Prayers for the Broken - My Al Chet This Year

"L'shanah tovah tikatevi v' taihatemi”

May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.

There is the traditional Al Chet and then there is something more modern that I’ve encountered and I think it’s important because it grounds the sins from the formal and therefore the internal to the actual failures we commit during the year. The failures I have committed.

I need to remind people that a kind of personal god that looks like a human and has a form is not part of Judaisim – we use human shaped words to try to grasp something infinite – something not human. When humans use the word god the part of me that interacts with my religion hears a wordless/wordful thing that is “Universe”

God is not a magical sky fairy that is going to give me a puppy if I’m a good girl. The Universe is an immense thing that I struggle to engage with and understand and attempt to be the best human I can be inside of it. So the English formulation of “Ruler of the Universe” which is often used in translation is the one that speaks/works for me.

I am having immense difficulty with the things that represent Judaism in practice in the world being corrupted by specifically American duality and ideology. This is a day I will struggle with that some more.

One of the things that many people who aren’t religious practicitioners don’t know is the reason we say the Al Chet outloud during the day all together is because a sin cannot be forgiven unless it is admitted to outloud and publically.

But we say these things together to protect those who sinned so they can say it out loud without having to bear the burden or shame of it alone. We are all admitting to the sins because we are all people who share in the effects of the sin. In many cases we do actually bear the shared responsibility for allowing or condoning the sin as culturally acceptable or necessary in the first place.

So for all these things I ask forgiveness, in my version of public because right now it hurts to much to be in a prayer space – because there is currently no prayer space without politics and politics are nothing but methods of extraction for power interests  to enrich the already powerful.

And I have not figured out a way to stop that or stand against it yet – for that more than anything I beg forgiveness.

This was updated in 1978 – and it’s the one I’ll use tomorrow and here today.

We sin against You when we sin against ourselves.

For our failures of truth, Our God, Ruler of the Universe, we ask forgiveness.

For passing judgment without knowledge of the facts,

and for distorting facts to fit our theories.

For using the sins of others to excuse our own,

and for denying responsibility for our own misfortunes.

For condemning in our children the faults we tolerate in ourselves,

and for condemning in our parents the faults we tolerate in ourselves.

We sin against You when we sin against ourselves.

For our failures of justice, Our God, Ruler of the Universe, we ask forgiveness.

For keeping the poor in the chains of poverty,

and turning a deaf ear to the cry of the oppressed.

For using violence to maintain our power,

and for using violence to bring about change.

For waging aggressive war,

and for the sin of appeasing aggressors.

For obeying criminal orders,

and for the sin of silence and indifference.

For poisoning the air, and polluting land and sea,

and for all the evil means we employ to accomplish good ends.

We sin against You when we sin against ourselves.

For our failures of love, Our God, Ruler of the Universe, we ask forgiveness.

For confusing love with lust,

and for pursuing fleeting pleasure at the cost of lasting hurt.

For using others as a means to gratify our desires,

and as stepping-stones to further our ambitions.

For withholding love to control those we claim to love,

and shunting aside those whose youth or age disturbs us.

For hiding from others behind an armor of mistrust,

and for the cynicism which leads us to mistrust the reality of unselfish love.

Teach us to forgive ourselves for all these sins, O forgiving God, and help us to overcome them.

For all these sins, O God of mercy, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement!

The sin we have committed against You by malicious gossip,

the sin we have committed against You by sexual immorality,

and the sin we have committed against You by gluttony.

The sin we have committed against You by narrow-mindedness,

the sin we have committed against You by fraud and falsehood,

and the sin we have committed against You by hating without cause.

The sin we have committed against You by our arrogance,

the sin we have committed against You by our indolence,

and the sin we have committed against You by our irreverence.

The sin we have committed against You by our hypocrisy,

the sin we have committed against You by passing judgment by others,

and the sin we have committed against You by exploiting the weak.

The sin we have committed against You by giving and taking bribes,

the sin we have committed against You by giving way to our hostile impulses,

and the sin we have committed against You by running to do evil.

For all these sins, O God of mercy, forgive us, parson us, grant us atonement!

Litany Source = Gates of Repentance:  The New Union Prayerbook for the Days of Awe (New York:  Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1978), pp. 327-331

It's the Holidays - and Friends Help

I am buried and overwhelmed and wearing my Don Quixote hat these days when my general outlook is more Sancho Panza on a good day and Aldonza on a bad one.

But I have a friend named Liz. She's a new friend but I met her Doing Things. Things I mean to write about here but keep quiet when push comes to shove because the desire to hide has gotten larger than the desire to share. Doing Things is how I keep it from growing too big.

Liz and Nathan sent me a package in a plain brown wrapper. I have said before that you cannot stop The Taunting, but this year the windmills and the Don Quixote of it all made it very, very close. But here it is the Taunting in it's plain brown wrapper - it followed all the rules - I knew it was coming but I didn't know what it was, it had packages that needed to be opened in order. And shockingly and beautifully it had Poppets. A Poppet. You cannot lie to a Poppet.

