500 (among 8,000 other residents).



World War I brought with it devastation. Many Jewish institutions were forced to shut down. It would be under the British Mandate that conditions would improve. As a matter of fact it was a day of celebration when the Kneset Yisrael relocated from Slobodka, Lithuania bringing 200 students and roshei yeshiva.



For generations, Hebron's Jewish population had good relations with their Arab neighbors, who benefited from the development of the city. All this was to change, however, when the British appointed Amin al-Husayni, a nationalist Palestinian Arab, as grand Mufti of Jerusalem in 1921.



Mohammad Amin al-Husayni was born into a wealthy Jew-hating family. Frustrated when his program to establish an Arab state that would include Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel failed, he concentrated on leading a violent campaign against the Jews and Zionism.



His appointment as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem put him in charge of all the Waqkf's funds, and he regarded himself as the guardian of all Muslim holy places in the Holy Land.



He called for a jihad against the Jews and all of his speeches were filled with violence and rhetoric. In August 1929, the Arabs publicly announced that they were preparing to slaughter all the Jews, and were waiting to get the order from the Grand Mufti.



While researching Hebron massacre I came across Hebron: Rebirth from Ruins, 80 years after the 1929 massacre, Hebron Lives! by Dr. Michal Rachel Suissa. The following descriptions are based on the book:



On Friday August 23, 1929, a yeshiva student was stabbed to death on the streets of Jerusalem. The same day a group of Arabs coming out from prayers at their Mosque marched in the streets of Hebron, shouting "Itbach al yahud!" (slaughter the Jews) and "Allahu akbar" (G-d is great). Throughout the day false rumors were spread that in Jerusalem, the Jews had killed thousands of Muslims, encouraging local Arabs to take revenge. The rabbi of Hebron went to the local commissioner, Abed Allah Kardus, to discuss the situation; the commissioner assured the rabbi that the Jews were secure.



Thousands of Muslims joined the mob in Hebron saying the order came from a-Husayni to kill the Jews. The mob broke into the Slobodka Yeshiva, and found only one student there, Shmuel Rosenholtz. They stabbed and stoned him; his blood spilled over the pages of his Gemarah. The British Commander, Major Raymond Cafferata, yelled at the frightened Jews who came to the station asking for protection; he ordered them to lock themselves up in their houses.



The next day, Sabbath morning, a huge mob of Arabs gathered on the streets, carrying with them knives, hatches and pitchforks. They broke into one house after another, raped girls along with mothers and grandmothers, torturing to death whomever they found. Men were castrated, women's breasts were cut off, eyes were gouged out, and guts were torn out of bellies. Many of the Arabs were the victims' neighbors and friends. The massacre took several hours.



Some heroic Arabs however put their lives in jeopardy by hiding Jews in their basements, thereby saving their lives. However, several Arab policemen participated in the massacre as the British watched. After the massacre the police gathered the wounded in the police station, leaving them without medical care. Two Jewish doctors did all they could to help, but combined there were 63 dead and 80 Torah scrolls burned.



Jerusalem's British governor did all he could to cover up the massacre - he even prohibited the Jewish newspapers from reporting on it. However, HaRav Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook, the chief rabbi, sent telegrams all over the world with the details.



As the British media began putting on pressure for investigation, the High British Commissioner, John Chancellor made a statement saying that those who were responsible for the massacre would be severely punished. He appointed a medical committee which exhumed 30 bodies and examined them. Their conclusion was that there was no evidence of torture, even though there were limbs severed and faces destroyed.



The British Colonial Office accepted testimony from Arabs and the British Police Chief, Cafferata, along with the Governor Abdalla Kardush, but refused to allow any Jews to attend. The leaders of the mob were put on trial, but most did not get any punishment.



In 1931, a group of families was able to return to Hebron. They worked hard to reestablish their community without any financial support. However, 1936 saw more Arab riots and the British forcefully drove the Jews out of the city. The Arabs looted and took over all Jewish properties.



The Jordanian army occupied the West Bank in 1948, and worked hard to root out all evidence of Jewish life. The Avraham Avinu synagogue was turned into a pen for sheep; a market replaced the Jewish quarter. The Jewish cemetery was destroyed as well. Beit Haddasah became an Arab school. For decades, Hebron, like the Western Wall and the Tomb of Rachel, was a place that Jews could only yearn for and dream about.



During the 1967 war Israel won an extraordinary victory. The old city of Jerusalem was freed, as well as the West Bank, including Hebron. When the Israeli forces arrived in the city the Arab residents surrendered, without a single shot being fired. Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the chief rabbi of the IDF, hoisted an Israeli flag on top of the Mearat Hamachpela. The next day when Ben-Gurion visited the cave, he announced, "Hebron is Jerusalem's sister" and urged Jews to return and build Hebron.



