miscellany

[cellio]

Shabbat was good, though the first Shabbat after the spring time change is always a systemic shock to me. ("It's almost 8PM! How can it still be Shabbat?! Last week this time we were well into dinner!") The really long days, come June, are a real challenge for me. I have trouble reading all afternoon/evening (eye strain), but usually don't have people to spend the time with, and I didn't receive an electricity-is-ok tradition so using the TV/computer feels wrong to me. (I know there are Conservative arguments that permit this. I don't disagree intellectually -- but the gut feeling remains.) Walks in the park and naps help, but I have a lot to learn. I think this summer I will try to have guests for Shabbat lunch more often, especially as Dani agreed in principle to my goal of recreating some of the feal of that Shabbat dinner we had a few weeks ago (the one with what turned out to be Chabad folks). If I aim for lunch rather than dinner, I get to have a fun gathering and occupy some of the long stretch while doing so.

Shabbat dinner worked well for me. I've sometimes had trouble with cooked chicken getting too dry in the oven (while being held for potentially a few hours). The answer seems to be that sealing in foil does much better than putting in a covered casserole; the foil was a Pesach change (don't have Pesach casseroles yet), but I may have to keep doing that. So we had chicken in orange sauce, which was really easy: oil pan, place chicken breasts in it, brush tops with orange marmalade, bake on high heat uncovered for a while (this was 45 minutes at 375), then cover (seal) and hold at lower temperature (this was 180 for about 2.5 hours). Oh, I added more marmalade before the second cooking.

Lunch was cold foods because the crock pot isn't kosher for Pesach and I wasn't sure about the status of the hot plate. Since cooking on Yom Tov is permitted (for food to be consumed that day only), I'll have hot meals for both tonight and tomorrow's lunch. Tomorrow will probably be just me; if I get an invitation at morning services I'll take it, and if not I'll come home and make something.

For those who care, an interesting discussion about kashrut has sprung up in a previous entry.

Pesach changes the diet pretty fundamentally (though it doesn't seem like it should be that big a deal), and according to the nutrition-tracker I've been using, I haven't been doing so well this week on assorted vitamins. Not having that morning can of liquid nutrition (not kosher for Pesach) makes a bigger difference than I thought. Fortunately, it's only a week. Unfortunately, perhaps scheduling myself for a physical (which includes routine blood stuff) for a week after Pesach wasn't smart. Will cholesterol and sugars and stuff be back to their normal levels by next week, I wonder?

We finished the taxes this afternoon. We've owed significant but non-crippling amounts of money the last two years, so I think we finally got the W4s right. (This is the outcome we want.) Of course, this might have more to do with the economy than with any precognitive skills on our part.

While we were in Toronto Dani's sister and mother were asking me various questions about religious practice, and at one point one of them asked me if I wear a talit. I do, and I specifically wear the talit that used to belong to Dani's maternal grandfather. I never take it to Toronto and have never mentioned it, because I didn't know how they would feel about somebody other than Dani (or some other direct relative) having it. Dani offered it to me openly, but that doesn't mean he correctly read his family on this, after all. So anyway, someone asked, and Dani started to laugh, which prompted them to ask why, and he spilled the beans. Not only does his mother not mind, but she's pleased -- and she wants a picture of me wearing it. Ok...

(At some point, possibly this summer when I'm at HUC, I may get myself a larger one as well. The one I have is the smaller "scarf" variety, and sometimes, like on Yom Kippur, I would like to have the option to really wrap myself in it. Nothing wrong with having two -- besides, it makes trips to the dry-cleaner easier.)

Comments

[sethcohen.livejournal.com]

Will cholesterol and sugars and stuff be back to their normal levels by next week, I wonder?

Unless you're diabetic, your fasting glucose will drop down to its minimum between meals, no matter what you've been eating. That's what your pancreas does, if it's working right: regulates your blood glucose level.

As for cholesterol and/or triglycerides, that's the reason that doctors usually prefer a fasting morning blood test: overnight, without meals, those numbers also bottom out. No worries, in other words, unless your cholesterol and/or triglycerides are above normal for some reason. I mean, don't eat a cow the night before your exam...no reason to push your luck.

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

because the crock pot isn't kosher for Pesach

Is it a duration issue? I can imagine that the slow-cooker might be philosophically incompatible with the idea of fleeing at high speed, but I'm just speculating wildly.

Dried out chicken

[kiane36.livejournal.com]

Would there be a problem with using those Reynolds plastic baking bags? I know that I use those and the meat is never dried out ever! I have used it for slow oven cooking and I have even used it in the crock pot. I don't think that would save your problem with the crockpot you use normally unless it would count that there is that layer in between. I alsmost hate to make suggestions because I wasn't raised with these kashrut laws. I just thought I would offer another suggestion just in case. If I am in the wrong, please forgive.

Shawna Kiane