Thanksgiving Every Day

it is 9:30 a.m. in the holy city of safed.  i got up at 6:00 a.m. to take the dogs out.  i ran to the supermarket at 7:30 a.m.to get challah, milk products, oats, almonds and frozen fruits.  i need a shake. the gas technician was coming at 8:00 a.m.  my grandkids are in safed and supposed to visit sometime this morning.  i didn't think i would manage.  i ran over to the bakery.   not one challah was left.

i moved the gas switch from one end of the kitchen to the opposite wall.  i thought that they were installing a slender copper wire about 1/4 inch.under the kitchen cabinets.  i nearly plotzed when i saw the ugly yellow coated copper wiring they used which was an inch wide.  it is pretty upsetting to me.  i don't do changes well but this blew my mind.  i thought the wiring wouldn't be seen.  well, i thought wrong. i also didn't notice the color of the stove that i bought.  they didn't have any white ones.  i bought a silver colored oven.  i didn't realize that the bottom was shiny blue.  there is a tiny sliver of a drawer on the bottom.

i had a gas balloon in my shed and apparently, this is not allowed anymore.  the kitchen is downstairs and a guest apartment, at this time.  I'm glad that i don't need to look at it every day.  the man said i could paint the plastic coating white.  I'm thinking about painting it silver or gold; just one more thing to add to my list of projects to do sometime.  my friend 'sponsored' the new stove.  it is also pretty ugly.  the selection was pretty limited and i didn't want to spend a lot of her money.  it didn't even come with a rubber hose to insert into the gas nob.  i am not a consumer.  i hate to shop.  i never buy online and i hate stores.  i guess i could have gone to another store but i had very limited time to do this. 

i am dead tired in the morning and i can't get myself together until around noon.  i then go straight to work until around 6:00-7:00 p.m.  i can hardly drag my tired old body to the bus.  i usually take a taxi home.  i get home and rush to take the dogs out.  i give them leftover food from the yeshiva and i usually grab something to eat.  last night i missed supper.  i don't eat after 7:30 p.m. and i got home at 8:15 p.m.  i wasn't really hungry.  i ate a ton of scrambled eggs from the breakfast meal.  i got pretty sick in the evening and didn't know if i could finish cooking.

i made falafel balls, salads, tahini and frozen fires for their lunch.  i made the usual, 30 boiled eggs and cut veggies for their Friday breakfast and pasta salad for their lunch.  i made eggplant salad, tahini, tuna salad, and quinoa salad for their Shabbat lunch; as well as a beef stew that stands all night on the platter.  i was planning on making a ground turkey stir fry with rice for their supper last night.  one of the yeshiva guys told me that they wanted to make stuffing.  i guess they felt homesick for thanksgiving.  it really isn't celebrated much, here. 

i told the guys that i could make a stuffing.  it really isn't that much harder than making a meatloaf; except for the dicing and sautéing of the onions and celery.  i took a loaf of bread and slightly toasted it. i threw in a small bag of craisins.   i made a broth out of the water from the bag of cholent meat, that i parboiled and added some celery leaves, parsley, onions and carrots.  i didn't have any turkey spices like rosemary, thyme, or sage but the parsley worked well.  i added a bit too much broth but the guys were stoked and very satiated.   i made garlic roasted potatoes, sweet carrot kugel with cinnamon and corn salad and the guys had a taste of thanksgiving.

we had a water outage for a couple of hours so cleanup was very long and exhausting.  when i saw that the water was merely trickling out, i ran outside to fill up several pots.  i had the exact amount to finish up the cooking but nothing left to wash the pots and serving bowls and utensils.  i finished working at 7:45 p.m. i caught a cab home and passed out for a few hours.  i fell asleep on the very uncomfortable t.v. couch with my legs dangling over the edge.  i didn't do a 10:00 p.m. dog run.  i couldn't move.  the dogs didn't seem to care.  the little one made in the house but the big one didn't.

i am not making Shabbat food today.  i will go to the in-laws for dinner and catch my friends at shul.  the kids are here now and doing their own thing.  i haven't eaten yet.   i want to make banana almond flour muffins and a fruit shake. i bought oats and chopped blanched almonds to grind into flour.  all is well.