An After Thought

it is 1:00 a.m. on motsei shabbat in the holy city of zefat. it is the first day of the new jewish month of chesvon. i want to wish all my readers a chodesh tov! i couldn't go to sleep after leaving you on such a sad note. so i came back to the blog to write something a little more upbeat that happened on shabbat. this was our first shabbat together at home after six weeks. my son was recovering from the flu and was as grumpy as he gets when he is sick. i wanted very much to prepare their favorite dishes because it has been such a long time since i hosted them for shabbat. i was very caught up with my friend's loss and i was also very interested in doing a blog about it. i knew that i simply did not have the time to play around because shabbat came in at 5:00 p.m. so i quickly saved the started blog and threw some cubed potatoes into the pot because i wanted to make a potato salad. it was way too hot here to make a kugel. michal, my computer maven, came over early because i had enlisted her to add some pictures to the blog. of course i got sidetracked and sat with her for awhile and burnt the pot of potatoes. so i ran back to the kitchen to start again. i made my own version of thai-morracan- chinese style niles perch and threw in 2 pieces of wild salmon to boot. not that you could tell which was what when it was all covered in dark soy sauce. i cooked some beets and added some cumin for a change. after all, for the past six weeks they exclusively ate sephardi safta's cuisine. i was feeling a bit inadequate and to tell the truth, uninspired. i made some white rice and nearly burned it. i quickly threw together a white cake and used up the rest of my white flour. i am accustomed to using only rye and whole wheat flour. the white cake remained untouched. i guess i shouldn't have thrown in the shredded coconut at the last minute. it's all good! the chabad contingent of my family return next week from 770 so i'll surprise them with a nice, home baked cake on their arrival. we'll just put that sucker in the freezer ! i made a chicken in the pot and added cumin, and curcum, and two kinds of paprika, and chili flakes, and hiwaj and leeks, and garlic and my friend the maven, didn't like the chicken. she said it had no taste. i defrosted some meat that i had cooked in wine for shavuot that no one wanted to finish. my secret is too freeze it in a cooking bag and then place the bag in water and boil for about 15-20 minutes and voila! in the middle of my mad dash to complete the preparations for the sabbath, i was called upon to help bathe my new grandson, sahar. i guess this is how the sephardi safta managed to do it. but she had another six sets of hands to help her each week. i placed the little pisher into his designer baby bath and started to rub a little soap onto his little, round body. the kid is a water freak! i have never seen anyone so young enjoy a bath so much. the only other baby that i have ever bathed was my son, zvi (about 23 years ago). and he let out blood curdling screams each of the two times that i bathed him. for the next six months i only gave him sponge baths. i made a slight faute par with my grandson and used the liquid baby soap on his head instead of the liquid baby shampoo. i wish i could have had more time with sahar but i still had a lot to do before candle lighting. i helped my son drag down the designer baby carriage from their floor and then helped my daughter- in- law take out the designer baby carriage for their evening stroll. i even got to carry baby sahar outside. and then i held him while his mother ate her fish course. i was really enjoying myself when cloey, our pincher, made it quite clear that she was not enjoying watching me holding the baby. so, i put her on the porch for a 'time out'. i brought her in after the trio went to sleep. i tried again to incorporate the pincher with the baby but to no avail. cloey kept jumping really high in the air to reach the baby who was resting in my arms while his mom went to get his baby drops. i had to hand the baby to the maven and put cloey out of the house. she kept on barking so loud that the neighbor complained. so once again i gave her a time out on the porch. she barked for the entire length of the meal. cookie, the mutt was being her usual passive self and was sleeping on the floor not paying any attention to the baby. at the end of shabbos i went upstairs for havdalah and took sahar out of his crib so he could watch the ritual. he stared straight at the flames from the candle and looked at his father while he said the blessings. he looked like he understood it all. i kissed him as i put him back into the crib and wished him a good week and came downstairs to finish my blog.