Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Have You Missed Me?

i didn't blog yesterday. i woke up in a fog and couldn't focus. i watched sahar while his mom went out for a driving lesson. seems like he also woke up in a fog. and as soon as his mom left, he went back to sleep and continued to sleep throughout the day and into the evening. apparently, he also slept through most of the night. i was ready to go to sleep at 7:30 p.m. but i thought that my sister might visit so i drank a lot of coffee. she never showed and i ended up staying up til around 2.30 a.m. the right side of my face hurts and i'm scared to death that i might be relapsing with another bout of facial palsy. i went to town yesterday to deal with my bank account, but i missed the bank by five minutes. i can't seem to keep up with the bank's hours. i went passed the unemployment office and they were open so at least, i got to sign up for the month. i went to the grocery store and bought loads of canned goods for shabbos. it is my turn to host the young couple. my son loves canned palm hearts, canned baby corns, asparagus and artichoke bottoms. i also bought tons of aluminum foil baking pans in all sizes and shapes. these throw away pans are great for heating food on the electric platter. they take up far less space than pots and you can serve the food directly from these pans. i just place them on a nice tray. it isn't so ecological, but i don't use paper plates on shabbos. i also like to freeze leftover fish, or chicken and meat in individual cooking bags. these bags can split so it's wise to use two at at a time. when i want to serve the leftovers, i simply put each individual bag into a pot of water and boil for about 20 minutes and voila! last week i served pot roast that was left over from shavuot and no one was the wiser! i am so big on cooking these days. and it has nothing to do with my blogging. i basically cook once a week for shabbat. during the week i live on yogurts and sandwiches and canned tuna. i went to my niece's the other night to bring over a high chair. she offered me a bowl of pea soup and i must say, that i really enjoyed it. but there's no way that i would ever bother making it for myself. perhaps, when it gets colder, i'll start making soups. i love pureed soup but zvi likes it chunky. it is almost november, but we are still enjoying summer like weather here in the holy land. it isn't officially, the cholent season yet, here at zelda's place. tomorrow night is my niece's birthday and i am trying to put together a surprise party for her. so i ran to town to look for party goods. i bought a birthday paper table cloth, paper plates and party napkins, just for the heck of it. i am very much into themes. i actually found canned jellied cranberry sauce today and i already have my paper turkey napkins and straw turkey bread basket, so maybe we'll do a mock thanksgiving dinner this year. i also found lovely paper napkins with grapesmotif that will be perfect for my annual tu b'shvat seder. every year, i host a bunch of my lady friends and we eat 30 types of fruits and nuts, some cookies and cakes and drink four glasses of wine, similar to the pesach seder. by the end of the evening we are generally, feeling no pain. throughout the seder, we read different passages about the various fruits and how it relates to the jewish people. one year we sang songs with fruit lyrics. i usually scout out the town for a couple of weeks before the seder and find all the fruits that are required. i love putting my personal touch to all the parties and events that i host. i have an elaborate collection of plastic fruit that i hang in the sukkah each year. i am always on the lookout for new plastic friut all year long. i love my collection of paper napkins, too. i have ones that say, mazel tov !, shabbat shalom!, good yom tov!, "shana tova" and "good appetite", and many more. i once bought"sweet sixteen" napkins but by the time that my niece turned sixteen this year, i couldn't find them. i may have used them once to clean up a spill in the kitchen. i recently bought ones with tefillin on them for gal's brother's bar mitzvah. he is ten years old now. when you see something you like buy it now, because it might be gone the next day. i ran back to the store to look for more of those "'sweet sixteen'' napkins but they were gone forever. i am having a hard time planning my menu for tomorrow's birthday bash. i thought about making a cheese lasagna but you never know who might be fleishig. i didn't want to make chicken because we will all be eating chicken on friday night. i thought about making morrocan meatballs but i couldn't find the right chabad heksher for the ground beef. and my sister doesn't eat beef. i found the right heksher for the ground turkey but my nephew doesn't eat turkey. so i thought about making a salmon but my daughter-in law doesn't eat salmon. i thought about making a spicyand tangy, gefilte fish, but my son doesn't eat gefilte fish, now that he's sephardi. i thought about making a broccoli quiche but there wasn't any frozen broccoli in the store. so i came up with vegetarian stuffed peppers with sauteed rice, onions, celery, carrots ,and raisins. the raisins might be chancy because my son objects to when i put them in salads. i was thinking of adding some canned chick peas but i already bought chumus with chick peas. my nephew eats chumus with everything! i decided to bake some fish with a russian dressing like sauce. i usually, make it with bell peppers and soy sauce but i am already making stuffed peppers. i might make a spinach noodle kugel for overkill, and i might make a mashed potato kugel for over, over kill. now i'm wavering about making a casserole with mashed potatoes on the bottom and spinach on the top. i am limited because i could not find fresh mushrooms. and as i have a deep seated fear of salmonella poisoning, i don't use canned mushrooms. i narrowed down the cake to chocolate with a whipped cream frosting. i just have to decide if i want to use vanilla, or chocolate or caramel flavored instant puddings. they all have a bitter, after taste. i bought dairy ice cream and also bought pareve whipping cream to make a pareve ice cream. this is how i spent and wasted all of my afternoon. so, have you missed me?

2 comments:

  1. I missed you. Wondered where you were. All of that food sounds delicious! I'm already dreaming of the Thanksgiving meal my mother will prepare--sweet potato casserole, collard greens, squash, homemade biscuits, turkey, CHOCOLATE CAKE, ...!!

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  2. I'm amazed at what you cook, think of cooking, and describe afterwards! What great-sounding food, and so exotic! I am put to shame for cooking so simply.

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