Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Chef Ariella, Yaakov HaTzaddik, and Toes

Ariella made dinner last night. That's right, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned ON! She cooks! Now all we need from her is babysitting and driving and I can head out for that long-awaited vacation in my bed.

We have Ariella's cooking chug to thank for this. From the chug's demo at the school fair, I was under the impression this was some sort of "Chocolate Spread Delight" chug. Chocolate spread on cookies! Chocolate spread on bread! Chocolate spread on ... chocolate spread! And they did make some kind of dessert thing the first week, but the second week they made a very healthy pasta and vegetable dish. Ariella wanted to recreate this dinner at home, so she sent me off with a shopping list ("Mommy" - concerned - "do you know what green onions are?") She had a friend over last night, and the two of them chopped mushrooms, tomatoes, and cucumbers, which we combined with the onions, olives, pasta, and spinach leaves.

I added cubed Bulgarian cheese to my bowl ("Ewww, Mommy, this tastes like a block of salt!") and some dressing. It was quite good and I look forward to adding it to our dinner repertoire. Especially since Ariella can make it.

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Yaakov learned about Rachel Imeinu in school, as today is her yahretzeit. I asked him what he learned. (This year, there is actually a chance he'll remember. For example, he can recite the 5 books of the Torah. Such a big boy.)

"Who is Rachel?"
"I don't know. She had a lot of babies!"
"Oh yeah? How many?"
"Two boys" [Good!] "and two girls!" [Hmmm.]
"She had so many children that she had to buy a big house, it was very big and long and she lived it in all by herself with her children."
Uh oh.
Subject change! "Do you know who Rachel was married to?" I asked.
"No."
"She was married to....Yaakov!"
[Laughter.] "But not me," he added seriously. "That Yaakov was an even bigger tzaddik than me." [If such a thing can be imagined.] "Also he was bigger than me!" [No way!]

And there you have it: Torah according to Yaakov.

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Meanwhile, Nadav would like a solution to the age-old conundrum: How can I suck on my toes and kick my feet at the same time??

5 comments:

OneTiredEma said...

I agree with Ariella. Bulgarian cheese tastes like a salt lick. (I go for the sheep's milk feta. Which is of course like 4x the price.)

MOMZWIFEOFDADZ said...

Dear Nadavoosh:
Since you don't yet realize that you are sucking on your own toes, but you do have fun kicking those little pulkas, please ask Mommy if you can suck on someone else's toes. there. Problem solved. Yay Bubby.

Risa said...

(1) That's great that Ariella's helping with the cooking duties at home. (2)I think that you should write a sefer: Torat/s Yaakov: Musings of a Small Tzaddik. I mean how many sefarim are there out there with a child's perspective on Torah? (3)I'll ask Elan for advice regarding Nadav's conundrum.

Gila Rose said...

Interestingly, Yaakov, who likes some challah with his salt, enjoyed the bulgarian cheese.

Momz - he would totes (that is the cool way of saying "totally") go for sucking on someone else's toes. Then, he could really go full throttle, because it wouldn't hurt him.

Risa - Do you think Artscroll would publish the sefer? Maybe if we say something like Yaakov memorized all of gemara by 18 months....

trn said...

"That Yaakov was an even bigger tzaddik than me."

Fantastic!

And kappayim l'Ariella on her cooking.