In 1968, Rabbi Moshe Levinger and Rabbi Eliezer Waldman led a group of Jews to settle in Hebron. Although times were hard, the settlers felt they were fulfilling a dream that had existed for generations. Slowly, the Jewish community grew and in 1969 the Israeli government decided to establish a Jewish town close to Mearat Hamachpela, named Kiryat Arba. The plan was to build a Jewish city, and the surrounding hills were reserved for that purpose. But soon the Arabs covered the hills with illegal construction to block the development of the city. However, by 2008, Hebron's Jewish population was over 7,000, and it had become an active regional center.



In 1997, under pressure from President Clinton, Prime Minister Netanyahu handed over 85% of Hebron to the Palestinians. The Jewish residents have become easy targets for Arab snipers who live on hills surrounding them. The Jews have limitations on where they can build, while the Arabs embark on a massive wave of constructions. In addition, Israeli left wing organizations like Peace Now, very often join together with Arab activists to try to obliterate the Jewish community.



With all that, the Hebron community is a reflection of the Zionist activity and achievement. It is an ancient community that has been driven out more than once, and always returned. Hebron is the root by which the Jewish nation stands.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Be nice to bicycle riders

I just read this piece on VIN and I want to take a minute to complain about people who run bicyclists off the road.


I forgot to copy my comment I submitted but I'll go back later and get it for the blog. I'm sure it will be fine.

Jaffa/Tel Aviv incident from VIN

I'm inside cuddled up in a blanket thanks to this cold weather so I thought I would blog a little and I see this interesting story on VIN. It seems some Arabs, including an IDF veteran were chased out of a Jewish neighborhood in Tel Aviv. The comments were back and forth. I summed them up and asked a question. I've pasted my comment below.



On the one hand, Arabs have been harassing Jews.

On the other hand, they were in the IDF so they are a different kind of Arab. They are the Arab that is part of a peace solution not a hate solution.
On the other hand, why did they have to get an apartment in a Jewish area? It says they were working in Jaffa, doesn't Jaffa have neighborhoods of each? I saw the indie film, "Jaffa" and in the movie there were neighborhoods of both. The people I was with said Jaffa is really just like that.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

A little more venting about dating....

So, something I was thinking about when I was thinking about the demands men make on women to wear heels and make up on dates was the unwillingness of the male gender to pay for the date. Men gripe and piss and moan that they can't afford date after date in hopes of finding their missing rib. I wonder if the same men are men that expect their dates to layer the crap on their face and put their feet in the shoes that shove their entire foot forward into a tiny space that squeezes and crushes the bones. I told one of my friends I don't know how women can wear those things and she said that they wear inserts to make their feet feel good. I wasn't aware that shoe inserts could reverse gravity. 

It's funny how the same men who complain about how they can't find anyone and they only end up dating these horrible women can't see their own flaws. Women who are overly concerned about their external appearance only have externals. Generally women who are quality inside aren't sitting in front of a mirror talking about how pretty they are. Furthermore, these women feel a certain entitlement, and why shouldn't they? They spent so much time on their appearance it's like a job, therefore they expect you to spend money on them. They aren't investing their time and money on make up and such for nothing. They expect a return on their investment, gosh d darndit!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Poll on dating....

Hey what do you guys think?

If a guy keeps talking about wanting to go out for drinks while the girl repeatedly says she wants an afternoon date at starbucks, what's up? Is he lying about wanting marriage? How about if a guy is talking about sex on the phone? What if a guy is talking about "will you wear high heels for me"?

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

A little something I hate about dates

As everyone is alway pressuring me to "try harder to get married," I was thinking about what it is that bugs me so much about "trying to get married" and dating, especially dating in the Jewish community and I realized what it is. On the rare occasions that I've had a date, they feel like an interrogation. I don't sit there and ask personal questions but, the guys always seem to want to ask very personal stuff like why I converted. It's funny how they want to know personal stuff about me but they are unwilling to share anything about themselves. Do they think that spending a couple bucks on food for me really entitles them to know all my business? Am I the only one who thinks this?

Sunday, December 19, 2010

The Corrupt FFB world

This post began as a response to a commenter on Aztec Queen's guest post.


Personally, I always heard that the Jewish People are supposed to be "the priests unto the nations." Yet, instead Jews have this callous attitude that who cares what they think of us, they're goyim. I also heard that one of our scholar summarized the Torah on one foot as, treat people the way you would want to be treated, "the rest is commentary. Go and learn."

