Monday, October 19, 2009
YET MORE THIS 'N' THAT
Just a lot of little things I've been meaning to tell you......
- Have you seen the film "Julie and Julia"? See it! An absolutely adorable film - Meryl Streep has Julia Child down pat. I laughed and I cried - and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
I always looked forward to watching Julia on the television. I've never forgotten her "disasters" in the kitchen - food falling on the floor - her potato cake breaking apart as she tried to flip it. I follow her philosophy to this day - what happens in your kitchen stays there. If you don't tell - no one will ever know. For instance - my flourless chocolate cake fell on the counter - NOT THE FLOOR - as I was transferring it to the serving plate - and broke apart. What did I do? I rolled the cake into little balls and served it as chocolate truffles!
- I will read the back of cereal boxes if there is nothing else around - and for a while I seem to have been reading a lot of cereal boxes - so to speak. But -- I just recently read three books that I have to tell you about - really good and enjoyable -- I think you might like them.
"The Little Book" by Selden Edwards. I'm not crazy about "time travel" books - but on the recommendation - nay, nay, the insistence - of my friend, Marallyn, I read this. It is beautifully written - Mr. Edwards took about 25 years or so to write it - and each word he uses is the absolutely perfect word for what he wants to say. I loved the book - both the style and the story.
"Cathedral of the Sea" by Idelfonso Falcones. Much in the style of "Sarum" or Pillars of the Earth" - a sweeping historical saga taking place in Barcelona. A bit draggy in spots - just skip those bits - but fascinating - much that I didn't know.
"Six Suspects" by Vikas Swarup. Did you see "Slumdog Millionaire" or read the book from which it was adapted - "Q & A"? I did both - and enjoyed both equally. This book proves that Mr. Swarup is not just a one-book phenomenon - this book is excellent. I was so sorry when I came to the end - it was just that good and I wanted to go on reading.
- What do you think of the "Goldstone Report" damning us for our actions in Gaza during "Cast Lead"? We killed Palestinians? Sure - that's one of the prices of war. Nevermind that we warned the Gazans that were were going to bomb and to get the women and children out of the way. Nevermind that during the "war" we sent in humanitarian supplies to Gaza. But why should I be surprised? Israel is blamed for everything - whether it's our fault or not. So why should Mr. Goldstone be any different - or any fairer than anyone else? Between him and Barack Hussein Obama the Arab world believes it has a free pass - blame the Jews - blame Israel. Am I paranoid? Probably.
- The restaurant scene in Jerusalem is getting better and better. A new place opened in the shuk (our outdoor market called Machane Yehuda). The restaurant is called "Machneyuda" - written as one word - but as I've never seen the name written in English I'm sort of guessing at the spelling from the Hebrew.
The place is non-kosher - the food is delicious - the service is lovely and caring and friendly - and they have some of my favorite things on the menu. Moach (brains) - shkeday egel (sweetbreads) - slavim (quails) and netzach ketzavim (butcher's cut). Very hard to get a reservation - just keep trying.
- And now off to do some cooking of my own. Some friends are showing up on Wednesday from the States - actually they're already in Israel and are doing a bit of touring and visiting up north. I'm doing a Shabbat dinner in their honor - I'll let you know how it went.
Yalla, Bye.
- Have you seen the film "Julie and Julia"? See it! An absolutely adorable film - Meryl Streep has Julia Child down pat. I laughed and I cried - and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
I always looked forward to watching Julia on the television. I've never forgotten her "disasters" in the kitchen - food falling on the floor - her potato cake breaking apart as she tried to flip it. I follow her philosophy to this day - what happens in your kitchen stays there. If you don't tell - no one will ever know. For instance - my flourless chocolate cake fell on the counter - NOT THE FLOOR - as I was transferring it to the serving plate - and broke apart. What did I do? I rolled the cake into little balls and served it as chocolate truffles!
- I will read the back of cereal boxes if there is nothing else around - and for a while I seem to have been reading a lot of cereal boxes - so to speak. But -- I just recently read three books that I have to tell you about - really good and enjoyable -- I think you might like them.
"The Little Book" by Selden Edwards. I'm not crazy about "time travel" books - but on the recommendation - nay, nay, the insistence - of my friend, Marallyn, I read this. It is beautifully written - Mr. Edwards took about 25 years or so to write it - and each word he uses is the absolutely perfect word for what he wants to say. I loved the book - both the style and the story.
"Cathedral of the Sea" by Idelfonso Falcones. Much in the style of "Sarum" or Pillars of the Earth" - a sweeping historical saga taking place in Barcelona. A bit draggy in spots - just skip those bits - but fascinating - much that I didn't know.
"Six Suspects" by Vikas Swarup. Did you see "Slumdog Millionaire" or read the book from which it was adapted - "Q & A"? I did both - and enjoyed both equally. This book proves that Mr. Swarup is not just a one-book phenomenon - this book is excellent. I was so sorry when I came to the end - it was just that good and I wanted to go on reading.
- What do you think of the "Goldstone Report" damning us for our actions in Gaza during "Cast Lead"? We killed Palestinians? Sure - that's one of the prices of war. Nevermind that we warned the Gazans that were were going to bomb and to get the women and children out of the way. Nevermind that during the "war" we sent in humanitarian supplies to Gaza. But why should I be surprised? Israel is blamed for everything - whether it's our fault or not. So why should Mr. Goldstone be any different - or any fairer than anyone else? Between him and Barack Hussein Obama the Arab world believes it has a free pass - blame the Jews - blame Israel. Am I paranoid? Probably.
- The restaurant scene in Jerusalem is getting better and better. A new place opened in the shuk (our outdoor market called Machane Yehuda). The restaurant is called "Machneyuda" - written as one word - but as I've never seen the name written in English I'm sort of guessing at the spelling from the Hebrew.
The place is non-kosher - the food is delicious - the service is lovely and caring and friendly - and they have some of my favorite things on the menu. Moach (brains) - shkeday egel (sweetbreads) - slavim (quails) and netzach ketzavim (butcher's cut). Very hard to get a reservation - just keep trying.
- And now off to do some cooking of my own. Some friends are showing up on Wednesday from the States - actually they're already in Israel and are doing a bit of touring and visiting up north. I'm doing a Shabbat dinner in their honor - I'll let you know how it went.
Yalla, Bye.
