Summer Cooking

My goal this summer is to use up all the food in all my various cabinets, as well as all frozen food in both freezers, and have cleansed cabinets, freezers, fridge, and digestive systems by September.

The problem is that the people who live here are less than thrilled by my clever dieting/frugal tactics.

DIP is thin, and loves carbs. Preferably the white type.
YBS-NOT is too busy being active outdoors to notice no food. Until ten p.m. when he eats anything with salsa. And leftovers from plates left out on the counter. There is always a lot of noise when he returns to the kitchen after his sporting, swimming, and disappearing activities. The ball game is on at full blast, the microwave is beeping, fridge banging open and closed, and occasionally something falls and breaks. Usually a jar that has briny smelly liquid in it. Or I smell a sickly sweet scent, and I see him roasting marshmallows over the open flame.

So far suppers this week have been BBQ hot dogs, BBQ hot dogs and chicken, BBQ chicken. Tonight was Main Course Leftovers From The Wedding, round 1. This past shabbos dessert was Leftovers From The Main Course round 3. (a LOT of runny chip cakes to get rid of). YBS already took four trays of Leftovers From The Shmorg back to yeshiva, and I foolishly thought it would last him a few weeks. He put all four trays out on the table one night and the starving bored chulent eaters polished it all off.
Tomorrow will probably be Contents of Mysterious Zip Lock Bags, round 1. The problem is I am going to have to wait until they all defrost to figure out what they are. I have some categories already to reduce the intrigue of what we will be eating:

bony things
reddish things
possible soupy things (those take up the whole bag, and are usually ridged on the bottom of the bag, indicating a liquid that froze over the bars of the freezer shelf)
whitish things: This one is a real challenge, and quite exciting and high up on the Unknown Mystery Food scale. white can be fish fillets, cream cheese frosting, old whipped whip cream, or partially cooked chicken cutlets. They become partially cooked when I take them out of the freezer 8 minutes before I need to serve them, (because I took out a different whitish bagged thing which turned out to be devil dog filling) and dump them into very hot water. quite untasty.

Of course, on occasion, any item in a zip lock bag can look whitish, because if the bag wasn't sealed properly it develops a crusty almost glacial beauty. Kind of like the Cave of Crystals in Mexico or wherever.

Next I will move on to my cabinets. Baked ziti can really be any pasta at all. So all the mostly empty lasagna noodle boxes will be removed from the cabinet, and I will break up all those pieces into macaroni sized portions. How elegant.
Every rice type item gets boiled altogether. If they look too different, I will throw them all under some bony thing from a zip lock bag, cover it with the combined contents of the half empty salsa/tomato sauce/pasta sauce/mustard containers and jars and cans.

I may even serve a savory concoction of herbs and spices. no more bland food around here!!

lastly, an ambrosial soup cooked with all the canned fruits and bumped objects in the fruit drawer of the fridge.

you're all invited, I will reach my goal much quicker

Profiling is a Good Thing

I had a nice little chat today with the mother of a friend of DIP1. She said she does her shidduch research differently than I do. Considering she has four daughters married and I have one, I ruminated on that for a while. She also has a much larger family than I do, older kids, and I think she is a very articulate and intelligent woman.

So of course I started second guessing everything I do to find out about a potential suitor.

i have actually never heard that a boy is ugly, obnoxious, unliked by friends, missing most minyanim or sedorim, not nice, nasty to his parents, shunned by family, resented by co-workers, you get the idea.

However, I do ask a lot of the typical type of questions. And then I listen to How they are answered, and What Is Not Said. And I totally stereotype- I will assume a certain haskafa from his home if he attended a particular school or yeshiva. Doesn't mean we write him off if he is not the standard model we think we are looking for, but there is some value to profiling.

And still nothing is a guarantee.

One Woman I Know (based on her comment she was demoted from Acquaintance) told me "your daughter goes out to much. I only approve two or three guys a year". How idiotic. Does she think her 25 year old daughter appreciates that??

What No One Told Us

(Disclaimer: We are thrilled our daughter got married. We love our son-in-law. We are grateful she found her Ezer Knegdo. This is not a complaint post at all.)


No one told us that the most stressful part of making a wedding is...... finding gowns- IF you want a color besides white, off-white, or black. Which I don't think are colors. But Jewish rental places do.

No one told us about the endless lists and lists and shopping and returns.

I guess it's a good thing that everyone focuses on the fun, and the planning, and the excitement, and the wedding.

When you lock up the front door at night and you know that all those who now live at home are in- and one isn't.

How you are still on a high from a beautiful and fun wedding, from the simcha, from knowing you have a wonderful son-in-law who is good to your daughter and whom she is crazy about - but-

No one told us how great the void is when one of your children doesn't live at home anymore.

My Hands Smell Like Brine

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not tell me that analogy of the pickles in the pickle jar. One comes out, albeit with difficulty, and the next ones just come out quickly.

To start with, I use canned Israeli pickles. You flip open the can and voila! Out they all come, garlic slices and all.

And if I buy the jarred pickles from Costco, you open, take one, and close.

And who thought this was a clever little story to repeat? If another individual pulls me over and quietly mumbles this brilliant story in my ear, like they invented it, I'll...I'll...I'll...
fling a jar of briny pickle juice in their face.

DIP1 will find a mate without any yanking and fighting with pickles, I'H.

The Reb Yaakov Quote

throughout DIP2's engagement I meet people who remind me of that wonderful statement attributed to Reb Yaakov: when asked what he expected from him Mechutanim, he stated, "I want whatever they want". Clearly a Gadol and Tzadik would be easygoing like that, to keep shalom, etc.

I am not like that. You know what I want? The same thing- whatever the mechutanim want. Except that they should want whatever I want.
I like things to go my way.
I don't like giving in to other people's opinions.
(I have been very easy going, as have my Mechutanim).

I wonder what kind of a mother in law I will be. ha ha ha.

Actually, future Son In Law, henceforth known as SIL1, loves coming to us for Shabbos. So far so good!

MAZEL TOV!!

Only because the name of the blog is Daughters in the Parsha....

One of the daughters is engaged!!

Mazel Tov!

One down, One to go now, one to go in a few years.

May the brachos we see for this one continue on for all the girls who are in the parsha.


I have a new empathy for people. This dating period has been an exercise in being dan l'kaf zchus. For example, the next time some distracted woman smashes her shopping cart into my ankle at Wesley Kosher, I will not feel annoyed and think "I bet her car is pretty banged up, too."
Instead, I will think, "Oh, I bet her daughter is deeply involved in a shidduch, I hope it goes well for her, abigezunt".


Boruch Hashem!!

it's MY school, now

DIP 1 and DIP 2 graduated years ago from the same school DIP 3 now attends.

Dips 1 & 2 are still close to the school; help out with their concert, proctor tests, substitute, supervise late night events at the school, maintain an ongoing shiur for former classmates- you get the picture. They loved school, the administrators, their friends, and they still feel connected.

but at this point, none of the current 9-12 grades were in school when my daughters were there. So there aren't really any girls who remember their antics, tricks, songs, or class' personality.

I commented on this to Dip 3 this evening, as she was going to her Chanuka Chagiga. I asked, are Dip 1 & 2 going? Do they remember any of the girls from when they were in school?

Dip 3 kind of proudly stated "uh-uh. Their high school classes all graduated already. Now it's MY school."

I always thought she was quite independent and confident with who she is. I still think so. But I didn't realize how much the specter of her older sisters overshadowed her connection to her school. which is now really HER school.