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The Calm Before the School Year

What joy, what suspense. The school year starts on Sept 1 for four of my boys. Summer is officially over and we can get back to some sort of regular schedule. I can't wait. I enjoy vacations, but between the heat and the general lack of direction, I find summer to be a burden. I can recall as a teenager that summer was The Best Time. No school, and I could make some money. As an adult, summer is just another season with no more or less freedom than the rest of the year.

Oh well, so much for being morose.

On to brighter subjects, We are eating out this friday evening, and having a pick-up meal for lunch. There is a bar-mitzva on the yishuv and many adults are invited. But, their children are not invited and so, they pick up the phone and call us. I'm terribly pleased, because I think it says alot that these young adults feel comfortable enough to invite themselves over. And I do enjoy their company.

So, lunch is cold cuts, left-overs and a crock pot beef stew. Nothing fancy, just good simple food.

I found out that one of my cousins moved to our community this week. She is the daughter of my first cousin, so its not so surprising that we did not know in advance. Yet, its very nice to have another family member living so close. We look forward to spending time with her family.

I was trained at an early age that you bring gifts to new neighbors. The most common gift was something you baked. So, I backed cakes last night. Now the real question is whether I'm going to deliver one of them, or just serve if for shabbat. Right now, I'm leaning towards having one for dessert at our hosts friday night, and then serving the other at kiddush tomorrow. The recipes came out wonderful. Check them out!


I made them in a bundt cake and I learned an amazing lesson. It seems that the trick to unbundting the cake is to prepare a bath towel with hot water. Then place the baking pan right out of the over on the bath tower for 10 minute. Loosen the sides with a knife and the cakes pop right out. It worked for both of these cakes.

With the change of the season, comes the start of the seminary and yeshiva school years. Anyone needing a place for shabbat is always welcome at our house. Just give a call, send email, or leave a comment on this blog.

Lunch - 9+
Cold Cuts
Grilled hotdogs and hamburgers
Crock pot stew (with barley instead of rice)
Fresh green salad
Pickles and prepared salads

Comments

Melissa said…
Elliot,

You are right. Summer is not what it used to be as when we were young.

The pound cake sounds wonderful.

You know my husband does all of the cooking in our family. If you have time, please stop by my blog. I wrote about my husband's blog that he just started. I have a link to his blog as well.

Hope you had a good Shabbos.

Melissa
August 29, 2009 at 6:42 PM
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