Skip to main content

Recap: Back in the Swing of Things

Last weekend was fun.  The boys from Shapell's come from varied backgrounds and were very involved in our conversations.  We had David (originally from Tallahassee) , Noah (from Cleveland) and Farley (from London).   Our lunch guests brought two of their sisters (Tamar and Bat Sheva).   Bat Sheva and David spent most of the afternoon together, to the point where we could not find David when Shabbat was over.  He has gone to spend time with our lunch guests children (or so he said).

From the food perspective, the Carbonnade was very impressive.  Definitely a recipe that I will use again.  Its very rich and full of flavor.  Next time, I may add the mustard as in the original recipe.  

College Goo was also a bit hit.  Its a nice simple recipe that tastes great.  We didn't put in any peas this time.

We have been trying to do a better job of quantity management.   In the past weeks, we have made too much food.  This week, I tried to make less main dishes and everyone still seemed satisfied.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A change of pace (Kidney Failure)

I have been trying to keep this blog focused on hospitality and food.  God though has other plans for his creations and I find now that I will have to expand the scope to cover new topics.  I'll try to continue blogging about my menus and our guests, but expect more posts that have little or nothing to do with food. In February of this year, My second oldest son, Asaf was diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure. Simply put, both his kidneys are damaged and scarred from some infection or defect that happened years ago.  They will likely cease to function sometime within the next six months. The good news is that there is no immediate danger to his life.  Kidney Dialysis is a viable option and can maintain his health for up to ten or more years if necessary.  Unfortunately, the process is not easy and there are potential side effects. Given Asaf's generally excellent health and age, Kidney Dialysis is considered only a stop-gap measure and not a long term solution. The best solutio...

Mid Pesach weekend and Recap

For the first time in memory, all of my children stayed awake for the whole seder.  In the past years, we usually lost one or more before the main meal.  Last year, one of my children fell asleep on the sofa and we woke him up to say "Pesach, Matza and Maror".  He then went back to bed. My parents attended the seder with us this year.  I'm not sure how many more chances we will have to celebrate pesach with them.  The travel is harder each year and my father is visibly aging.  In past years, my father was the king of the seder.  He belted out the sing-song chant that we use for the hagada and he led the discussions.  This year, he was a silent participant while I took over the singing. On chol-ha-moed, we first went off-roading with our friends the Moritz's down south, just below Hebron and within the 1949 borders.  The Jewish National fund has planted about 3 million trees in that area since 1956.  The location is just north of the ...

Kidney Update #1

Good news and Good news. First, my son's creatinine levels declined for the first time in 4 months.  Ok, so they are still over 5.5, but were up around 6.4.  We are taking this as a good sign.  We have been told that once the kidney get sufficiently scarred, its a sure and slow decline until they stop functioning.  Creatinine levels are a measure of the kidney's ability to filter the blood.  Normal function is around 0.7 to 1.2. The second bit of news is even better.  Our posts have been answered way beyond our wildest dreams.  As long time readers of this blog know, our community is very special.  There are about 500 families living here and together, they form one of the warmest kindest groups of people I have ever had the pleasure to know. We posted on our local mailing list about 24 hours before I posted on this blog.  Within the first two days, we had more that six people volunteering to donate one of their kidneys to Asaf.  Don't they realize what a major decision tha...