One of the Red Poppets came over to help and check out the Paper Poppet. Like all good taunting Packages this one came with instructions. The Paper Poppet is so beautiful and so full of Poppet that it was decided that he was going to have to find a way to be. He has decided that he would like to be a Billboard on a rooftop in Poppetropolis or perhaps a wall mural in the side of a building but he thinks he would prefer the rooftop view.


The Paper Poppet carefully removed himself from his charge much to the delight of the local denziens. The Choco's appeared joyfully on the scene. Not only was it chocolate it was chocolate that they had never tried before! NewThings!

And then they noticed that they needed to call over their friends and shouted across to the circus where the Coffee Poppets had been working out logistics for a food stand.

Because there is very little that makes that particular social circle as happy as things that combine their two passions, and here it was!

In bar form for relatively easy transport!

Plans and recipes were being discussed with logistics being undertaken and plans made to return for the others  . . . which left Red alone until Merri wandered by with her red balloon.

Packages are very exciting. It's all the wondering; "What could it be" and the excitement of red yarn.

Merri helped Red with the package and they spent some time guessing because they knew that Liz is a Maker of Things, and that meant that the inside could be almost any Thing.

And when it was opened the Thing was the best kind of Thing - A Thing from a Friend that could live in Poppetropolis and also BE a Friend!

They have all informed me that her name is Scarlet.

Sunray is looking into a rental for her now.

Holiday Briefing: Logic- The Destroyer

Does it seem odd to anyone else that the winter is when we have our Must See Them Holidays in our very, very scattered culture?

We seem so surprised when actual Winter gets in our way.

It's also odd that we put the first semester finals right smack dab inside the cluster of holidays. It pretty much presumes the traditional dependent student; as opposed to say the parent of children or head of household who is expected to create the feelings and events that are supposed to inform all of those fond associations with the season.

And thus the Holidays came.

The Taunting was impacted ( but not stopped - you cannot stop The Taunting). Unlike previous years the presents needed to be hidden only to be revealed on the day of. Part of that was practical - the theme this year was Chocolate. All Chocolate, all the time. Godiva, Hershey's Nestle's, Lindt, Mars, a little boutique outfit that made World Peace bars . . . every night a different chocolate ending with specialized chocolates for each of the Children ( who are not so Childish Anymore - as proven by the eighth candle's Bailey's infused chocolate bar for The Girl).

The secondary Taunting gifts involved clothing. Things delayed due to recession but needed anyway were made fun. Sales were shopped. Artisans were traded with. But we kept the holiday ridiculously low key, lower key even than the Cheapass Taunting of 2009. Last year it was because I was closing down my projects, and knew that things were ending. This year it is because I returned to school to create new beginnings, however the semester was ending.

Here is the catch - I thought I had taken a relatively balanced load but they were all production classes that had final projects before final exams. Although I sort of knew that, in practical terms it escaped me. There were 4 tests in rapid succession in Logic and in order to combat my LD it takes about two days to prep for a test, having done it in a very intense way this last month I discovered what I'm really doing is rewiring my brain temporarily; but so completely that after working on a logic test I was unable to use language properly for two to three days afterwards, creating amusing malapropisms for friends and family and actual Conduction Aphasia for me.

When I first took the Logic and Object Oriented programming classes I had this idea that I would develop strategies that would help other people with symbol processing disorders be able to take and pass the class, however about 2/3 of the way through I realized NO ONE with my disability is going to take these classes to this level - they'd have to be masochists and have unlimited time ( or a psychotic need to prove that they are able to pass the class anyway - at least that's what my mirror tells me) Instead I've developed a series of strategies that can help any number of other people with different LDs, or people who are not naturally adept at the structured thinking these classes require, but if you have a hard core symbol processing disorder, as my programming professor says: "There's nothing wrong with being a poet".

Everything was going well, although I was sleep deprived and then I thought - "I can modify this technique and maybe get some rest."

This was a huge mistake causing me to get a truly dismal grade on the one test I couldn't drop as the lowest score. How bad? 25. There's an average killer.

I found a scoring error and got an extra 13 points but it pretty much meant that I had to really, really invest in the final - 4 days of drills and prep. 4 hours of actual test.

But I did survive, and the Holidays happened without me speaking properly. The last final was on the 21. The trip to Grandma's House was determined to be an Xmas Day Trip. My Perfectly Normal Mother-in-Law was pronounced healthy enough to leave her house for Xmas Eve.

There was much rejoicing.

So really, everything was as good as it could be. And then finally my grades were posted - I'd gotten a 100 on the final and because of weighting managed to get an A for the class. Had I scored lower it would have been a scholarship affecting C.

Huzzah! But I was exhausted.

Anti Claus however had no patience for that sort of nonsense and broke in to make copies of our keys, and deliver a sonic screwdriver that actually is a screwdriver, kick ass motorcycle boots and small bombs of pixie dust to the Children. I think I was Found Boring this year.

I think I found myself a bit boring this year.

But I was not the only person in the family and some of the other had been waiting for Xmas day for some time. They had plans.

We travelled out to Grandma's house, where Grandma's Gingerbread Poppet had found the perfect tree, and the Perfectly Normal Husband brought all of his Holiday up with us. It is obvious that the family would like a return to things being arty.

