Innovation

November 29, 2001-Catching Up
(photo: Improvised Shabbat Table)

Thank you all who sent us the Krispy Kreme site. I hadn’t had time to look up the correct spelling. It’s nice to know so many of you are still reading these. In looking at the site, I realized that, for overseas stores, they want about $5 million in assets with the ability to back the opening of at least 10 stores. That leaves us out.

I had my hair cut today & got a vocabulary lesson at the same time. The beauty shop proprietor’s definition of “rorting” is to cheat. There have been lots of reports of rorting in the press. A “larrikin” is a loveable scoundrel & is aspired to by the Aussies of the male persuasion. A “hoon” & a “yabbu” are young men who like to drive fast & make a minor nuisance of themselves. They stay within the law, but when they don’t they haven’t gone crook. That’s being sick.

I haven’t given you an update on Wendy in a long time. She’s still in Minneapolis & working at the university. She’s put her house on the market. She and her cats are preparing to move in with her girlfriend/partner. They met late summer/early fall &, for Wendy, the relationship has moved at lightning speed. Wendy was of the mind that she wouldn’t even exchange keys unless she’d dated someone for months. We’ve not met Wendy's new love, but she must be very special. Ironically, she too works at the U of Minnesota. She’s a carpenter. It’s always nice to have someone handy in the family. We put her emailed photo on our refrigerator here, so it’s official. The logistics of the move have revolved around the animals: Willie, a dog, & cat, Malachai are the original residents. They’ve been acclimating to Wendy’s cats, Oscar & Gabriel with some success. Wendy’s cats are now living in the finished attic & will slowly be introduced to the rest of the house.


Syd Bruce turns 49 today & his wife, Janet, is having a BBQ at their house. He’s not happy about birthdays in general & this one in particular. I told him to hang around people who are older than he to feel young. That’s what we’re doing here at the congregation. We’re bringing some wine to the barbie, but since I have a refrigerator full of food for Shabbat dinner, I’ve asked the bottle shop downstairs to store the wine for me in their cooler until I pick it up tonight. What will I do without my handy downstairs liquor storage when I get home? December 1, 2001-Being Set Up

The Bruces came for Shabbat dinner last night. It went very well. It was our first foray into the world of mini-entertaining. It shows what you can do when you have to innovate. My refrigerator & freezer were filled to over-flowing so that I was constantly moving food out of one & into the other as preparation progressed. I also was short implements such as bowls & utensils so I was constantly washing & re-using them. I made chopped liver & didn’t have a chopper, grinder, or food processor. Do you know that you can smash liver with a potato ricer/masher? It has to be done on a flat surface, but once the suckers give up & squeeze through the holes on the masher, they can be put in a bowl & pulverized into a smooth consistency. I had to make two briskets & the butcher only had the 2nd one come in on Fri. I didn’t start cooking it until 2PM so I was busy slicing it at the last minute. I needed to cook the vegetables in the gravy & there was no room in the electric skillet so I put them in the oven in some disposable aluminum pans.

Aussies tend to always have alternative main courses. I decided on chicken and needed the oven to grill the chicken breasts. Before the veggie/chicken issue, I had to deal with making brownies. The box mix had measurements & directions in centigrade, Fahrenheit, centimeters, & inches. I found out that this is because many Australians have older ovens & measures that go back to before they converted to metric. There were also instructions dealing with the different cooking temperatures & times for regular bake & “fan bake” ovens. I suspect the fan bake is convection. Timing was hairy, but it all ended up on the table in good order & was devoured, but not totally. We’re looking forward to leftovers.

Setting the table was another thing. David borrowed a bridge table from the temple & when we set it up we realized that only a short person with skinny legs sitting on chair with sawed off legs could sit at it. Fortunately we had two people who qualified, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to amputate chair legs. We moved the table in from the patio & voila, we had a banquet table that seated eight. Fortunately, only seven were coming. When we stepped back to survey our ingenuity, we saw that the table was on three levels from standard height descending to the Lilliputian card table. In an attempt to add color, pizzazz & uniformity to the ensemble, I used mismatched beach towels as tablecloths. The effect was bizarre, but funky. It reminded me of walking into the Tangiers restaurant in Akron. A Lebanese family owns it & I think that they have used every geometric pattern & primary color in each of their several dining rooms.

We had invested in a lovely set of white plastic coated tableware & some blue & yellow daisy patterned serviettes (napkins). To this we added plastic utensils in green, blue, & pink. Serving bowls were whatever fit. The challah ended up in a mixing bowl after it was sliced & the gravy was efficiently poured from a measuring cup. Hey, it was the only thing that had a spout besides the teapot. The teapot has been the repository for David’s dry crushed red peppers ever since we were lucky enough to find some. I had David take a picture of the table before anyone sat down. I’m convinced this is the way to break the ice at a formal dinner party. It definitely generated conversation. Forget the matching china & sterling. Bring on the weird.

We’re going to a PFLAG (Parents, Family & Friends of Lesbians & Gays)meeting today. It’s the Gold Coast chapter & meets a block from where we live. We’ll keep you posted.

Toby