Adventures in Mama-Land

Like my new ravioli maker?  Totally high-tech!  It’s actually a muffin top pan, if you’ll excuse the expression.  The holes are bigger than your average raviolus (word of the day!), but that’s okay, because I love BIG ravioli. Why make ravioli?  Partly for fun, but mostly because they don’t sell decent kosher pasta anywhere in Toronto.  You used to be able to buy Pasta Quistini cheese- or veggie-filled tortellini and ravioli, but I haven’t seen the cheese ones in ages, and the veggie ones are both overpriced and not that exciting in flavour. My theory has always been that eating kosher keeps me innovative and creative.  If I want to eat delicious food, I’m going to have to make it.  I have suffered through enough bowls of “Hot and Sour” soup in kosher “Chinese” restaurants to know that even if something exists, it may be nothing like the real thing.  And sometimes, there is no equivalent:  try finding kosher dim sum (actually, they us...

Why the weird dates? Click here to find out! Oh, drat… we’ve been double billed.  :-o

So… in light of this exciting and inspirational aliyah video… if anybody reading this has any knowledge of the Holiest of Lands… where should our next home be??? Nefesh b’Nefesh is currently organizing a big push to the north.  Being Canadian, “true north” sounds good to me.  And I know the whole place gets mighty HOT in the summer (coincidentally, that’s when the Nefesh b’Nefesh groups seem to arrive… if it was me, I might bring them in October)… but 37° in the far north sounds way more bearable than 48° in the south. According to weather.com, the hottest it’s gotten here this summer (which is remarkably hot and dry for Toronto), has been 34°.  To our credit, there’s humidity, but according to Batya , Israel now has that too.  Great. Anyway, summertime temperatures aside… in terms of intellectual and spiritual climate ONLY:  where do you see us living out the rest of our lives happily as olim chadashim? Sorry, I mean עולים חדשים!!!

Dinner: Challah ( Maggie Glezer’s sourdough challah – again ) Soup Chicken/Turkey Meatballs w/easy sauce Rice Green beans Corn Desserts Lunch: Challah & butter (mmm…) Cool potato soup? Blintz loaf OR Lokshin Kugel (similar to a friend’s mindblowing kugel) Salmon Salsa-baked gefilte fish Broccoli Desserts Desserts Ginger cookies (from PC cookie mix) Ted’s rhubarb pie Peanut Butter Blondies with Chocolate Ganache Next week, I have asked Ted to make Shabbos on his own because we’re coming back from NYC very very early Friday morning, and then it’s a busy busy day of camp (Naomi), Shabbos Party (me), Dentist Appointment (Naomi), BuskerFest (maybe, somebody) and goodness knows what else.  Should be fun to see what he comes up with! Good Shabbos!!!

devarim/Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19 If you visit a toy store, you’ll see lots of toys; Looking amazing, promising joys. The stuff there’s so shiny, packed up so bright; Lined up on the shelf and crammed in so tight. You might see a toy you want more than the rest, A toy that you’re sure must really be best. This parsha, Ki Teitzei, shows us what to do About wanting a thing that is shiny and new. How do you know that it’s really so fun? How do you know that this toy is the one? Find someone who owns one and ask if you may Borrow their toy for a while to play. Drive it around, or toss it up high; Or dress it in dresses stacked up to the sky. You may notice a few things while you’re there That will help you decide just how much you care. You may start to see that it’s not quite the best If you try out the toy and put it to the test. Is it easy to play with or much, much too tough? Is it sturdy and strong; does it bend if you’re rough? Does it look ol...

… I wonder if it bugs them, sitting there all day, every day, pondering whether salmon are still kosher, knowing all the trayfe that’s being consumed right beneath their feet??? Only in galus – one would hope.

In the midst of a busy week, At the end of a long, busy day, And not in every way what you’d call a good day (I found out someone had cancer.  Not me or my family – and they cut it out, so maybe it’s gone.), In the middle of a life that often feels hopeless, or meaningless, or both. Bread can be a very soothing thing. Nice bread; no-knead bread with 25% fairly coarse semolina, if you must know With sauce, cheese & toppings.  Yes, some call it pizza.  But I call it… well, okay:  Pizza.