More Jewish Food Nattering

Last night, I started my Shabbat cooking (we're going out for dinner with friends tonight, so I had to get a jump on the cooking a day early) by making the main dish -- brisket, using my mother's recipe. I then mentioned later on in a chat that I had a brisket in the oven, and folks asked for the recipe. So, while I know that most of the folks on the chat don't necessarily read here, I promised I'd post the recipe. And... here it is.

There's actually a story that goes with this recipe. One year, my parents were visiting with us for Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah. I decided that I'd make something they'd like, something I hadn't made before -- brisket. Of course, because I wanted it to be a surprise, I couldn't ask my mom for her recipe. So I pulled out the shul cookbook from the shul I grew up in (an aside -- I love shul cookbooks. They tend to have people's favorite recipes, plus they always have the name of the person who submitted the recipe, so you know who to thank or blame) and started looking for brisket recipes. The first one required way more effort than I had time or patience for. The second had ingredients I didn't think belonged in a brisket. The third needed to be cooked on the stovetop, and I already had 4 things cooking on my stovetop. So, I looked at the fourth one. It was perfect -- very few ingredients; while it took time to cook, it was a "put it in and ignore" type of recipe; it was perfect. So I scanned to the bottom of the recipe to see who had submitted it, thinking that when I served the brisket I could tell my mom to thank the person who submitted the recipe. And it said... Eleanor Pearlman. My mom. So when my parents came and I served the brisket, I told them the above story. To this day, it's a giggle-inducer for us.

But, enough yammering. On to the recipe:( No vampires allowed )

Complete Hodgepodge Rambly Bits

-- squashed! Thanks so much for the package! Penguin! Yay! :-)

-- This year, we get two instances of Shabbat Chanukah, but no Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Chanukah. This means I need 9 (1 for the first night, 8 for the last) extra-long candles, but we don't have a three-Torah Shabbat.

-- When I rule the universe, I'm going to impose a rule that people are not allowed to use communal microwaves for stinky fish.

-- The man who coined the term Superbowl has died.

-- I got through all of last night's chopping and cooking without injury (a rarity for me)... and then promptly gave myself a rather deep papercut on the edge of a page of a book.

-- I hereby declare that I am not eal's sockpuppet and eal is not my sockpuppet, either. We just share a brain.

Would...you...like...to...play...a...game?

Give me a synonym for "gesture" (either the noun or the verb).

Setting a New Policy

I'm thrilled by all the discussion that goes on here in gnomiville. I love that friends of mine from all branches of my universe come together to shmooze.

But... and here's the kicker. Some of us read LJ at work. And our jobs, while not having an anti-LJ policy (which some jobs do have), do have somewhat strict policies about what constitutes sexual harassment. And part of that policy involves what the company deems inappropriate images. I realize that each one of us has a personal definition of "inappropriate," but my company, for example, has a very specific one. And I've been lenient on this, but I'm going to have to crack down.

Therefore, I must enact a new policy. Anyone who comments here is requested not to use any icon that shows anything that could be construed as nudity. Images of men, images of women, doesn't matter. If a comment comes in with an icon that violates this policy, it will be screened.

I hope this new policy does not curtail the discussion here. And, for clarification, we're talking images specifically, not language.

also, my mom occasionally pops in, and I wouldn't want to scare her off.

Thanks, all.

Rambly Bits Redux

-- Hey, tru2myart! I'm clearly joining you in Post-Ho-ness today! :-)

-- I got e-mail purporting to be from Edward Rutledge. I wonder if he's looking for molasses or rum.

-- To anyone of whom mabfan or I took a photo last Saturday night: please give me an e-mail address (send it to my LJ e-mail address) to send copies to, should you want them.

-- If you are reading this post, I can now report that the new update screen works with Safari on Tiger (OS 10.4.8), though I've heard reports it doesn't work with other versions of Safari.

-- I believe this is the first time I've done two rambly bits posts in one day.

-- I know I had something else to say, but it's fallen out of my head. If it comes back, I'll add it here.