New Poppets have joined the house - Aunti Claus brought some for the Children ( apparently she didn't approve of a Poppet-free holiday. They are Candy Cane Poppets but they look a little blood spattered - one wonders where they accompanied her first before landing in the stockings)

My parents gave me a photobox. My Perfectly Normal Husband gave me a vampire, a wizard, a literary Death and a Tinker. Someone got me a Magic Trackpad.

I just like saying I have a Magic Trackpad.

Now here's the thing about Grandma's House. It's pretty much the test model for "lake effect" snow. So before leaving, pretty much the only non syllogistic thing I understood was the weather report for Grandma's House. And the report was "There might be some snow" and no one thought it would be much, but we warned all of our fellow travelers to inform loved ones and offices that there was a chance we would be snowed in at Grandma's House.

Then we got all pre-occupied with The Boy getting sick and my amusing attempts to communicate. And so we went over the river and through the woods, as we do yearly and played with dancing trees and had yummy food and shared a few bottles of wine and sort of showed the youngsters what "keeping a weather eye out" looks like it in the digital age.

Things were moving along nicely but we were starting to go - "Hmmn . . . Gee. Might need to stay an extra day or two, " when all of a sudden the word "Blizzard" started popping up on our weather eye screens.

Well they weren't kidding. We played it hour by hour but had to leave Grandma's House in a flurry all of our own because they were calling for a Blizzard at the House too.

Grandma's got about 20 inches, we got about 10. We raced the storm home and won by an inch. The other 9 fell after we were settled back in, but it wasn't much of a visit. The poppets didn't even get to come out and play with Grandma's holiday decor.

But we did spend it together and the food was wonderful.

Here is the thing I learned last week. If I were not inherently logical, I would not have been able to succeed, but to immerse myself to much in logic damages me and everything around me. There is a reckoning. The Art part came easier to me, but there was no balance in that either. The two need to be combined instead of in opposition. There was not enough time with family and just being. 6 Days - but a microcosm of the year.

And on the 7th day the Poppets came out and said - "Wake up sleepyhead! You need to play with your toys."

Well. I suppose I'm not back into right thinking for Poppets yet, I just started playing with my toys today. However I am very grateful for my friends and my family and my project teammates at school, because I am thinking about things as though they might be fun again.

That's a pretty good way to mark the solstice I think.

No one makes graphic novels about the adventures of getting the family together for a photo, but there are all sorts of stories when you do. This year I'll bet there were all sorts of adventures behind all of the holiday photos. Stories that will be told each time the album opens.

A fictional version of ourselves for the Dreamtime:

New Year's coming . . . .

The Taunting 2010 - Mulligan

The Poppets and I are just not ready this year. We would like a do over.

This might be the Time Travelling Taunting - Candles were lit, Giant New Computers were set up, fried foods were ordered in, there was gelt, and papers due the next day were written around midnight.

My Perfectly Normal Mother in Law went in for Very Serious Surgery yesterday, it was planned, but it was spinal surgery. It was a long day and we were all worried for everyone (Perfectly Normal Husband was his usual strong competent together self but obviously nervous-ish) Unfortunately her brother and One of My Favorite In-laws also went in for triple bypass surgery. That was not planned, and perhaps at their ages they should be over sibling rivalry.

So the really good Channuka news is that everyone did very well with their respective surgeries and they will both be able to walk properly and keep their hearts beating regularly and have their families lovingly tease them even though the Taunting is not their holiday. If they don't have dietary restrictions I will be making them lemon squares for theirs.

If they do I'll modify the lemon square recipe until I can make lemon squares for them. I'm pretty good at that sort of thing.

So while the Poppets and I were not really on top of things a friend of ours found this - most channuka stuff is kind of lame, especially song rewrites by hipster jews or actual religous types - but this is an acapella group that has found the perfect balance and thus created an awesome "Smile Out Loud" moment, instead of the usual cringing thought of "Really is that the best we can do?" sort of thing.

Thank you Maccabeats for being on key and really entertaining; Merry Channuka - the Poppets thought you were neat and they were sick of Adam Sandler!

Saint Patrick's Day Planning

Poppets like to do some of the things that Silly Humans do. Of course they like to be responsible about their fun too, so they make sure that they eat something if they are going to be out all night, hanging out singing old Irish Sea Shanty's with the Band.

And they will raise a pint and toast to Spencer Anderson's health, and speedy recovery for he is a fine and quiet man.

And if they have enough pints they will make sure that they have a sober ride home, or take the subway or call a cab.

Poppets never Drink and Drive.

Happy St. Paddy's Day.

V-Day - Tangy Citrus Chicken and the Element of Timing

I think I've figured it out, I have somehow made mortal enemies with some form of intelligent virus, and every time I have three or four days of health and productivity, my enemy lies in wait lulling me into an ambush where I suddenly find I am host for a new round of microbial battle.

But sieges are won through persistance and I don't care how long it takes, I'm finishing The Valentine's Day Menu Saga - So there! Hah! Ha hah! Fie on you tiny battalions. True Love and Tangy Citrus Chicken will still be shared with the world!

Or at least True Love for Tangy Citrus Chicken because it was really, really good.

