The Good Rabbi's Blog

Well, as it turns out, they don't. They were just paid to blog about their candidate, or their pet issue. First it was the Daily Kos offering up the same kind of stupid shit they railed against Tom Delay and company for doing. Now, the New York Times had an article in this past Sunday's paper about how a lot of these bloggers are actually working for their pet candidates. How about that?

I also don't think this is over. Next month, the Federal Elections Commission spending reports come due, and then we will be able to see where the money is going. It's odd about these political bloggers. They all think that they can sing tenor, and that their shit doesn't stink. Well, the truth is, they can't, and it does.

I found this story on the Internet today. Apparently, in honour of his birthday, the entire musical score of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is now available free on the Internet. I'll have to check this out...

Given that it’s December, and that nothing ever gets done in the government, especially around this time of year, I decided to take a little time off from attending meetings, and working as a professional Powerpoint analyst (which is a fancy way of saying that I look at Powerpoint presentations all day). During this time, I decided that there was only one thing to do: get the f**k out of town.

So, at this point, I’m on a free-wheeling spiritual advice tour, that has taken me to Austin, Texas, and will take me to the triangle area of North Carolina to check in on a certain disgracefully-aging gentleman, and one other location that is somewhat of a mystery at this point. My plan is to bring my computer with me, and as such to place postings on my blog with updates of my travels. I guess you could say that it’s sort of like Uncle Traveling Matt from Fraggle Rock.

As I write this, I am currently on a plane back from Austin, Texas, where I dropped in on the Cohen kids, and their erstwhile parents for a visit. I always enjoy hanging out with them, and not just because they’ll be family in a matter of months (I already see them that way, even if I haven’t gotten married as of yet). They are genuinely good people that always make me realise that there is more to life than Powerpoint presentations. The travails of one of the kids (the other one hasn’t been born yet) have always interested me, because she’s quite the charmer. She was somewhat suspicious of me in the beginning (who wouldn’t be?), but over time she seems to have realised that even she needs a Rabbi, and well, I’m not going away anytime soon.

Check out her latest goings-on, and some particularly poignant commentary from her parents over at her blog (link is above and in the links section to the right of this post).

Next stop: North Carolina – Let the Knob Creek Floweth!

We’ve reached that time of year again: when it gets really cold outside and the daylight ends really early. It’s that time when you look out the window at work, and even though it’s only five o’clock, it feels like nine o’clock, and all you can think is “I gotta get the hell out of here!” When it gets this cold outside, I usually think about two things: getting a job in Arizona, and cooking comfort food. So since there are no job postings on this site, I thought I’d post some good recipes in the coming days that are really simple to make at home, have great taste and flavour, and comfort you on these Arctic nights we’ve been having. Call it the musings of the Five Ingredient Bitter Winter Chef (with all apologies to the Five Paragraph Bitter Food Critic).

Generally, I like to make some good soups and braises in the winter, so that’s what I’m going to start with. Today’s recipe is for a curried squash & Apple soup. I was bored in the kitchen one day, and kind of threw it together, and ever since then, the fiancée orders me to make this about once every month and a half. So here we go. First, the ingredients:

One fresh butternut squash or pumpkin
One medium-sized onion
One or two tart apples (Granny Smith, Braeburn, etc.)
Stock of your choice
Thai Curry Paste (I recommend Mae Ploy Brand)

There are three kinds of curry pastes – red, yellow, and green. The green is the spiciest, followed by the red, and then the yellow. You can usually find it in the Asian food aisle of your local grocery store, especially if that store happens to be Whole Foods, Wegmans, or oddly enough, the Giant near the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station. These are your five main ingredients, but you’ll also need some salt, pepper, a little cinnamon, and some cream (or half & half) to finish with. Once you have what you need, here’s how you do it.

First off, cut the butternut squash (or pumpkin) in half lengthwise, and remove the seeds & “strings.” Put the squash (or pumpkin) halves cut side down on a sheet pan, and put in the oven for about forty-five minutes at three hundred seventy-five degrees. While the squash is roasting, peel and dice the onion and the apples in a small dice. To keep the apples from browning, you can put them in a bowl of water with a little bit of lemon juice until they’re needed.

Once the squash (or pumpkin) is finished roasting, remove it from the oven and let it rest for a few minutes. Scoop the squash out of the skin, and put it in a bowl temporarily. Heat some butter or oil in a heavy saucepan and sauté the onion until translucent but not brown. Once the onions are sautéed, add some curry paste, squash, and the apple, and mix thoroughly. Add the stock of your choice, and bring the whole mixture to a boil. Once the mixture has come to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer it until the apples, squash, and onion are tender (about fifteen to twenty minutes).

