Day 253 (Erev Erev Shabbos)

Well, today I learned that when making Yerushalmi kugel it is  crucial to stir the caramel very quickly as soon as it hits the noodles. Otherwise it clumps. And then the kugel is not yummy. Clearly I learned this the hard way. So I picked out the hardened sugar clumps, and turned the noodles into a salt and pepper kugel. It was a bit sweeter than I'd like, but it came out just fine.

I walked to the makolet while that kugel was cooking (Husbinator was in Romema, getting super-kosher meat from a grocery store called Sha'are Revachim) and bought more kugel noodles. My friends, the makolet is soooo much more expensive than Rami Levy. But yeah, I was willing to shell out the extra money in order to be able to restart the kugel immediately, so there it is.

While playing with the No-Nap Wonder in the front yard this afternoon, I noticed that we have grass poking up from under the straw! (Like very many [most?] Israeli yards, ours does not have cultivated grass, which requires tons of water. Rather than laying down astro-turf, our landpeople have straw on top of the dirt. When we buy a house one day, I'd like to look into moss. I've read about using moss as a water-saving alternative to grass somewhere...)

I'd forgotten that aspect of living in Midbar Yehuda. That's often translated as the Judean Desert, but the Judean Wilderness would be more accurate. I know that the stony hills turn green after the rain, but I never quite expected to see that happen in my own yard. So cool!

I finally started a jar of vanilla extract: the imitation stuff here is pathetic. I also cleared two box towers, did lots of dishes, and some laundry. That and the cooking made today quite the successful Erev Erev Shabbos.

It's really convenient that BSM can talk a little: he woke up crying, and when I went in, he said, "Mayim-mayim-mayim-mayim-mayim," so I gave him his sippy cup and he drank for a full minute and went peacefully back into his crib. Problem solved. (Without his usefully telling me what he wanted, it would have taken me quite some time to deduce that since he ate something called salt and pepper kugel for dinner, he was probably thirstier than usual.)