Doing it all…or at least doing some of it

I’m not just cooking these days, even though it sometimes feels that way.

I put in some work on the bag that will hold  Danielle's chuppah. I’m piecing ribbon using metallic stitching. This is what the grosgrain and satin ribbon look like  so far.100_3048
100_3050
I’m going to add the blue and metallic braid soon. The top picture gets the color right. the bottom image gets the textures right.  I guess you have to meld the images through the magic of IMAGINATION.
I also put in a fair amount of work into my son’s Comicon costume. We have no photo  of the jacket today because my son’s  slobby mother dripped some grease onto the jacket. My son washed out the grease spots and the jacket is now hanging to dry. My normally blasé son is excited about the results.
Given that it’s Friday, I had to  surprise(!) cook.
The butcher was selling flanken ribs at a nearly silly price ($3.99/ lb) so today is Caveman Shabbat.
cavemN  BOTH

I know that my youngest will really eat tonight.

I also started a big pot of chicken soup yesterday in the crockpot.  I made matza balls and added then to the soup. I can’t tell you how almost naughty it feels to make matza balls not at Passover.  I know, most of the  Ashkenazi Jewish world does not limit matza balls to Passover, but family custom is strong.  No, they aren’t hard to make. I made this batch gingery and added lots of parsley. Since it isn’t Passover they don’t have to taste exactly like my mother’s.
chicken soup  & matza balls

The soup is a crude one with whole vegetables. Since everything has been cooked for so long the vegetables have caramelized and have a nice deep flavor. That counteracts the fact that I started with a box of chicken soup. A few packages of chicken necks, a tea ball filled with whole coriander and cloves and the long cooking vegetables mean that the soup won’t taste like it’s boxed origin's.

There are many wonderful things about having my older son home from Israel.  One of the wonderful things is that he is so good in the kitchen. He put together this weeks's challah.  He asked me to form the loaves.  Not having to do everything for Shabbat dinner means that I can even take time to sew on Friday.

My sister loved her gift.  Hurray!!!

Comments

  1. Thanks for the spices in the tea ball idea. What a clever plan. Sometimes I would like to try some things like cardamom in something, but I don't like finding bits in my mouth to zap you.
    I love coriander in chicken stew. I have been using ground, but I do have whole ones. again, it is the bits that we object to. SOoo, next stop at the stew pot gets the tea ball addition.
    :)
    Sandy

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  2. I can't remember where I learned to use the tea ball for spices. It may have been from my father. I have an extra large tea ball that may have shown up from my in-law's house. Actually it's odd that it came from their house because they would brew tea in a tea bag bag in a tea cup ..shared among many, many people.

    regardless of how the tea ball arrived in my house it gets a fair amount of use because like you Sandy, my husband hates getting a bit of whole spice in his mouth...I rather like it... Cardamon is amazing in baked goods. Generally I use powdered but we got the seeds in Israel...so good.

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