12.21.2006

No one cares what you had for lunch

Maggie Mason, a well-known blogger in San Francisco, has written a book of 100 ideas for blog entries. She aims to provide inspiration for bloggers who are stuck on writing about their cats and other mundane details of their lives, and has titled it No One Cares What You Had For Lunch. I like the book, and have been using it, but today I will contradict the claim she makes.

Today you should care what I had for lunch, because it was leftover zucchini latkes made by Karen for our Hanukkah party. They are delicious themselves, but the best part is the yogurt sauce that goes with them. Here is the zucchini latke recipe. I encourage you to try it out, even if you're not celebrating Hannukah.

ZUCCHINI LATKES

- Grate on a microplane:
about 8 zucchini (unpeeled)
1/2 a red onion or 1 small one

- Mix together:
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 cup water

- Mix batter with veg. Add:
a big pinch of salt
about 1/2 cup chopped chives
a bit more flour or water to make a consistency like thick cake batter

- Heat oil and drop into pan- spread them out thin in the oil with the back of your spoon a little bit. Cook thru and drain on paper towels.

DIPPING SAUCE
for 1 pint whole milk plain yogurt, mix in to taste:
juice of 1 lemon
a couple big pinches of sea salt
a heavy dose of garam masala (around 2T)
a heavy dose of turmeric (around 1T)
a heavy dose of garlic powder (about 1T- could also use fresh minced garlic)
you could add other things like, chopped mint, chopped shallots (raw or pickled)
keep adding more spices until it tastes good. you need to put in a lot.
let it sit for a few hours in the fridge to marry all the flavors.

12.15.2006

I Shpy


Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah (which you can spell however you want). We'll have the Flibbs over for dinner and light the candles in a couple of menorahs. Tomorrow my mom will come up from L.A. so that at our Hanukkah party on Sunday, I won't be the only Jewish mother in the house.

Julian is obsessed with playing "I Spy" whenever he sees a picture with lots of details. He has a subscription to Animal Baby magazine, and "I Spy" is a feature in each issue. So... I was excited when I saw this printable "I Shpy" activity on the Chabad web site. It's not really 2-year old appropriate, but we'll find other things in the picture to quiz him on.

At "school" this week, Julian made latkes, decorated a Jewish star, and painted a menorah, made out of blocks. Perfect timing because when these 8 days of Hanukkah are over, we can turn our attention to Christmas trees, Santa Claus, and giving. Oy, do I love December.

12.11.2006

Talent that cannot be denied



What’s he saying? Here is an approximate transcript:


ABCD. No, no ABCD. Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posie, ashes ashes all fall down.

I feel, I feel, I feel like a morning star. Shoefly don’t bother me.

This old man…

Good bye, so long, farewell my friends. Good bye, so long, farewell.

Bye bye to mommy, Bye bye to (points to self) Julian…