Almost Shabbat Once Again

it is 4:30 p.m. in the holy city of safed.   I've been living the life of riley all day.   I didn't wash the floors and I didn't do any laundry today.  I did sweep the leaves in front of the house and pool area.  it is warm but quite windy and chilly at night.  I had the kids with me for about 12 hours yesterday.  the schools were closed.  the kids hit the pool but it was too cold to stay in for any length of time.  my grandson was having a hard morning.  I was pretty tired myself, after the holiday.  I took them to town in the evening to buy them prizes in the dollar store.  they went with me to synagogue to hear the 10 commandments on Shavuot day.  chabad made a program for the neighborhood kids in the early evening.

I am going to the kids for dinner tonight and my friends on the 'next' block for lunch tomorrow.  I made a few hard cooked eggs for tomorrow evening and I bought some half baguettes for Shabbat.   they are wonderful with butter.  I just made some banana- prune muffins.  I was going to make a banana bread loaf to take with me tonight but then I thought about making non gluten banana pancakes.  you know, one banana and 2 eggs? I remembered that I had steeped prunes for my friend last week and ran to look up prune loaf recipes.  I found the perfect recipe for a banana-prune bread.

I was all out of milk, half a cup short of prunes and didn't have any nuts but yet, I persevered.  I cut the sugar from a cup to less than a half a cup and I substituted organic brown sugar.  I only had white flour but I would have preferred whole wheat or rye.  I threw the batter into muffin tins and managed to get a baker's dozen.  I used the wonderful butter from Holland  that I had bought for Shavuot.  it only called for 4 tablespoons.  I thought about adding some sour cream to the batter, but I refrained.  I need to go on a strict food regimen next week.  I go to see the gyn oncologist pretty soon.  I can always freeze the muffins.

usually, it feels strange when I do not cook for Shabbat.  I thought about making a noodle kugel with onions and mushrooms.  I don't have anything to serve the kids if they stop buy tomorrow to use the pool.  I didn't hit the supermarket this morning.  I don't have any tuna in the house, either.  that's why I was kind of toying with the idea of making pancakes.  i'll just tell them that my house is bare and invite them to bring their own treats if they come over tomorrow.

I just had a half baguette with butter.  I am feeling so sluggish.  I truly could use a nap.  I would be too afraid of over sleeping and not getting up in time to light my candles.  I just rescued the muffins from being burnt.  they are lovely.  they have a nice buttery flavor and they are not too sweet.  I don't know if I could have totally omitted the sugar from the batter.  it's a shame that I was out of nuts because it would have been just perfect with walnuts.  I am glad that I have something to eat before I go to synagogue in the morning.  what a great find!

I managed to get all of the tiny Lego pieces back into plastic baggies and off of the floor.  the kids, most probably, my grandson, will have to sort them all out.  I tried to save the diagrams inside the box.  I bought him soccer gloves yesterday.  he is an excellent goal keeper.  my son got into a lot of trouble for wearing soccer gloves in the ultra orthodox school system that he attended.  my grandson goes to a more modern school.  it was like Deja vu buying him the gloves.  I got my granddaughter, what I thought was a box of toy dolls and ponies.  it turns out that this box did not contain, any greenery, ponies or dolls.  it is simply a cardboard corral.  you have to buy the collectables by themselves.  what a rip-off!  what was I thinking for 10 shekels????

I will have to get to town on Sunday to see if I can find a small doll or pony.  I'm sure they exist.  I still have a sink full of dairy dishes to wash.  I didn't get around to them yesterday.  I really need to sleep now!