Friday, November 28, 2008

Turkey Perfection

Yey – aren’t the posts where this blog turns into a food-blog fun?
Our conquest of American culture began last week when Uri went to play football at the Johnson School’s annual Turkey Bowl (ie football game before Thanksgiving). That attempt was semi-successful. His team won, but he got a ball thrown in his face, ending up with lips so huge Angelina Jolie would be jealous.
Our second attempt was on a more level playing ground: yesterday was Thanksgiving, and we made Thanksgiving dinner. Here is the menu:
Roasted Turkey, Stuffing, Cranberry sauce, Green Beans with Beacon, Brussels sprouts with cheese sauce, Coleslaw with jicama, Onion tart-tatin, Savoy Cabbage with Worcestershire sauce, Boiled butternut squash with parmesan pangrattato, Sweet-potato mash, Pumpkin oatmeal bread with Squash and pecan butter. As for dessert: Butter pecan cookies and my tried and true pumpkin-cheese cake.

Everything was really good, but the turkey was incredible. It looked fantastic (the picture really doesn’t do it justice). Just like in the movies – beautifully browned, and needless to say very tasty.

We wrapped up the holiday with the one thing that is more American than apple pie: Shopping. For a few years now the Friday after Thanksgiving has been referred to as “Black Friday”. All the stores have really massive sales, and people line up waiting for the stores to open their doors. Uri, letting his inner anthropologist shine through, volunteered to stay up and go to Wal-Mart to buy us a microwave for $25. Just to be clear – he didn’t stay up that long after his normal bed-time :)



Last a few thoughts on the holiday:
1. It took us some time to process that since is not a Jewish holiday, the holiday starts on the day of the holiday, and not the night before. We kept expecting Thanksgiving Dinner to be the night before, but why would it be?
2. It turns out that in most American homes, Thanksgiving Dinner isn’t dinner at all but rather lunch. Most dinners start around 1pm and then last all day long.
3. We had a realization that Thanksgiving is the American Passover.
     a. It’s a holiday that passes on the mythology of how the American people came to this holy               land and why they deserve to be here.
     b. It’s a time where everyone gathers with their extended family
     c. It’s a day spent eating.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Monday, November 17, 2008

Random thought about snow

As most of you know, it has already snowed here a couple of times.  It was a short, and melted quickly to be followed by a sunny day.  Well – today it started snowing for real.  That is today, it snowed on me this morning, the kind of snow that makes your coat turn white.  It’s supposed to snow all day, and continue snowing the rest of the week.

And now to my point: I always wondered how come during group settings on TV shows some people were wearing T-shirts and some heavy sweaters.  I kept thinking – don’t they have people that get paid to look for problems with continuity?

Well – now I have my answer. I am currently wearing an undershirt and a heavy wool sweater, across from me there is a girl with a thin long sleeved blouse, and behind me there is a guy in a short sleeved T-shirt.

Now that I finished writing this down, and I have no way of cleverly ending, I realize that this will probably be one of the stupider posts.  Hey – it’s just a random thought; I’m not claiming it’s too deep.  You rather I not write at all?!?! At least it’s short!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

The little engine that could

So... a comment on the recent elections - I'll try to keep it short.
After months and months of tracking the elections through "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" (and in the last few months "spying on the enemy" and watching Fox News), the Big Day finally arrived.
From my perspective, the day could have just gone by - naturally, it effects me, and I try to keep up with the news... but let's not kid ourselves - if I have any time to spare watching TV or reading the paper, I would rather watch "HEROES" or read the marketplace section of the WSJ.
But for all the Americans, and for Uri, it was a very engaging experience. We ended up going to see the results with a group of married couples from the school. It was a very interesting experience. Especially after it was clear Obama won. I think the sentence that resonated with me the most was "I can feel proud to be an American again".
I can certainly understand why this is - not only is Obama someone that you can be proud to call you leader, but also I think Americans can be proud that their country has finally overcome this societal hurdle.
On the flip side - there were also tears shed. I found myself thinking whether I could get so excited about elections in Israel and reached the conclusion that probably not. Uri said it's because I'm too cynical - and in a historic moment, I would probably find some joke to crack. He's probably right.