How Can You Spot the Gefilte Fish in the Ocean?

He's the one with the carrot stuck to him...

If you have never had gefilte fish let me give you a few words of wisdom.

• Don't eat the kind in the jar with the "gel". It is not worth the effort to open the jar.
• Do eat it like any other kind of fish. Because that's what it is, fish. So use your lemon juice, tartar sauce or even cocktail sauce.
  
• If you're not Jewish chances are you won't like gefilte fish. I think it is in our DNA that we automatically like it.

There is a platter I made for my Shabbos gefilte fish, and it always makes me smile.

The idea comes from the wonderfully fun book Judaikitsch: Tchotchkes, Schmattes and Nosherei, and was done at one of those paint your own pottery places. Totally fun!

Of course the lettering is a goof on the Latin name for the gefilte fish, but something about the paos and kippah crack me up. I'm easily amused.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Shabbos!

This week's parsha is Ki Setze.

Life Lesson

Over the last couple of months I've learned a hard lesson.

When becoming frum I expected to be able to leave certain types of people behind. One of those would be not to have to deal with people within my community who don't live a Torah observant life. Unfortunately I've found that to not be true.

Somehow it seems fitting that with Tisha B'Av being Sunday that I should be experiencing a deep sadness for my realization. So in learning this I shall feel the sadness on Sunday, as well as the disappointment. As with anything such as this you have to learn from it, and take that forward.

However, today is erev Shabbos, and I'm in my usual flurry of activity in preparation for the most beautiful day of the week. Then when Shabbos is over and our fast begins along, with the mourning of the destruction of the Temples, I will also mourn the loss of finding that people are people no matter where you go.

This week's parsha is Devarim.

Good Shabbos to everyone, as well as a good and meaningful fast.

Gearing Up!

Thursday is always my day to begin cooking for Shabbos. I love this time.

There is something so very special about preparing my home for guests to come and share meals, zemiros and Torah. Sharing their Shabbos time with our family is a gift.

So today I shop, bake, cook, clean, etc. and love every moment. This week's parsha is Masei.