Nearly Shabbat

it is 5:45 p.m. in the holy city of safed.  candle lighting is in less than an hour.  I am home alone.  the  leftover chicken soup and orange ginger chicken is warming on the electric hotplate.  I couldn't move yesterday.  I stayed in bed sleeping and watching television.  I went with my son and grandkids to an indoor amusement park in an Arab village near karmiel on Wednesday.  it is usually, a 40 minute ride.  it took us 2 hours driving through unknown long and winding Arab villages.  we were relying solely on the GPS system and it took us for a ride, literally.

my poor grandson got car sick and threw up 3 times.  we had a late start due to the fact that my one and only front door key went 'missing'.  I got into a foul mood and decided not to go to the park.   I felt violated.  my son was on route to drive me home when I decided to go to the park.  I decided to make the best of a bad situation.  luckily, my son had one of my keys in his home.  we got to the park after 5:00 p.m. and it was huge, packed and very noisy.  my head was spinning.  I hate mauls and amusement parks are not my thing.  I wanted to share a holiday experience with the grandkids and have those memories.

the kids brought over steaks, liver, and chicken wings at noon.  I had franks in the freezer.  my son struggled in the wind, to make a barbecue.  I had already eaten two huge round natzahs with the remainder of the charoset.  that's a mixture of chopped apples, pears, almonds and walnuts to any novices out there.  I made a ton of French fries and I ate way too many of them.  I was beyond stuffed when we went to the park.  I brought potato chips and apple juice for the trip.  thank goodness I had plenty of wipes and plastic bags with me.

I went on two rides with the kids.  the grandson preferred to ride alone.  I sat next to my granddaughter and screamed the entire time.  I suffer from motion sickness and cannot take carousels or anything that moves much.  I played my hand at some of the video games.  it's not really my thing.  the kids took a trip to Jerusalem yesterday.   thank goodness, they did not include me.  I can't take the crowds, the lines, standing too much, or being out of town.  they made the right decision to leave me home.  I was so tired yesterday that I forgot to worry about them all night.  I think they made their own memories yesterday and I hope the grandkids will cherish them.

I invited 3 friends for Sunday night's holiday dinner.  I have some leftover beef in wine in the freezer and I made some more orange, honey and ginger chicken thighs.  I had a lot of barbecued liver that we never ate so I made chopped liver.  I made poached pears in white wine and orange juice.  the pears I made in the sweet red wine with ginger root were not a success.  the kids said it smelled weird and tasted like medicinal cough drops.  I have to say that I liked it very much and ate all 4 pears.  the kids left a bottle of light port here so I might just indulge with my friends.

I made mashed potatoes instead of kugel.  I only have a few eggs left and I might need them.  i'll probably make avocado and hard cooked eggs on Sunday.  I ran to the small supermarket to buy a few veggies.  I had leftover grated carrot and apple salad so I added a couple of new carrots, some walnuts and dates and fresh lemon juice.  I also have some leftover beets.  i'll make a kohlrabi slaw on Sunday.  I wanted to fry up some eggplant but forgot to buy one when I was in the supermarket.

I have two sweet potatoes that I can slice and bake and i'll see if I want to schlepp back to the store to buy an eggplant on Sunday.  I don't know what my schedule will be like and if i'll have the kids or not.  I poached some fillet of salmon in white wine and lemon juice.  I can serve it with my homemade lemon flavored olive oil mayonnaise.  it is quite thick.  my grandson whipped it up for me with my electric beater.  it was like a loose dressing.  it tasted  a bit bitter.  the grandson told me to add a bit of sugar and some fresh onion.  he is a 7 year old savant cook.  I added a bit of honey and more lemon.  it is the texture of lemon curd now.  it is quite tasty.

I plan on making a chocolate sauce for the pears on Sunday.  I think I tried this out last year.  you have to pour it onto something right away before it hardens into something unusable.  maybe I can pour it over walnuts.  it's made with cocoa, sugar, oil and water.  I also had a recipe for mole barbecue sauce to try but I chickened out.  I think I will have enough food for Sunday.  I have one store bought pesach cake left.  I might make some brownies.  I didn't think I would do anything today.  I was so tired.  I guess I got my second wind.  the weather turned cold and rainy.  my nephew and family are in from the Ukraine.  I'm hoping to join my chabad family for lunch tomorrow.  it is about a half an hour walk.  my grandkids are going to their Sephardi family for Shabbat.  I can't really eat at their home because of my Ashkenazi and chabad dietary customs for pesach.  oh well.....