A recap:

The Boy of the House wanted to do something special for His Girl, but he didn't want her to think he just bought her things. He wanted to DO something for her, and he decided to cook her a Valentine's Day meal. In order to do this after he had chosen his menu, he had to get through religious dietary restrictions, 2 blizzards, learning a few new cooking techniques and the actual cooking itself. He enlisted me as coach and the Poppets as assistants. I didn't sous chef for him much, because he wanted to do it himself, but I did help him keep track of timing, because one of the most difficult parts of meal planning is making sure everything gets to the table served at the right temperature.

So part of that is figuring out how long things take to make and working your preparation plan accordingly. It was a wonderful week working on this and I wanted to keep the memory with all it's details and special insights and recipes, so I'm putting it here in the Dreamtime, for me, for His Girl and our families, because happy things are easy to make smaller and this way we can keep pieces of it as large and adventurous and as loving as it actually was. This is the final entry in the story.

The menu consisted of Tangy Citrus Chicken, Spinach Leek Tart, and Glazed Sweet Potatoes. He was serving non-alcoholic mojitos to drink with dinner and dessert was a Peanut Butter and Chocolate Mousse Terrine with Cappuccino.

So this is the order that things were learned and made:

We learned how to use the Bialetti Mukka Express first. The Coffee Poppets were strong enablers . . I mean supporters of this effort. You can read about that here, f you haven't already. We did that at the beginning of the week before the dinner.

Then the Peanut Butter Chocolate Mousse Terrine takes a couple of days so that was started the Thursday before Valentine's Day with the Choco Poppets. You can read about that here.

That entry was when I realized there were two ways to tell the story: Linearly for the date, or each entry could hold the recipe and tell the story of the dish from decision to delivery on the table. I chose the story of each dish with the date story mixed in so that each entry has the full recipe.

Which meant that I told the story of the Glazed Sweet Potatoes next, which includes the appearance of the Drunken Poppet and the participation of the Pumpkin Spice Poppets. It was supposed to be made in advance on Saturday, but had gotten moved to Sunday morning, as you can see here.

This is when The Skeleton Who Wants to Run a Flower Shop reminded The Boy that he had to do things like set the table and that tables should have fresh flowers. The Boy had never arranged his own flowers so that was another thing he was going to have to learn.

But first The Boy had to make the truly romantic and highly work intensive Spinach Leek Tart. The recipe for which is here, and the entry also includes the slightly manic digression on buying mushrooms before a blizzard.

As you see from the photo that opens this entry, the Skeleton will not be denied. He was waiting, as are we all, for the Tangy Citrus Chicken, the keystone of this V-Day meal, to get underway.

You may remember that the whole thing began with this as the centerpiece recipe. It had his two required elements; it was a meat meal, and it looked "tasty". It has some heat to it which is something His Girl likes, but wasn't so spicy that he wouldn't like it. This was actually the recipe that we really wanted to make in advance to make sure it worked, but circumstances prevented it.

There was also the timing-to-be-hot issue. Tangy Citrus Chicken cooks in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour and 15 minutes and then gets finished off with a quick broil. Spinach Leek Tart gets cooked at 400 degrees but it doesn't cook very long, only 15 minutes for the last step. The glazed sweet potatoes would have needed about 20 minutes at 350 degrees if it were the whole batch but we were only going to replate enough for the dinner, because the original recipe serves 8-10, so it would probably be about 15 minutes too.

His Girl was due over by 5:00, which we meant that the chicken had to be in by 4:00 at the latest. Then the potatoes would go back in the oven at 4:55 and the tart by 5, moving the temperature to 375, with them sitting down to dinner at 5:25. At least that was how it was supposed to work when we started that morning.

INGREDIENT LIST FOR TANGY CITRUS CHICKEN

3/4 of a cup of lemonade concentrate, defrosted

1/4 of a cup of ketchup

3 tablepoons of brown sugar

3 tablespoons of white vinegar

1 teaspoon of soy sauce

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoonn freshly ground black pepper

1 chicken cut into 1/8ths

1/2 cup of flour

1/4 cup of canola oil

On the day before the blizzard the biggest concern we had was finding a full kosher chicken or even better one pre-cut into eighths. Turkey everyone had, but chicken, not so much. I found one and only one pre-packaged chicken ( no way was I going to the butcher on such short notice). It was one chicken, in eighths - obviously meant to be, but it also meant that we couldn't do a test run on the recipe.

Instructions for Tangy Citrus Chicken

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl mix the lemonade concentrate, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce ginger, paprika, chili powder . . . . . .

"Umm wait a minute did we already say chili powder? I put in Garlic Powder I think?"

"Are you having the Drunken Poppet call out the list?"

"No."

"Here let me teach you a system." here is the system. We put out all of our ingredients on an area of the counter. That does 2 things. You know that you have all your ingredients so you don't suddenly find out you are missing something, and you can keep track of what you have used.

As soon as you use the ingredient,if you are done with it then you can put it away ( shortens cleanup time) if you can't put it away because you need to tend to the recipie, you move "included" ingredients to a different counter or counter area on the other side of your body so you know what you used and what you didn't use yet. We lined the spices up, topped off the Drunken Poppet's cup and sent him to help elsewhere and let the Highly Caffinated Poppet help line up and inventory the spices. As you can see your starter counter gets clearer and clearer as you go along.

