A Summer Night in Our Orthodox Jewish Home | Simple Dinners, Wig Styling & Overnight Challah Tips

I crave these summer nights all year  long. The kids are splashing outside,   soaking up the summer and having so much  fun. Dinner is simple but comforting.   The night still has its whisper of the  usual routines like clean up and laundry,   but it's all less stressful somehow and  more manageable. I sneak in some time to   pick up my new wig that's finally ready and get  together with friends for a challah event. Hope   you'll come and join us this evening. Let's  roll up our sleeves and let's get prepping. The kids are off today with no school or camp.  They're in this weird in between space. They're   playing on the water slide when I get home from  work. It instantly puts a smile on my face to   see their joy. I check on my other babies,  my garden, and see how they're doing. Ahhh!!   Buggy. Somebody mentioned that  I'm supposed to be pruning them   somehow or cutting. I have no idea what I'm  doing. Wow, look at that. Our first tomato. Let's see over here. What's happening?  Anything interesting? Oh, my pepper's dying. There's the jalapenos. That one is awesome.  Perfect. Is that knife comfortable for you? Not   so much. So, I think you should take a knife that  without any like on the something flat. I think   it's just easier to cut like that. You're always  supposed to be very comfortable with the knife. We used to have that like small metal one,  remember? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a good one.   Half the kids are still outside playing while the  other half is trickling back inside the house.   Mishael here is 8 years old and he's helping me  with dinner today. The kids want to do a contest   where they cook dinner and Shay and I are going  to be judging who did the best. I like that idea a   lot. We have to master plan. I'll get to the board  with a bunch of papers and we'll take something.   I'm keeping dinner for tonight quick and  simple with a sheet pan dinner. They are   my favorites. I make a marinade consisting  of onion soup mix, garlic and herb seasoning,   and some paprika. I mix all of that in with  about half a cup of oil and place that all   over some dark meat chicken and baby potatoes  and cauliflower that you saw me prep earlier. I love having the cut sides of the potatoes  to face down onto the pan so I can maximize   its crispiness. That's is just all about the  crispiness for me. The pan then goes into a   450° preheated oven for about 45 minutes until  everything is perfectly cooked through and golden. And just like that, before I know it,   it's time to pick up my baby from daycare.  And at this point, all of my kids are home. We always wash our hands right  after we come home because gosh,   if you have kids in daycare, let me tell you,  which I'm sure you know, it is definitely not   fun with all the germs. He tends to like  to have a little snack, some water. So,   I give him something as soon as he comes home  just to make him nice and happy and full. I personally like my potatoes and veggies to  be almost charred. Well, not really. I want   them to be just like this where they have this  little crust and this little bite to it. And I   love all of those little crispy bits. They  just are filled with so much flavor. All I   did was remove the chicken that was on top of the  veggies, put them to the side, and place them back   into the oven for a few more minutes until they  were nice and golden, just the way I like it. Just threw in a load of laundry. Put all of my  three little ones, four little ones to sleep. Now   I'm just going to take a little bit of time and do  my makeup today. I'm going to a challah event and   um I love these events. They don't happen often  where I can actually go. Um, Shay staying home   with the kids while I go for an hour or two, have  a nice lecture, and have some refreshments. It's   going to be an exciting time. So, I'm going to  take you along also. And if you guys are wondering   what is this new wig that I am wearing, I'm going  to show you. I went like a month ago to Prestigio   wigs and I was just bringing in my wig, my old  wig to get refreshed cuz I wasn't wearing it.   And then of course I had to try on a bunch of new  styles and I just fell in love with a wig. And so   let's recap. Let me show you what that was all  about. Now in love with this new one. We chose   the perfect wig. And what we did was we just had  to add a little bit of the lightness. As you see   the the lightness in the front looks so so pretty  and so natural. And also notice I didn't even put   a blow dryer onto the wig and it's already off  of your face. Did not touch it. I did not style   it. I just took it. What you want to do in terms  of cut. Okay. Just like a trim just to even it   out. Because also if you do angles it's going  to bring it up anyway. You're going to bring   it up. Right. Exactly. So definitely I want to do  face framing angles. Angles. Okay. Now lets talk   angles. How short do you want to go? I love like  going like this and it's like like that. It's out   of my face. So, what we did so far was we gave  Sonya some beautiful framing face framing angles. We just trimmed the lace. How not  normal is this hairline? Oh my gosh.   