last few days

Friday night my synagogue had its once-every-two-years "adult b'nei mitzvah" (I still hate that name, but I'm a pedant). There were six women this time, one of whom actually did not read torah Friday night because she wanted to do it Saturday morning instead in the informal service. They did a decent job overall, and I made note of two who seem to be interested in reading torah again in the morning group. (Three, counting the woman who did that this time.) So we'll see if that pans out.

I missed the morning service, alas, because Dani and I went to the kingdom academy event in Erie. (Why do the good things all have to pile onto the same weekends?) The event was being held in a synagogue's school, and part of the agreement was that members of the congregation could attend the classes, so the folks in charge asked me to organize a track of classes on Jewish topics. That went pretty well overall, though the number of congregants wasn't high and dwindled over the day. We had an overview class taught by Eleazar ha-Levi (the person who wrote the Complete Anachronist issue a couple years back), a class on the Khazars which was very good, a class on Salamone Rossi and his music taught by lefkowitzga which was also very good, a class on Hebrew poetry, and a class on Hebrew manuscripts. The organizers had asked for some sort of round-table discussion, so I finished with an item called "being Jewish in the SCA". I left it fairly open so that we could talk about whatever people wanted to discuss -- choosing a persona, coping with feasts, tricks for attending events on Shabbat, and so on. None of the congregants showed up, though; it ended up being me, Eleazar, and Remus, who isn't Jewish but was just curious.

There was no formal feast but they had a buffet out all day (starting with the first break in classes). The food was varied and mostly low-key; I wonder if they did it as a quasi-pot-luck, with members of the host group each bringing something. Either they did not use the synagogue kitchen or the kitchen isn't kosher; that much I'm sure of. :-) So maybe the former; that would be consistent with the dishes that were there, all of which could stand up to being driven in from elsewhere. We've had events at sites where either there was no kitchen or we weren't allowed to use it; it's a challenge, but it can be done.

The event ended early and there was a dinner expedition forming, but Shabbat still had two hours to run so we had to decline. Pity the event didn't run later (and that it was held so close to the summer solstice :-) ). Oh well.

Since people were spread out I didn't get a feel for how many were there, but it seemed like a good turnout. I sometimes wonder if the academy events plan too many tracks of simultaneous classes for the number of people who come, but it seemed to have worked. I wonder if lyev got enough people for each class in his dance track.

This Wednesday Dani is heading off to a gaming convention (Origins). He has signed up mostly for games he's never played before, which is a good way to survey what's out there. I wonder how many he'll come home with this year. :-)

The choir had a discussion about Pennsic and beyond at the most recent practice. I'm not sure what will come of it. We will have a Pennsic performance, though the group is small and someone will be filling in as director. We won't have some of the material we were planning to have for it, but we'll have enough. Eh. It's not the performance we wanted to have, but it will do.

fish with ginger and spinach

This was really good. From Fish, the Basics by Shirley King (typing from memory):

Put 1T butter, 2T olive oil, 1 clove minced garlic, and 1T chopped ginger in a casserole, cover with plastic (leaving a side vent), and microwave for 2 minutes.

Wash/dry 8oz fresh spinach, mix into casserole to coat, re-apply plastic, and microwave for 2 minutes.

Sprinkle with salt, then lay 2 pieces orange roughy on the spinach and cover with some raw spinach. Re-apply plastic and microwave for 3 minutes.

Sprinkle with 2 sliced scallions, re-cover, microwave 4 minutes. Check for doneness; cook another 30 seconds if needed.

I would like to figure out how to adapt this for oven use, because the largest casserole I have that fits in the microwave could maybe accommodate three pieces of fish. I want to be able to make this for guests.