So to continue:

. . . . garlic powder,onion powder, thyme , oregano, basil salt and pepper. Mix and set aside

The simpler way to say that would have been "take everything but the last three ingredients on the list mix together in a medium bowl and set aside." But it really was handy having each spice listed in the recipe. It acted like a check list.

And so that's what we did.

Well, that took longer than we were expecting. Hmmn.

Now we went to the next item which was:

Dredge the chicken in the flour.

Well our chicken was packaged and it was going to feed a lot more than the two people the dinner was planned for, so when we unpacked the chicken to clean and prep it for dredging we decided to butcher it a little bit more so that it would be easier to serve and eat. Which meant the boy had to learn these things since it was him that was making the meal. We were overshooting our window. We had thought that starting this part by 3pm would give us plenty of time, but there was some shuffling of other family members and we were about a half hour off schedule. Luckily it ended up that His Girl was going to need us to come get her. This meant The Boy could concentrate on doing things in the right order rather than trying to stall or take shortcuts.

So the meat was dressed and he learned how to dredge the chicken which is a way of lightly taking damp chicken through flour.

In a large pot ( yeah it said pot - you don't need a pot, you do need a super big frying pan with deep sides. ) heat the oil over medium high heat. Brown the chicken until the skin is crisp on all sides.

Remove the chicken pieces to a baking pan in a single layer.

Pour the spice mixture over the chicken. Bake covered for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

"Awesome - now it's my turn! You have an hour to set the table and clean up!"

Apparently the Skeleton Poppet had been waiting patiently. He taught the boy how to mix the preservation cut flower food into water by measuring into a large bowl and mixing it there.

Helpful tip - slightly warm or room temperature water works best for the mixing.

The other Poppets that had been helping in the kitchen were helping to take out the good fleishig (meat) china and silverware. The boy set up the mint garnish for the mojitos as well as a water glass in case she didn't like mojitos as much as he did.

The Skeleton Who Wants to Run a Flower shop taught the boy how to cut flowers to the right height, and use a funnel to fill or refill vases once the flowers were arranged. ( It keeps the water from getting everywhere and you don't have to change the position of the flowers)

The best way to cut flowers : Cut with a sharp knife on a diagonal. Remove leaves that would be underwater on the arrangement, but keep the thorns on the roses, because taking them off shortens the life of a cut rose.

Here is the first arrangement. It went on the painted chest in the dining room.

You always arrange flowers for color and balance. Here is the Skeleton helping The Boy to settle a pink rose into the centerpiece. Fun fact, that is a Waterford crystal bowl that Spook ( the poppet) usually lives inside when it is on the shelf because he likes the disortion of looking through the cut crystal. Hmmmn, I'm letting The Boy use my good knives, the good china and my real crystal - some people might look askance at this, but these things are meant to be used, they're better that way.

With some fussing the table was set. He lit candles.

The chicken had made it in by 4:30. The potatoes were replated in an oven to table ceramic and went in at 5:20.

The temperature was moved to 375 and the tart was put in at 5:30. The Boy muddled the mint and mixed the mojiotos, so they were ready for when His Girl arrived. The Perfectly Normal Husband had left to pick her up before and brought her over by 5:40.

The Chicken came out at 5:45 and cooled down while the Tart finished at 5:55, which is also when the sweet potatoes came out. (Please note that the sweet potatoes were basted every 10 minutes during the second session in the oven, just like when they were cooked originally.)

Everything was served at the table and The Boy served His Girl by 6pm.

Like all good staff I ate in the kitchen. My kitchen has a swinging door so I kept it shut, so the kids had some semblance of privacy. The Perfectly Normal Husband was upstairs - slogged down with work. It was actually surprising that he was home at all this time of tax season. I took a plate up to him. Except for the sweet potatoes, he doesn't like them and I figured why waste them. So I can say honestly not only was the meal excellent, but all of these recipes will be going into the regular rotation.

The Spinach Leek Tart was, not surprisingly, a huge hit with His Girl. However, surprisingly indeed, The Boy really liked it too and asked for us to have it again.

The Poppets were as proud of him as if he were their own Boy, which I suppose he is, at least he's Pumpkin Spice and Cappy and The Skeleton Who Wants to Run a Flower Shop's Boy, since they are His Poppets, and these relationships are always reciprocal. Oh and Spook. He's Spook's Boy too.

When the dinner was over and the Penut Butter - Chocolate Mousse Terrine was served with the Choco Poppet adding a little caramel before it left the kitchen. She loved the dessert.

We discovered that the picture above is a really big serving of that particular dessert. The Boy also made His Girl cappuccino with Silk soy milk which wasn't half bad, but not as good as milk would have been (silly rabbis) and then they sat in the living room looking at the Poppet Circus. . .

. . . and talking for a good long while. I told The Boy he could stay with His Girl and I'd clear the table (because the living room and dining room are open to each other through an arch so it's some nice, unobtrusive chaperoning that way) and when I was just about done with the clean up and the repackaging, they came and asked about curfew - which was ten. So they had about another hour and half. Then they behaved just like a regular couple who were 15 and 14, and played video games and watched TV until it was time for her to go home.

