Planning Rosh Hashanah Dinner
Sybil leaves the room still not having planned Rosh Hashanah dinner
“Mummy, what’s Gefilte Fish?”
“Oh, it’s awful!” answered Sybil exaggerating a shiver.
“Really?” Julia was surprised at her mother’s reply, “it says here in the Jewish Cooking Monthly that you have to be a Jew to like Gefilte Fish. Does that mean you’re not really Jewish?”
Sybil rolled her eyes.
“I love Gefilte Fish!” shouted Rosa from across the room.
“You’ve never had Gefilte Fish,” replied her mother, “besides, what are you doing here? You should be on your way to school.”
“Yes, I have. I have fish every day.”
“Rosa, out!”
“But Mum, I’m looking for my calculus book.”
“Calculus!?” shouted both Julia and Sybil in amazement. “You don’t study calculus, you’re too young.”
“Yes I do,” replied an indignant Rosa.
“Come on, Rosa,” Timmy came into the room, “you’re making me late for school. And Mummy is right, you’re too young to study calculus. Even me at 12 I’m not taking that subject.”
“Here it is!” shouted a joyous Rosa as she waved a thin paperback book in the air.
“That’s how to use a calculator, Rosa, not calculus!” Timmy was getting a little annoyed.
“calculous is the same as calculator so there.” Now with her precious book tucked carefully and securely under her right wing she bumped into Timmy as her way of letting him know she was ready to go to school, but that was not before having her last say.
“Ma, can I get a beak job? Tara is getting one and so is Rachel. Ok I get it, bye guys,” and with that the two siblings Rosa and Timmy gave their mother a peck on her cheek and flew out of the house.
“Your father is never around when I need him most. I wonder when he’s returning from his business trip.” A question left unanswered. A few minutes later Sybil with her eldest child Julia, sat down at the dining table, which at that time was completely covered with Sybil’s sewing project, and quilt for her mother who lived on a nearby beach, had bad arthritis and didn’t get around much anymore. “So, what do you want to make for Rosh Hosannah dinner?” asked Sybil.
“Well Mummy, I think we should have Gefilte Fish, especially when the magazine says you have to be a true Jew to like Gefilte Fish.”
Sybil shivered again. “Well ok, maybe I should ask my mother if she has any recipes that could soften the blow.”
“Well, there’s one here in the magazine which sounds quite nice.”
“Let me see,” asked Sybil sliding on her glasses and looking at the page. She looked up at Julia a couple of seconds later, “is my beak too long Julia?”
Julia laughed, “no Mum and neither is Rosa’s.”
“That’s what I thought. Oh, I see. This recipe calls for baking it in puff pastry. That actually sounds good. Yes, I think we should try that. And what else?”
“Well Mummy, I thought about having matzo ball soup,” that brought a groan from Sybil.
“As long as you don’t get Elizabeth to make it. Last year they were like rocks you bump your head on sometimes in the waves.”
“Yes, I remember that, but she said that’s how her mother used to make them.”
“No, Julia. She has no idea who her mother is. Her father was a travelling salesman, and he travelled a little too much, if you know what I mean. I’ll make the matzo ball soup,” added Sybil, “everyone likes my matzo ball soup!”
Julia agreed. “How about for the main meal?”
“What did we have last year? Oh yes, how can I forget. Your father brought back some turkey he had found dead on the roadside.”
“How appalling! It’s very against the Torah.”
“That’s why we ended up having toad in the hole!”
“How about escargot this year?”
“Where do we get those from? There aren’t any left. Those blasted seagulls have been eating them.”
“Are snails kosher mother? You know how Timmy gets if we eat anything that’s not kosher.” “You’re right. I guess we have to go with toad in the hole yet again. But I’m not going to commit to that right now. Let me see what your father has to say when he gets home.” Sybil rolled her eyes and left the room for the beach.