Weekend overview

[magid]

+ time with new friends
+ time with old friends
+ lots of zmirot¹ at dinner; I've missed singing them, and we sounded great (of course, being parshat Noach², we sang Yonah Matzah³). Plus some percussion! And a few other songs as well.
+ a silly dinner, with Python and Princess Bride lines
+ hearing the parsha read on the anniversary of someone's bar mitzvah
- rain on Shabbat (traditional for Noach, but still a nuisance)
+ conversation with a now-long-distance friend
+ a food experiment that worked (chard pie with walnuts and currants)
- a food experiment that didn't (gingered carrots with Shanghai bok choy; it should've been fine, but wasn't)
+ truffles
+ massage
+ inaugurating my new Gang of Four deck
+ feeding lots of people
- hosting so much of the time meant no Shabbat down time for me
+ remembered to change the clocks
- wasted the 'extra' hour
- Sunday morning plans canceled due to high winds
+ last-minute late morning short bike ride instead, including places I'd not seen before (yay, goldfish, lizard, and frogs!)
+ walking to and from the Strand Theater in Dorchester (still high winds; I held my glasses on as I walked over the Mass Ave bridge)
+ the ASP production of Hamlet (more details to come)
- the seating for the play was horrible for my back (and at 3.5 hours run time, it was quite noticeable)
+ there was a talk-back session with the actors after the play...
- ...which meant I got home that much later
+ discovering that Brown Cow has fruit and grain yogurts, so I no longer have to pine over how Liberte no longer has a hechsher (though the texture of the grains is a little different)
- being too tired after the walk Sunday to go out again

On the whole, quite a satisfactory weekend. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

¹ Lit. "songs" (Heb.), but often used to mean particular traditional songs sung at Shabbat and holiday meals. Most little booklets with grace after meals include a selection of them. Most have multiple tunes, so it can be interesting deciding which tunes to use. (And being Shabbat/holiday, it's all a cappella.)
² This week's reading includes the story of Noah and the flood, which includes sending out the dove and the raven afterward.
³ Lit. "Dove Found" (Heb.), about the dove finding rest (a place to rest) after being sent out from the ark.

Comments

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

a food experiment that didn't (gingered carrots with Shanghai bok choy; it should've been fine, but wasn't)

Indeed. It's hard to imagine how that would not be fine (barring major catastrophes that would be unlikely in the case of an experienced cook like yourself.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I should've used the wok, but that's for meat dishes, and this was being served at a dairy meal, so I used the cast iron skillet. I didn't let the carrots cook long enough before adding the greens, so they wilted to nothingness while the carrots were still crunchy. And the ginger powder was a new container that didn't have any holes in the top, so I added far too much, and the taste was weird somehow, in a way I can't describe better than that, but it was unpleasant.

I was just glad I had a lot of other things available :-).