I love them for that, as much as I love them for being unlike a regular couple who are 15 and 14.

The Spinach Leek Tart had been cut and served in a way to keep the heart with her initial intact, and the remaining Tangy Citrus Chicken still had enough to feed another four people - which is more or less the number of people at His Girl's house. Because we followed the strictest of the rules when we were preparing things, we were able to send these things home with her. So even though it was a meal, she still got to show off what her boyfriend gave her for Valentine's Day. Which isn't supposed to matter of course, but I remember being 14 and 15 and maybe even 16, when it's nice to be able to show someone else that you are loved and admired, and that someone put some effort into letting you know.

She is definitely loved and admired.

The boy certainly thinks she's worth every minute of it.

The End of the V-Day Celebration Menu

V-Day - The Ineffable Lightness of Spinach Leek Tart

The next Holiday Marathon starts this week. And here I am still catching up with Valentine's Day! Purim is this weekend - A complicated holiday that looks like something simple. It's also the starter's gun for Passover. Passover will have shades of the things that have completely derailed me since Thanksgiving. I am not going to repeat what I did at the High Holy Days however and I WILL finish posting the full V-Day Epic, before my personal trip into the Wonderland of Purim.

We are up to recipe #4 the Spinach Leek Tart, plus the mojitos

His final menu was

• Tangy Citrus Chicken
• Glazed Sweet Potatoes
• Spinach Leek Tart
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Mousse Terrine
• Virgin Mojitos
• Cappuccino

The links go to the recipes already written about in case you missed them and the tale of The Boy cooking a Valentine's day dinner for His Girl

*****

So here is the story of the most romantic spinach dish I've ever participated in.

The Boy does not hate all green things, but he does have strong opinions about many of them. Most of those opinions can be compromised with Bernaise Sauce.

When he sat down to make the menu he had a mental list of His Girl's favorite things. Among her favorite things were spinach and mushrooms. He hates mushrooms. He really only likes spinach in a souffle. He showed me the page in the book. "I want to make this."

"Are you sure? Will you eat it? There's no point in making a meal for two people if you're not going to eat the most complicated dish in it."

"I think she'll like it, it's got all her favorite things so I'll eat it with her."

The boy is not one for flowery poetry or emo declarations from rooftops. He is the absolute opposite of drama.

He really loves His Girl. The proof is in the Tart.

The other thing I will point out is that his understanding of the interaction of different flavors is evident in his selection of this as the vegetable side dish for the meal. The chicken was going to be citrusy and tangy, the sweet potatoes would be "dark" and sweet. He had specifically chosen this side dish to compliment the other two without being too heavy. I suppose it shouldn't surprise me. He's good at chemistry, he's been a bit of a foodie for the last couple of years and I suppose I'm just actually surprised that he's listened to us discuss the finer points of great meals and menu planning and absorbed it. Aren't we always just a little surprised when we discover our kids really listened to us after all? Or maybe it's just me.

Even though the whole meal was planned around the chicken; because he wanted to make her a meat meal, because you don't eat meat as often when you keep kosher, and even though the showstopper for V-Day is always supposed to be dessert, which was certainly epic, this part of the meal was truly his gift to her. From start to finish.

The Coffee Poppets had learned a love of mushrooms when we did the Longwood Gardens Mushroom Soup while on vacation. They popped right in when he decided to make this.

INGREDIENTS FOR SPINACH LEEK TART

1 17 1/2 ounce package frozen puff pastry divided

2 large eggs divided

4 tablespoons margarine divided

3 garlic cloves minced

2 shallots, minced

4 oz or 1.5 cups of cremini mushrooms, stems removed, sliced

1 tablespoon of Port, Maderia, sherry or other red wine

2 leeks, thinly sliced use white and pale green part only

1 10 oz box of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 teaspoon rosemary ( which reminds me - I have to buy more rosemary)

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

juice from 1/2 lemon

pinch of Kosher Salt

pinch of freshly ground black pepper

3-4 tablespoons of bread crumbs

A brief digression about finding mushrooms in the lull between two storms

Let me just tell you that getting the ingredients was a saga. We had gotten a 2 foot snowstorm about a week before. The Tuesday before Valentines Day they were predicting another foot and a half to two feet. The Boy and I were originally thinking that we would make this for Friday night to test it, but we were pretty sure that there would be no going anywhere on Wednesday and Thursday. So we preemptively decided we were going to shop for everything on Tuesday. If we needed something really fresh everything would probably be operational by Sunday morning. I made the executive decision to shop while he was at school - lucky I did!

The one thing I've learned this year is that I live by the Mushroom Capital of the world. I try to buy my produce locally and luckily my local Acme uses many of the same suppliers as my local Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.

The other thing I've learned is that in this area, which doesn't usually get a lot of snow, the hint of snow sends people stampeding to the nearest market to buy up milk, bread and eggs. I've never figured it out. I now have a standing assumption that when snow falls from the sky the locals ritually make french toast.

