Verbal snapshots

A few portraits from yesterday.

- A man carrying a little boy (age 4, maybe?) on his shoulders, the handle of the umbrella the boy is holding right in front of the dad's face. He holds up a camera, telling his son to say cheese, which he doesn't realize is completely unnecessary given the boy's amazing grin, proud to be holding the umbrella.

- An armless woman sitting on a low wall, cross-legged, the foot off the ground shoeless, with a cigarette between the two biggest toes. I wonder how difficult it is for her to take smoke breaks in winter.

- A bicyclist with strange lighting, a large fuzzy circle of light on his torso. I thought he had a light under his windbreaker until he got closer, when I realized he had his headlight facing himself, the light reflecting off his silvery jacket. Not so good for seeing, but much more noticeable for being seen.

Shabbat dinner

• wine, challah (white flour with multigrain flakes, baked this morning)
  
• hummus, olives (Kalamata and Nicoise)
  
• polenta rounds with roasted multi-colored peppers, also onions and tomatoes, and a little pepper-eggplant spread
  
• chicken with chipotle mustard and breadcrumbs (six grain and pumpkin seed bread)
  
• delicata squash stuffed with sauteed onions, spinach, toasted walnuts, nutmeg, and black pepper
  
• cabbage with apples and onions (riffed off this recipe)
  
• rainbow salad (red pepper, yellow tomato, white daikon, purple radicchio, green parsley, balsamic dressing; rainbow for this week's parasha, Noah)
  
• Greek-style vanilla rice pudding with vanilla-maple roasted orange and mango, plus mango-vanilla soy ice cream

Everything's done except the chickens are in the oven and I haven't assembled the salad. Plus setting the table, of course. I might make it to davening tonight!

I couldn't face putting broccoli and cabbage in the same meal (too many brassicas), but I've got a backlog of both; I should figure something out with at least one of them this weekend. Also left: turnips, kohlrabi (both of these are challenging for me), a small winter squash, hot peppers, carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, potatoes.

Chodesh tov, Shabbat shalom, happy weekend.