Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Cooking is different now

I have a cousin who is an extraordinary cook and writes a wonderfully funny blog which always includes a fabulous recipe. I eagerly read her blogs and the recipes and drool over them.  Quite often I think I'd like to make one of her recipes but cooking has become a rare activity for me now. I was a pretty good cook, willing to try dishes outside of my comfort zone which included vegan and vegetarian dishes and always kosher. In recent years, the vegan and vegetarian dishes became the major choices and were generally preferred.

I always enjoyed cooking, specially when we had guests over for dinner and during holidays: Passover, Thanksgiving, Chanukah, birthdays, anniversaries... you get the idea.  Cooking always brought together friends and family for good times, happy times, times that made life so sweet, happy and wonderful. And while I did most of the cooking, Warren's help was indispensable with several of the dishes we served.

But now that I am a "single person household," cooking is not high on my list of priorities. It just doesn't seem worth the effort anymore. I've stopped buying certain foods because I just don't want to bother with them anymore. More often than not, I'll grab a veggie burger or veggie 'hot dog' and maybe some vegetables and that's it. ... nothing fancy, nothing complicated. My palate has gone from an anticipated sense of enjoyment to something quite plain.

Last week, though, I was going through some old recipes and came across a favorite that I made for us very often: a tofu/spinach quiche. We just loved it because I kept filling it with different things in addition to the spinach and tofu.  So, I decided to make it. It turned out really well and I now had four portions of this quiche for four meals. Not a bad change. I also whipped up some home-made tabbouleh. I haven't done that in a very long time. I haven't lost my touch. It was incredibly good.

Even though my cooking now is uninspired and almost an afterthought, this sounds like a few baby steps in a different direction.

By the way, you really should go to my cousin Karen's blog. It's called BAKING IN A TORNADO and is extraordinarily funny, heartwarming and delicious.  Here is her website: https://www.bakinginatornado.com

Copyright © 2019 Reisa Sterling Miller. All Rights Reserved.




Monday, April 1, 2019

I wondered about the Sheloshim period.

I get posts on my Facebook page from a website called My Jewish Learning. The latest one that caught my attention was about Sheloshim, the thirty day period after a burial. It infers that that one month period acts as a link between the time a mourner gives vent to her profound grief when one refrains from  normal everyday activities and the time when she transforms into the person she will have to present to the outside world as she tries to move into her new life after a loss. I understand that during those thirty days, the attempt at grasping the reality of a new way of living is supposed to begin. For some, however, it doesn't work that way.

I've often wondered why thirty days. The following quote which came from the article on the website offers a bit of insight:

"Rabbi Chaim Shreiber has explained why this time frame matters: "The Jewish calendar is based on the moon. Just as the moon waxes and wanes in a cyclical period, the 30 days of mourning are an opportunity for the closing of a full emotional circle. The process begins with the funeral and the first days of shiva, when one can't even see a glimmer of light. With the passing of time, the light returns in stages, and waxes more and more. Thirty days is an important period of time, a time for renewal and grasping a new reality."

In looking back at my Sheloshim period, I'm not sure I would characterize it as a time when the light began to return. In truth, at least for me, what did rear its head during that time was all the legal and financial stuff I now had to contend with and the worry about those things that ensued. That worry was my new reality and interfered with my ability to begin adjusting during that Sheloshim period. It was only after I was able to wade through and take care of all that stuff that I was able to concentrate on the enormity of what had happened. That's when the real work of adjusting to reality started for me. I consciously began that adjustment long after that thirty day period. It's a slow process for me as that adjustment continues.

Copyright © 2019 Reisa Sterling Miller. All Rights Reserved.