If the Torah's main point is to treat people the way they want to be treated, and our men are expected to be coddled by not having to work under the GUISES of Torah study full time, why is it we have become a generation of thieves and swindlers? When you ask people who've gone BT and gone back off the derech why, they say that the people were clanish and they didn't find a place in the world. Yet the FFBs are always complaining about all the intermarriage or all the people who aren't Orthodox. Why SHOULD anyone not raised Orthodox want to PUSH themselves into a "club" that doesn't want them?

Anonymous commenter says since us women don't learn Torah, we don't understand. Why don't you explain to me? Wait, before you do, I want to ask you to admit that men hate women and the line about women having greater binah is just lip service. If we are exempt from most of the Jewish religion on the basis of being naturally closer to G-d, then why is it that we know nothing?

That, I suppose, though is a side issue. Why is it that those who are supposed to be the most religious don't follow the Torah and then claim that we don't know what the Torah is. WHERE does the Torah say to lie cheat and steal? The people on the right point their finger at the Modern Orthodox and say we're not observant. I argue that the Modern Orthodox ARE the only observant ones. STEALING IS ASSUR D'ORAISA! Yet, who is speaking out othere than bloggers like myself, Harry Maryles and occasionally Heshy Fried?

The LOR's keep spitting out these trite feel good sermon's as their weekly "musar." Then again, it's their rebbes who are doing these things. I would like to see more members of the community challenging others for change. Like Georgie said that real Jews stick together. It's crap. FFBs stick together. I wonder when was the last time Georgie welcomed BTs and converts into her home for a Shabbos meal and made them feel welcomed. I wonder if she's like the vast majority of the community who makes sure we know we're not welcome.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Guest Post: Laughing so I Don’t Cry

Guest Post: Laughing so I Don’t Cry by AztecQueen 2000




Recently, my DH asked me why it is that I spend so much time thinking about the man-bites-dog images in our papers of rabbis, frum people, accused of horrible financial crimes. Or why did I HAVE to show him the YouTube video of that “nice” young frum couple making fools of themselves on the People’s Court. Why am I seeing so much of the bad side of the frum community, and making it into a big joke?

In a word: Disillusionment.

When I was still young, impressionable, and attending Torah shiurim in an attempt to become frum, I heard a rebbetzin say over and over again, “Torah study is like no other. If you study trigonometry, you don’t become a triangle. If you study literature, you don’t become a book. But, if you study Torah, you become a Torah person.” I really took that message to heart. Torah study makes one into a better person, a living embodiment of Hashem’s will. Someone who can be honest, care about their fellow man, and live a life devoted to mitzvos.

Some five years later, I am having an increasingly difficult time justifying that stance. When the Kolko story broke several years ago, I chalked it up to an anomaly. Now, between Kolko, Tropper, the Deal rabbis, Balkany, the Spinka rebbe, the show of force for Grossman, and Rubashkin, I’m not so sure. Additonally, I’m surrounded by all the little “reminders”: those who would cry “anti-Semitism” because they got a ticket for blocking a fire hydrant during Mincha. The shopkeepers who will charge lower prices to well-known customers than to strangers. The shaitel-clad ladies pushing new designer strollers into a WIC office. And, as a bit of a cherry on top of this scandalous sundae, my chavrusa’s reaction to the 19-year-old Flatbush girl who ran over a Chinese delivery man because she was too busy texting to control her car. “Oh, he’s only a Chinese. This poor girl’s life is ruined.” Really? He’s dead, and she’ll probably get a year in jail at the most. I’d say the poor delivery guy got the shorter end of that deal.

There are two responses one can have to this level of scandal in such a short time. For a prophet, the answer is a piercing cry of “EICHA!” “How?” How is it that people who are learned in the Torah can commit crimes that even the non-frum world considers immoral? Many of these crimes were committed by rabbis! These are, by and large, not some am haaratzim that dropped out of yeshiva in the tenth grade. These are revered men, community leaders, men who have received a semicha and devoted their entire lives to learning every nuance of the Torah. How can they commit these crimes? And how can we, as a community, stand by in silence? How can we make excuses? How can we blame the secular world for catching on and making them pay?

But I’m no prophet. I’m not on the spiritual level of Yermiyahu; I’m not very learned, and nobody would listen to me anyway. So I take the fool’s way out. Like the comedian who makes jokes to hide his depression, I laugh so that I don’t have to cry.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Sheisty Sheitel Saga: Geogie Is Upset With The Jewish Community

Georgie spoke out and at about 5 mins into this video on VIN's update post, she criticizes the community for not sticking together. The video is boring and there are holes in it. She said she had to custum make a wig in less than 24 hours because the "poor girl had nothing to wear." Oh the DRAMA, spare me! She could wear a tichel into the office so  obviously she could leave the house in it. Most of the commenters over on VIN are asking why she couldn't wear the fall she had.

