Adventures in cooking

Jonathan makes cider every year.  Usually, he wraps up the spices in cheesecloth, does the whole hog.

This year we did quick n'dirty without the cheesecloth, and a layer of guck rose to the surface.  I wasn't a fan.

I wanted an equally fast, quick n'dirty way of making it, without the layer of guck.

So I found this recipe online:

- put apple cider in crockpot

- stick lots of cloves in an orange

- put orange in crockpot, along with cinnamon sticks

- leave crockpot on for four hours

It seemed very simple.

It always seems simple.

Did you know that when one fails to note the difference between the "high" and "low" setting, even something as simple as crockpot cider can be totally messed up?

Yep, boiled cider... and a layer of guck on top.

Maybe next week I'll try again with the LOW setting.

Then again, maybe not.

Completion of the snowglobe story

I mentioned the saga of the snowglobe earlier.

This was the original:

Oh so broken.

Well, the hotel was true to their word and promptly sent it out (and didn't even charge me!).  

When I received it, I wrote them this letter:

Hi [Customer service person name],

I just wanted to say thank you once again for FedExing that snowglobe.  It was probably a very minor matter in your workday, but please know that your kindness and generosity made a huge difference to my family.  

I'm attaching a picture of my kiddos - you can see the 7 year old looking so joyful as he shakes it, and his brothers (especially the youngest who broke the first one) coveting it all over again. 

In gratitude,

Michal, guilty mom

She just wrote back the nicest letter saying that to see my child happy is the highlight of her day, that it was a pleasure writing to me, and that she hopes we come to Chicago so she can meet us in person.

People like her restore my faith in the goodness of humanity, whenever I doubt it!

Mom left

And the kids were surprisingly good about it.

Connor was sad and clingy, cuz he's sick.

While he played with a truck, Ari and Xander and Jonathan and I had a rousing pillow fight in the living room.

We went upstairs, and Xander disappeared for a long time while theoretically brushing his teeth.  I went in to see what was taking so long, and he proudly showed me that he had reorganized the whole bathroom cabinet!

Ari, in the meantime, was trying on both his Batman and Spiderman pajamas in preparation for pajama day tomorrow: he suggested I call his best friend's mom so I would know which superhero Elijah was wearing, so they could match.  Thankfully she texted back "Spiderman" within 20 minutes, so we set aside the proper pajamas, he was content, and went right to bed.

And now I am on email.  What an exciting evening. :)

Cupcakes

We're on a kick!

Jonathan fed Connor dinner

"He gave up on the nuggets and went straight for the sauces.  His two favorites: bupbup (ketchup) and yum (BBQ)." 

There are no words

What an incredible installation service last night!!  There are many more pictures to come, I'm sure but here are two to start with:

Being escorted to oneg (the reception after the service) by Stormtroopers.

My amazing family.

January life cycles

I hadn't realized til I worked in the congregational world how many people died in January.  The yartzheit (memorial) lists are always full this time of year.  People hold out past the holidays to see family and then let go, I think.  They feel complete, or that they have permission, or that they've said goodbye.

David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Glenn Frey, the celebrity deaths keep mounting.  And this weekend I officiated an unveiling (commemorating a year after the person's death) in the morning, learned of a death in the afternoon and spoke with the family to prepare for the funeral in the afternoon, and officiated at a wedding in the evening.  It was very strange, because the bride's name and the name of the woman in the unveiling was the same.

These are the days we hug our kids extra tight.

Busted

Ari was talking and talking AND TALKING, as usual.  Three minutes into the monologue I started to half-tune out and said "uh-huh" in response, when he paused.  A minute later I went to "mmm-hmm." And he stopped very suddenly and said, "Don't copy Daddy! He does that too!  Listen to what I say!"

"Okay," I said, chastened.  "You're right.  We'll try to be better listeners.  But... can you please work with us and try and finish your sentences?"



(This wouldn't be as funny if I didn't see so much of myself in him...)

Screaming

In case you thought things were always pleasant in kid-land.

I write this while sitting outside the childrens' room door.  Listening to Connor scream.

While Jonathan is in there with him.

We're tag-teaming.

Connor doesn't want to go to bed.  He napped for too long.

God help us all.

Souvenirs

When I was in Chicago, I made it a point to seek out gifts the kids would enjoy:

- a school bus that said "Chicago" for Connor
- winter gloves for Ari (he's currently doing a hibernation unit at school)
- a snowglobe for Xander

Each gift was a hit.

And then...

Connor reached for and broke the snowglobe.

Xander was devastated.

It was not to be found on Amazon.

It was not to be found on Google Shopping.

I finally called the hotel gift shop where I bought it in the first place, pleaded my case, and outright begged.

They're FedExing us a new one on Monday.

