Shavuot

I spent most of Thursday after work cooking, and I'm glad I did; it meant there was that much less to do later.

I lit candles to start ( Shavuot, first night )

First day lunch ended up being:

• spelt challah (brought by my guests)
  
• chilled grape juice (it still surprises me how much chilling it makes a difference)
  
• ( spring rolls )
  
  
• green salad: spinach, mesclun, scallions, chives I'd picked the day before, roasted onion-tomato-mango stuff, basil leaves, diced chicken breasts cooked in tomato sauce, balsamic vinegar and olive oil
  
• roasted eggplant
  
• a mix of brown rice, black barley, and daikon seeds, to which I'd added black beans (plus lime juice and mustard powder, but not enough of either to change the flavor) (I was rather glad to have a dish with barley in some form, as Shavuot celebrates the first measure of barley being brought to the Temple, along with other first fruits.)
  
• baby artichokes boiled with lime and cracked black pepper
  
• pear-strawberry crisp
  
• cherries

Luckily we'd finished lunch by the time a utility worker came to replace my gas meter (apparently something mandated every seven years, but I don't remember it happening before, and I've lived here longer than that).

The afternoon was taken up with preparing for Shabbat (I'd remembered the eruv tavshilin just before candlelighting, huzzah!), doing all the fleishig dishes and turning the kitchen over for a milchig dinner (only in the summertime...), and rereading Ender's Game (still not sure why I picked it up, but it's still so good.).

There were six of us for Shabbat dinner, and as one made kiddush, ending in Shehechiyanu, I realized that not only had I forgotten that when lighting candles, I'd forgotten the yom tov part of the bracha, despite lighting off the already-lit jesus candle. Oops.

( The menu: )

We started a bit later than planned, with a couple of the guests having overslept and needing to daven first, but it didn't matter; it was an excellent group of people. Again, interesting conversation (theater, theater politics, Brat Pack movies, a Python reference or two, fundraising for institutions Jewish and non, the tikkun). I was incredibly pleased to be complimented on my adventurous cooking :-).

Shabbat morning I woke to the sound of drilling, and saw a ladder with a flashlight on top of it in the alley next to my building, but no one around. I still don't know what that was about.

( Shabbat yom tov davening )

Lunch ended up out, having had an impromptu invitation that I was very pleased to accept. It meant time with some kid-friends, and meeting some people I'd known mostly by face before, plus time with already-known people, all good things. The food highlights were an olive tapenade, a corn salad (fresh off the cob corn with scallions, hearts of palm, avocado, grape tomatoes, black olives, and a lime-ish dressing), and chicken with (garlic, ginger, and maple).

A walk home in the not-quite-rain, followed by Parnassus on Wheels and a nap were a lovely conclusion to the holiday.

As always, I'm amazed how differently time flows when there are 2⁺ days of holiday/Shabbat. And I'm thinking of trying to find a chevruta to learn a bit with (halacha l'maaseh, or mishnayot, or midrashim are the first things that come to mind).