Personally, I know that hair from a wig would look like the wig in question if it went through a machine EXCEPT for fo the fact that the hair was coming out of the cap of the wig BIG time. So, let me explain what I, a non-sheitel wearer bases this on. I have forgotten to buy conditioner before and times that I have I have washed my hair anyway, with only shampoo, in the summer, I NEVER dry my hair, I let it dry. So, if I didn't use conditioner and went to bed with a wet head, I could wake up and my hair be fine since I don't always toss and turn in my sleep or I could wake up and my hair would be pretty tangled. Like Judge Millian said, "this is human hair, it's supposed to behave like human hair."  I have been able to painstakenly unknot my hair, too.

The biggest problem is that the more you hear, the more it doesn't make sense. The cover-ups that they try to pass off as "explanations" aren't matching up. Was the phone forwarded to Sylvia or Georgi in France?



My final verdict is that the wig should have been fixable. I agree it wasn't, but it wasn't fixable because the weave came out and you can see the whole top of the head has come out. A washing machine is not that rough that a custom made sheitel should fall apart like that. I base that on how, according to wikipedia, a custom wig is made and the fact that your clothes would fall apart if a machine was that rough. The hairs are supposed to be knotted into the cap. Also, according to the wikipedia article, they are single knotted at the edge and double (more secure) knotted everywhere else. The hair was coming out from the top of the scalp of the wig. That doesn't make sense. The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to think that the hairs must have been glued in to the scalp, which would make it a VERY cheap wig.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Judge Millian Is Not An Anti-semite

Besides for the fact that her husband is Jewish, here is additional proof (another amusing case with a Jew but this time it's the other guy who gets it from the judge.)






Saturday, December 11, 2010

The Sheisty Sheitel Saga Drags on....

So, supposedly some rabbi from VIN talked to both Georgie's and the couple. Then he wrote this up to make lame excuses for them. As usual, several people jumped in and said, "I knew they were innocent."

I found three comments where people proported legal knowledge while making asisine statements. This is the reply I submitted. I really wanna hear from more women who wear a sheitel.



If you look at the video when the judge is showing the damage right before she gives it to them. She says about how the weave is coming out. You can see the weave. That is NOT a custom sheitel. That's a weave that's sewn in to the wig. $3k sheitels are not made like that. All you have to do is look at the Wikipedia article on wigs to know that. It's called a weft.


Re: Comments 154, 183, 202

It's criminal or civil. If it's Civil law, then it's common law or Statutory. NYS supreme court is just the lowest court in NYS. "Supreme or civil" is wrong. I don't have a law degree but I did take business law last spring. This is like stuff we did the first week, like law 101 stuff. There's no way someone has a law degree and doesn't know this. NYS uses both common and statutory. Common means that we go by precedance of other cases (Stare decisis). Statutory means a law (statutes) was passed through state or federal senate.
As for "Dan leKaf z’chus” – judging someone favorably until they are proven to be guilty, when are frummies going to start judging converts favorably?

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

The Wigtastik People's Court Episode

Well, this is on some other Jewish blog already, but I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and post this People's Court episode. Also, I point out to Chaim1, she's wearing nail polish. I guess she's not observant.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Michaltastik Food Corner

I really like the advice that the nutritionist gives. A lot of these things are what I go by. Rather than an all or nothing approach, I try to bulk up on healthier choices and limit my bad choices. I've cut back on cookies and nearly eliminated pizza. I'm cutting back on grains because I've noticed they are a pretty high calorie count and I don't even feel like they taste that great. I'm quieting my sweet tooth with fruits, sweeten vegetables (butternut squash with brown sugar on top and even tea (with two spoons of sugar instead of 6 that I used to add). Those are better choices than cookies. When I do eat cookies, I take 2 or 3 out of the package and then put the package away.


I also like her advice to cook ahead of time and freeze items. I usually cook on Sundays. I also make frozen veggies when I'm tired. You just plop them in a pot of water and boil them. If you scrub your potatos ahead of time you can make a real meal pretty easily. Boil veggies. Put a potato in a pan of water an cover and put in oven. Put a piece of chicken in the oven, maybe with some water in the bottom-not covered, for an extra yummy chicken sprinkle chopped nuts from the processor on the chicken. an you have a meal in an hour at 400 or hour and a half at 375.