The calm

This evening begins the two-day-long eating-fest of Rosh Hashanah. yes, yes, i realize it’s one of the high holidays and there’s supposed to be a whole heck of a lot of praying and begging for forgiveness and atonement and what-not, but, for me, it’s all about the food. and the family.

i am, by nature, more into the traditions of the Jewish faith than i am about the actual..well, about the actual faith.

(i guess this is a whole other can of worms that maybe i will touch on at some point in the future, along with when i tell you about my three siblings, my agnostic sister, my orthodox Christian brother, and my Orthodox Jewish brother. it’s all very interesting and confusing and i guess kind of amazing all at the same time.)

with me, the Jewish New Year is about the little things. the apples in honey. the sweet challah (so you should have a sweet year). having friends and family over. the cabbage rolls (although this year i went out on a limb, broke my tradition and made stuffed zucchini instead. we’ll see how that one blows over. when i told my mother that i made them, her reaction was: "WHY?" nice, right? ), the food. the food. the food. (and just for the record, anything you may have heard about fish heads…doesn’t happen in my house. anything with eyes does not sit at my table or even come through the front door. no, ma’am. i’m a traditionalist. but i have my limits.)

for the past five days, i’ve pretty much lived in my kitchen.

stuffed zucchini (which took the entire hour of watching House to core. note to anyone wanting to buy me a gift. something to core zucchinis would be much appreciated). chicken soup. hush puppy chicken (which is chicken, mashed potatoes, and pastrami all wrapped up in a puff pastry. i guess it doesn’t sound as good as it tastes…but trust me, this one is well worth the effort). homemade challah. brisket (why does a brisket cost over $100 and then shrink down to about an 1/8 of its size?) chocolate chip squares. brownies. peanut butter and chocolate squares. and there’s more. there’s much, much more.

mmmm…brownies….

wait? what was i saying? oh, yes, holidays. and food. (mmmm…brownies….) and family.

ah, yes, now i remember.

my mother isn’t a great cook. there are a few staple dishes that she knows how to make. and they always show up on her table. meatballs. brisket. cucumber salad. chicken soup (well, to be fair…the chicken soup is made by my stepfather). and she doesn’t bake. she buys. i guess when you work 17 hour days, you never really learn to cook or have the time to cook.

and traveling to my mom’s is always a lot of work. the airport? hell. the airplane? more hell. the kids don’t sleep. the house is NOT baby proofed at all. and my mother and I spend almost the entire length of my trip arguing. seriously.

but, i’ll tell you, there’s nothing i’d rather be doing today than getting on a plane and going to spend Rosh Hashanah at my mom’s house. chasing after my kids who haven’t slept in days. freezing my arse off ("The hot flashes, Ali! it needs to be cold in the house"). eating her cooking. and fighting with her. sounds like a perfect holiday to me.

i guess there’s always next year.

happy holidays, partners.

public service announcements:

song of the day: how about a little Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. We’ve got to get a little bit of Grey’s action going. especially since last night i got to watch two new episodes.