Using a blender (immersion or regular), blend (or purée) the soup until it is a uniform consistency. Add some salt, pepper, a little cinnamon (little is the operative word here, as you don’t want this to be a sweet soup) and some cream (or half & half). The cream will add some body, and also lighten the soup’s colour. Taste and adjust seasonings, curry paste, etc. to taste. That’s all there is to it – very simple, and very satisfying. My next recipe will be for a dynamite braise that uses Manischewitz wine (yes, I know, I know – most people would rather drink motor oil, but you won’t be drinking it, and trust me, you’ve never had anything quite like this before). Stay tuned!

Here we are right smack-dab in the middle of the holiday season. This is always a very interesting time for me. On one hand, I have to admit that I love this time of year. People seem to be in a more generous mood, as they invite me into their homes to break bread, listen to the stories of how things are going in my life, and share their whisky with me. Ok, well maybe they don’t intend to share their whisky, but I seem to be a much more dynamic party guest if they do. I’ve always loved the decorations that people put up (even the downright horrifying ones). Nothing says “holiday spirit” like a giant inflatable Santa Claus jack-in-the-box on the front lawn, with enough lights around it that the Federal Aviation Administration becomes concerned.

On the other hand, I always tend to get a little depressed around this time of year as well. Maybe it’s the knowledge that the book is closing on another year, that I still don’t seem to be doing what I want to be doing (or know what it is I want to be doing for that matter), or maybe it’s just that I seem to have run out of Scotch. I just seem to feel like I’ve lost my direction (if there ever was one) around this time of year. While I have always claimed that I can deal with one sucky area of my life, if the other parts are in order, I’m finding it more difficult to differentiate everything, since it all seems to blend together these days.

Professionally, I always used to tell myself that while my IT job may suck, at least I’m not working as a government contractor. Now, I’m working as a government contractor, and while my overall schedule is good, I’m routinely forced into a prisoner’s dilemma. I can either accept a standard of mediocrity and just face a decline of all standards that I once had, or I can keep my current standards, and grow more and more frustrated. I’ve been there for three months now, and I have yet to actually do (or deliver) anything. While some people would love this kind of setup, I grow bored fairly quickly and easily.

I’m currently researching ideas to build my own business, and I think that would give me some serious enjoyment, but at the same time, I have my student debt to pay off, and the fiancée and I don’t really anticipate staying in the Washington, D.C. area, so I’m not sure that it’s a good idea to put a whole lot of blood, sweat, and tears into setting up a business here. I simply don’t know how portable a business in the culinary industry can be (it should be noted, that for all I know, it could be very portable).

In the movie Almost Famous, the young Cameron Crowe is counseled by a sage reporter (played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman), that he shouldn’t worry so much about those people that “persecute” him in school or on the road. He will see them again on “the great race back to the middle.” After a certain point in life, it seems that people start this slow, comfortable, mental decline. People get comfortable, and start doing the same things over and over again, and before they know it, they’re retired, and wondering what happened to their lives.

This is my biggest fear in life. I love to continually challenge myself, mentally, professionally, and personally. I am very afraid that I’ll get “stuck” in a routine that, while rewarding in some sense, will ensure that I never really accomplish anything of real substance. Now let’s be clear about one thing here. I’m not looking to be the next Bill Gates, or Mario Batalli. But right now, I’m working at my current job in order to pay off my student loans (so that sense of mission and responsibility is what keeps me going in this job). Once that has been accomplished, I will have gotten married, and the fiancée has made no secret that she would like to start a family. At that point, I will need to be able to reliably support any little Rabbis that might be in the picture, and the temptation to choose comfort over challenge will be great.

Now this is not to say that I have any worries about getting married, or starting a family. This is also not to say that I will not derive tremendous enjoyment out of both of these anticipated future events. This is to say that I personally believe that the greatest example I can set (especially for any little Rabbis in the future) would be to continually challenge myself, and not to choose the comfortable routine.

My biggest fear in life, is that at the end of the day, I will not live up to my own potential. There are many different avenues that will be presented to me, and I’ll have to figure out what is the best way forward. With all these options, only one thing is clear: I’m gonna need a lot of spiritual advice before this is over…

Merry Christmas, y'all...