So I was a little concerned that I might have trouble finding eggs, but I was pretty sure that the rest of my ingredient list was going to be easy. The other reason I needed to go shopping ASAP is that the kosher stuff is not universally available in one place and sometimes you need to hit several places to get all the things you need. Whole Foods is great for vegan versions of things like the cream-cheese-that-isn't and stuff like that, so I figured I would pick up the mushrooms there.

The first thing that surprised me was that the Whole Foods was packed at 10 am on a Tuesday morning - were there really that many unemployed or SAHMs (or SAHDs, we're pretty liberal here) in the area with so much disposable income that they were getting their mandatory milk, bread and eggs at Whole Foods?

The strip mall was empty except for Whole-Food-going denizens who were parking all the way into the next "zone" for all the other stores and shlepping over to find carts. I was practically in a dazed state when a parking spot opened up between a cart stop and a row close to the door. I grabbed a cart and went in, completely focused on mushrooms.

The Mushroom Division at our whole foods is a connoisseurs delight. It's five rows high, it has eight standard varieties of mushrooms. Plus whatever the cool kids are buying that week. Loose. Prepackaged. Prepared mushroomy things you can just heat up. You half expect the Caterpillar from Alice to be smoking something herbal and looking at you smugly when you approach it.

It's the very first thing on the right hand side as you enter the store.

It was empty.

I had no idea that the shelves were green before that moment. Dark Green.

Irrational panic set in and I looked around the rest of the green grocer section. Packed, yes. Stripped bared like Mother Hubbard's pantry? Hell no. Except for the mushrooms. I found a guy with a green apron restocking something and fought my way through to him. There must have been an edge of hysteria in my voice, because he was uber calming as he explained that there had been interruptions in their mushroom deliveries because of the last storm and they were supposed to get some on Thursday but that was now looking very doubtful. There might be mushrooms on Saturday but they had just gotten a bunch in on Monday and well, I could see the vast yawning emptiness for myself.

OK, I thought, Why are people lying in wait and pouncing on mushroom deliveries at the Whole Foods? Maybe if you move upscale in our area people make mushroom omelets or mushroom quiches instead of french toast when it snows? Just in case the nice man made me a list of all the potential mushroom delivery dates and introduced me to the manager, who confided in me that she didn't really get it either. I was relieved to find out that vegans were not rushing the shelves for dairy free whipped creams and cream cheeses. All the rest of my vegetative needs were easily met.

I moved on to Trader Joe's. There I ran into a more localized phenomena. This particular storm was going to hit and possibly immobilize us for Wedsday and Thursday. Friday is when observant Jews prepare for Shabbat, so you have to get everything done before sundown, including the cooking. Which means a lot of Jewish cooks who usually have a few days to buy thing fresh before they have to make meals in advance were rushing the shelves for enough food to last them the entire week. They weren't going to be able to go shopping, regardless of the weather, until Sunday. Trader Joe's carries a lot of kosher items and is very popular with the local community. I was there to buy some back up frozen side dishes and dessert just in case something when terribly wrong with any of the recipes. I know they usually buy locally too, but I checked the mushrooms just in case. Devastated! Barren! Post apocalyptic! Except for three packages on the uppermost shelving with a tiny little old Jewish lady desperately trying to reach the shelf, which wouldn't have helped her because the three packages were deeply set toward the back of said shelf. She would have needed to grow about a foot and a half. And frankly Trader Joe's doesn't look like they keep the Caterpillar around with his size distorting 'shrooms.

The package she was reaching for was one with two large portobellos. Hamburger sized ones. Not what I needed, but I offered to get them for her and warned her there was a local run on mushrooms if she needed more. After all, I am a foot and a half taller than her - no 'shrooms needed. She just needed the one package. I got it down for her. Behind it, lo and behold were two 10 ounce packages of cremini mushrooms which apparently have recently become known as "baby portobellos" and so this package had both names.

I thanked the universe for the benefits of instant karma, assumed it had more to do with The Boy's karma than mine, and grabbed both packages chuckling madly to myself and going to checkout muttering "I'm rich! I'm a happy miser. . . . . "

Good thing too - all Acme had were button mushrooms - which you can use in a pinch but the flavor is different and lighter.

So now I know. If I need mushrooms before a snowstorm, I'm going out at dawn . . . . .

End of maniacal mushroom digression . . . .

Recipe

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out each of the puff pastry sheets into a 10x10 inch square.

Uh yeah . . . we had made the Glazed Sweet Potatoes at the start of the day and had started defrosting the puff pastry sheets about two hours before we needed them. This is officially Not Enough Time.

So we took the sheets out and they had defrosted enough to make a kind of tent structure out of each of them and put them on the heated stove. We used the necessary defrosting time to prep all of the other ingredients. The Boy learned how to wash and slice leeks. It's a little like dissecting a frog. You remove wilted leaves, cut off the roots and make an incision lengthwise to separate it and rinse of sandy particles that may have settled in the layer. Leeks as we learned on the Longwood Garden's recipe are onionlike and we needed both googles and gloves. We may have had trouble with the mushrooms but Whole Foods leeks are powerful good.

The end results of thinly slicing the 2 leeks:

We saved the darker green parts to use in a chicken soup later that week.

