Eat, Pray, Love... Indeed!

Well, it is holiday time once again! Meals are being planned, clothes are being pressed and the house is being cleaned; all in preparation for the upcoming holiday, the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana. It seems like the lists of chores and errands that must be completed before the quickly-approaching holiday arrives is endless. I, for one, take particular satisfaction in creating intricately detailed spreadsheets in order to organize our menus for the endless stream of meals that we must prepare. It takes many many hours of work to go through my previous years’ menus and library of cookbooks in order to decide what exactly gets a place of honor on this year’s menu. Then I take meticulous care in organizing what dish will go with what meal, and the ingredients required for each recipe. Finally, I create a shopping list replete with quantities needed for each item and organize them by supermarket isle. This way our shopping is stream lined and we never need to go back to the supermarket for another round of shopping. (OK, so perhaps this part doesn’t quite pan out the way would like it… there’s always that rouge instant pudding mix or extra dozen eggs that we SWORE we bought but is nowhere to be found!!) Regardless though, by the time the week of Rosh Hashana rolls around our menus take their place of honor upon our refrigerator, hanging in all of their color coded glory!

Yes, planning our many appetizers, entrées, side dishes, vegetables and desserts is certainly a massive job. Still though, it doesn’t hold a candle to the actual cooking that is always soon to follow. Cooking in the Goldsammler household is nothing short of fantastic. Together, my mother and I become an unbeatable tag team; roasting, baking, sautéing and boiling our way through the menacing menus that stand before us. Together we have developed a sort of rhythm; an ebb and flow, as natural as the tide itself. My mother dices onions as I peel the carrots; my mother prepares the turkey as I mix up batters. Rarely do tempers flare or moods falter. When my mother and I are preparing for yontif it is as if we are in our own warm little cocoon. In that cocoon the worries of the day seems to fade into the background and we enjoy each other so deeply that I almost wish for the cooking to never end. The memories created and the family stories that are shared in our cozy kitchen are the moments that I cherish year-long. Each utensil, pot and dish carries with it it’s own history. I am so blessed to come from a long line of Jewish women who also found love and laughter in the kitchen, and even though they have long since passed, I can still feel their love and laughter as I stir my own pots with the spoons they themselves once lovingly prepared holiday meals with.

As I approach the holidays this year I hope to try and remember this joy, this warmth and these moments, as I stand before G-d. I hope to remind myself of the happiness that permeates my life and of my enormous fortune in being blessed with a family that is not afraid to laugh loudly and to love deeply. Yes, my life is at times very difficult, but perhaps this year I will be able to remember that while I cry out to G-d to take away my pain, I must also shout out in gratitude to Him for the supportive and loving family that He has given me, without which my suffering would be far greater.

I will try my best this year to remind myself to be grateful for all that I have and whatever G-d chooses to give me beyond that… well that’s just gravy! (Which, by the way, we have a GREAT recipe for… :-) )