Oh my god, it looks so good. Huh? It looks  amazing. It looks amazing. It looks amazing. I   want to blow out the front so you could see with  the angles and the shape. Okay, let me get this   side. You see, you have those angles. You have the  face framing. You like waves. You want to do like   do this. So then I could do it now. Then I can do  a few now. I just want to take I just want to take   it. I just want to take off. I waited so long.  I know. I know. So then then it's fine. I could   do that for you. Okay. Honestly, I don't know how  I'm going to wear my other wigs now. I promise you   this is going to be your problem now. Oh my gosh,  this looks and it's so comfortable. That's the   thing. That's it's Listen, you know, you want to  make sure that what you have on your head, you're   wearing it for a few hours on you. 100%. I agree  with you. People, people, look, look how pretty,   you know. Love it. This is exactly what I wanted.  Adina, this is perfect. This is perfect. It's like   my vision come to life. Oh, that's the biggest  compliment. I think it's so pretty. Oh my gosh,   I love it. It's so pretty on you. I love it. Oh my  gosh. You're very welcome. So, we we're done. We   got it cut. We got it styled as you saw. And I am  so happy. Definitely glad that I chose this wig. I   think it's the right color, the highlights, the  height that it's just everything that I wanted.   So guys, definitely check out Prestigio Wigs. Let  them know that I sent you. I think you're going to   be very, very happy. Putting on the final touches  right before I leave. As I watch this back,   I remember as a little girl how I would sit  and watch my mom put on makeup and I would   be so mesmerized and I couldn't wait to do this  when I was older. Just brings back memories. So,   here is the final look. I know so many of you  have actually um commented on the latest real   where I showed you the whole entire process of  which wig I was choosing. So many of you fell   in love with the blonde one, but just couldn't go  so different. Even this for me is so different.   Um, but I feel like as we're getting  older, we need a little bit of highlights,   a little bit of something different. Um,  yeah. But I'm really, really happy with this. I finally arrived to the beautiful Challa  event and this was the gorgeous setup.   There was a few tables set up with all  different types of foods and appetizers.   And then everyone was greeted with their own  individual bowl with all of the ingredients   and the very beautiful blessing that we will  recite all together while making our dough. Each ingredient added is prayed for with deep  intention and meaning. It's not just the dough   that we are creating, but something far greater  and holy, filled with so much blessings. As we   wait for our dough to rise, we participate  in something called a bracha party in which   we pray for whatever we are carrying in our  hearts and for one another. It's emotional   and it's uplifting and a reminder that  we are never alone. We then took turns   lighting candles for different rabbis who are  definitely a lot holier than we are. And we do   this so that in their merit our prayers will be  answered much faster. Each and everyone should   say to herself. Okay. If you could say it out  loud so other people can hear and say amen,   it's better. I don't mind to go from one to  another to hear the the main part of the event   is to actually do the challah blessing  which is the separation of the challah.   There's a belief that the mitzvah of separating  challah is such a powerful time for prayer. So   we take a moment to pray for our health, for our  children, for peace and whatever else we need. The event was wonderful, so uplifting, and so  inspirational. But now that I'm at home now,   it's time to shape all of these gorgeous challahs. Hey, hey, hey. So, remember how we went to the challah event  and I braided all of my sourdough. I braided   the challah. I put them into the refrigerator cuz  I really didn't want to stay up and wait for them   to rise. So, I placed them in the fridge and  I have to show you what it looks like. Look at   this. They rose. They had like a slow rise in my  garage fridge. This is like a game changer for me   whenever I go to challah events now. I'm going to  do this from now on because they rose beautifully.   I feel that when I just put the entire dough into  the fridge and work with it the next day, it's not   the same. It just does not come out the same. So,  if I bake it like this and it's amazing, this is   what I'm going to do from now on. See how gorgeous  and fluffy? They're not overproofed because they   were in the refrigerator. I don't know. This  is such a game changer for me because I always   struggle with having enough time at night to  braid them, to let them rise, to bake them. What   a relief that I can do this from now on. Amazing.  They look awesome. Gorgeous and fluffy. So soft. Love it. Okay, let's cut one because my  baby just came in here and he said,   "I want one." So, let's just cut it. Look at this fluffy goodness. It's  like sponge. I like my sourdough to   be crunchy crunchy. And I love my to so so  soft. It's just amazing. It's still hot.