Then we moved on to zesting the lemon. We needed a teaspoon of zest. I have a zester. Owning a zester is one of those moments when you realize you cook a lot more than the rest of your social circle, because if you don't have a zester you end up using the cheese grating side of your cheese grater, which becomes massively annoying when you do it with citrus fruit.

When you do it often enough that you are dancing with joy because you found a zester so now you won't need your grater and it's accompanying torn finger skin complete with instant addition of citrus acid, you have crossed a line. It's OK though, my friends still love me, as long as I invite them over for dinner.

So The Boy learned how to use a zester, now he will start his own kitchen someday and assume that a zester is a necessary thing, like a garlic press and and french press.

Zesting takes a long time.

The pastry thawed.

Place 1 puff pastry sheet on an un greased baking sheet.

I use Silpats for pastry now. Any pastry. It's a vast improvement and keeps the pastry fluffy and cleans up super quick. I use it for frozen pastry based snacks too. I have a silpat and a newer brand from Bed Bath and Beyond. Because you need separate ones for meat and dairy and they have two different colors that way. But I admit I think I slightly prefer the silpat for dairy baking anyway.

The writer of the recipe, Susie Fishbein, also recommends using parchment paper for easy clean up.

So you have one square puff pastry sheet spread out. You cut the other sheet into 8 one inch wide strips. Brush the edges of the flat sheet with cold water ( this recipe gave me an excuse to finally buy a silicone based pastry brush - which is also making my life better since all of my cheap paintbrushes that I'd been using before kept being used for poppet projects). Lay 4 of the strips around the edges to form a flat rim, like a picture frame. Brush this rim with cold water. Lay the other four strips on top of those to form a higher rim. Trim the corners as necessary so it is a neat square.

Beat 1 egg lightly and brush on the pastry frame. Prick the tart all over the bottom with a fork. Place in the oven about 7-10 minute until puffed and golden.

So we did that and then we discovered that when you make a 10 x 10 square and cut 8 one inch strips from it, you will always end up with extra dough. So The Boy and The Poppets had an idea:

Which they worked out while the tart was doing this;

You don't actually use the whole egg - you use about 2/3 of it. Put it aside. You'll need it later.

Melt 2 tablespoons of margarine in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and the shallots (both of which the boy learned how to peel and mince while the tart was cooking) and saute 3-4 minutes until soft.

We had a slight mishap because he put the leeks in with the garlic and margarine and when he went to add the shallots he realized he shouldn't have them in yet. So he separated them as best he could - added another tablespoon of margarine and then added the shallots putting the partially cooked leeks to the side.

Then he got back to the core instructions.

Add the mushrooms and sauté 7-8 minutes or until they are soft, add the wine and scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.

We may have used slightly more mushrooms than technically needed. We revel in our hedonistic gluttonous use of mushrooms during The Great Mushroom Shortage of Twenty Ten. Mwahhhahhhahhahhahha . . .

He was very good at popping the mushroom stalks and he learned how to slice, but I finished up for speed's sake. He had already done a lot of knife work that day and we didn't want the shallots to overcook.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of margarine - or in our case add another 2 tablespoons of margarine, which for us made 5 instead of 4. When it is melted add the leeks (Oh! That's where they come in!) and spinach and saute for about 10 minutes until the leeks are soft and shiny. So it was cool, they just had a 3 minute head start.

Add the chicken broth and simmer until the liquid is mostly evaporated ( this doesn't take nearly as long as you think it will so keep an eye on it.) Stir in the rosemary, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

I taught him how to fling his dash of salt and pepper with panache. The hidden panache is a vital ingredient. In almost everything really, if you think about it.

Remove from heat.

Lightly beat the remaining egg and and combine it with any egg you might have put aside earlier - add it to the spinach-leek mixture, mixing well. Carefully spoon the mixture into the prebaked tart, keeping the rim clean.

Sprinkle the bread crumbs,

This is where he added the heart, and now you all know His Girl's first initial. He coated the heart lightly with only two coats of egg wash.

Now here's where the first lesson from when we started planning kicks in.

Bake for 15 mintues. Serve warm.

The tart was done except for the final baking- the Tangy citrus chicken was next, but it would take an hour and fifteen minutes to cook. The most important thing in planning a meal is to make sure that the food gets to the table all at the same temperature it's supposed to be served at. I'll discuss how we managed to oven settings when I write about the chicken recipe but the tart was set aside while the chicken was cooking.

During that time we mixed up the mojitos, hand muddling the fresh mint and determining that Sprite is way better in virgin mojitos than club soda. (So why is the rum always gone? Oh right - they're underage and possibly the Drunken Poppet got there first).

He taste tested it with the sweet potatoes and declared the mojitos the drink of choice to go with dinner and set up to figuring out the best way to serve it in a timely manner when he set the table.

Here is is sample:

Mojitos were the only thing he made that wasn't brand new for him. He developed his mojito making skills after sampling one when we saw Waiting for Godot. He does put together a classy drink. It's probably because he comes from a long line of bartenders.

When the tart was finished cooking it looked like this:

You'll have to read up on the final recipe to find out what happened with it.

But I defy any mushroom and spinach loving girl to find a more romantic pastry than this one.

In our side of the Looking Glass the Knave makes his own damn tarts.

The Red Queen approves.