Temple field trip

I attended a wonderful conference the past few days called the URJ Shallat Rabbinic Transition Program and Retreat.  It was for rabbis and temple presidents, and focused on all the myriad changes and transitions that a temple goes through during a time of rabbinic and congregational shift.

It was fabulous.

But it was in Chicago.

Brrr!

5 degrees, people.  5 degrees.  With wind chill it was below zero.

In the freezing tundra.

The night before the conference officially started, we snuck out to Giordano's for deep dish stuffed pizza.  SO. GOOD.  And when we called the hotel to ask if they had mini-fridges, we didn't... but the hotel brought them to the rooms for us!  I had cold pizza for breakfast the next two days. Perfection.

In the meantime, back at the homestead, Xander attended a youth group event: a wildlife show!

My social butterfly

Xander is definitely an introvert.  Ari is not.  If a thought passes through his mind, he shares it.  He adores playdates.  Here he is with his bestie Elijah.

Book rec - Henna House

I LOVED this book: Henna House by Nomi Eve.

Outlander was fun.  Not spectacular reading, but fun.  This one was moving. And poignant.  And painful. And breathtakingly beautiful.  I'm thinking about it days later.

I am fully aware that I love it so much because it's my favorite genre, historical fiction in the realm of The Red Tent: a strong female Jewish protagonist telling the story of her family over the years, with lots of historical context and ritual thrown in.  Henna House is set in Yemen and carries the family through the 1910s through the 1950s.  Henna is its own character: it's what binds the women together and carries their stories.

Before I began the book I knew absolutely nothing about that time period or culture besides a vague recollection that almost the entire body of Yemenite Jewry was airlifted to Israel early in the country's history.  After I finished the novel I spent the next night reading voraciously on Wikipedia all about the history of Yemen and the Arabian peninsula, the line between superstitions and Judaism in Yemenite culture, early Israeli treatment of Mizrahi Jews, the history of henna, and more.

I highly recommend it, if you like this sort of book!

"The Big Bang Theory" LEGO set

I think a couple posts ago I had mentioned that my brother had gone with all the males in my life to the LEGO store, since that's his passion?

He bought Jonathan and me a set.  The Big Bang Theory.  It's awesome.  (Both the show and the LEGO set.  Savta, you can go here to watch clips if you haven't seen it.)

I started with the mini-figures while Jonathan did the base structure.

Hard at work.

Set complete!

Close-up.  It'll go in my office at temple.

New Year's Eve

We partied in style.  We had a dance party to Taylor Swift's 1989 (and "shook off" 2015, I couldn't resist), talked about resolutions, and drank Martinelli's apple cider.

Connor the party animal

The two littlest fell asleep by 9, and around 11 Xander, Jonathan and my brother went outside with the rest of our neighborhood to light fireworks.  I stayed in and watched Jenny's Wedding, an interesting film about a woman in her 30's, Katherine Heigl, coming out to her family.

Oh!  And I almost forgot to write about our dessert!  I saw this recipe on Facebook and decided it was my kind of cooking:

put crockpot on counter
dump in 2 cans of apple pie filling
dump in 1 box of spice cake mix
dump in two sticks of butter
put crockpot lid on
turn on high for 2 1/2 hours

Voila!  It worked!  We had apple spice pie.

Adding the apples

While cooking.  We ate it with whipped cream, it would have been better with vanilla ice cream.

Alas, it wasn't long for this world.  We served it as a late dessert on the 31st, and when I went to go check on it around noon on the 1st, it was burned blackened hot mush.  Apparently an unnamed someone - and everyone who could speak denied it, so I have no doubt it was Connor - plugged it in and turned it on again sometime that morning.  And the already-baked pie was re-baked for another 3 hours or so.

Yeah.  Hindsight's 20/20.  We shoulda moved the stool.

As Jonathan was using all his muscle to scrape the blackened remains out of the crockpot bottom down the garbage disposal, Ari said sorrowfully, "What a waste of food.  It was YUMMY food too!"

Quiet time

I write this, the afternoon of January 1st.  It's completely quiet, or almost - Ari is babbling in the background, playing with his Iron Man and Hulk LEGO sets (a gift from my brother), making up elaborate scenarios for them.  Jonathan is napping with Connor, and Xander is playing Pokeman upstairs with a neighbor.

I love these moments of peace.  When all feels right with the world, when there's nothing but this moment and feeling your breath and the breeze coming in through the window.  The laundry can wait to be folded and put away, the dishes will still be there in half an hour.  But relaxation is rare.

That's my New Year's resolution, I think.  I read an article on this in the NY Times, and it resonated: I want to give myself a paradigm shift on how I approach the moments of life.  When people ask how I am, it's usually a variation of "busy" or "crazy busy."  And it's all under my control.  I'm busy with things that are my own choices. So from now on, I'm going to work on saying, "I have a very full life," or some such, focusing on the positive, and not the negative.


------LOL interrupted by kids, there goes the serenity.