Happy Chanukah - The Jewish Georgian
Happy Chanukah - The Jewish Georgian
Happy Chanukah - The Jewish Georgian
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Page 20 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN November-December 2011<br />
Wake up and smell the cholent Secret Ingredient<br />
By Susan Robinson<br />
Let’s say that a young lady sidled up to<br />
you in shul. Let’s say that she then whispered<br />
these words in your ear, “Hmmmm!<br />
You smell like cholent.” How would you<br />
react? Would you be pleased or upset?<br />
Chances are, your response would depend<br />
on your relationship with cholent and with<br />
the young lady in question.<br />
<strong>The</strong> young lady was my granddaughter,<br />
and she did indeed tell me I smelled like<br />
cholent. I was confused for a few seconds,<br />
and not knowing what else to do, I simply<br />
responded, “Why, thank you so much.” I<br />
love my granddaughter, so of course I had<br />
to understand her comment in the best light<br />
possible.<br />
However, my granddaughter’s statement<br />
did make me wonder: Could this possibly<br />
be true, did I indeed smell like<br />
cholent?<br />
So, let’s define terms. What, exactly, is<br />
cholent? Cholent, as many of you know—<br />
and I must extend regrets to those of you<br />
don’t—is a stew prepared especially for<br />
Shabbos. It’s cooked on Friday, left in slow<br />
cooker or oven to stay hot overnight, and<br />
then served for Shabbos lunch. I prepare<br />
mine with meat, potatoes, carrots, onions,<br />
sweet potatoes, water, and spices. Over the<br />
years, I’ve adapted a standard recipe to<br />
include a variety of additional ingredients,<br />
which brings an element of art to the science<br />
of cooking. Sometimes, there are<br />
My twin grandchildren will celebrate<br />
their third birthdays soon. What an exciting<br />
Shabbos cholent<br />
raisins and dates in the mixture. At other<br />
times, I use Coca-Cola or beer, instead of<br />
water. Tomato sauce, ketchup, or barbeque<br />
sauce are all great to add a little bit of tang<br />
and color.<br />
But what about the aroma? Cholent, by<br />
its very definition, cooks for hours. Is it no<br />
wonder that the delectable smell of roasted<br />
meat and garlic permeates the entire house?<br />
Upon awakening on Shabbos morning,<br />
every person in the household (and perhaps<br />
a casual pedestrian on the street as well) is<br />
aware that there is a serious cholent a-brewing.<br />
This knowledge alone makes the long<br />
walk to shul—and the long hours spent<br />
there—so much more bearable. We know<br />
that in due time, we will be sitting down at<br />
the table for our hot bowl of cholent.<br />
Patience is a virtue, and it has its tasty<br />
rewards.<br />
But I was still surprised to be told that<br />
I smelled of cholent on that particular<br />
time for them! I recently celebrated a birthday,<br />
also. It was delightful, too.<br />
I do wonder where these years went.<br />
We look forward to being teens. <strong>The</strong>n we<br />
get excited about that 21st birthday.<br />
Quickly, we turn thirty, then forty, and so<br />
on.<br />
Age is actually only a number, when<br />
you think about it. <strong>The</strong>y say today’s sixty is<br />
yesterday’s forty. Unless I look in the mir-<br />
Shabbos morning. Could it be that some<br />
garlic lingered on my hands from Friday<br />
afternoon? It didn’t seem possible, so the<br />
answer remained a mystery until the following<br />
week....<br />
I was almost ready to leave the house<br />
for shul when I spritzed a drop of a juicebased<br />
moisturizer on my hands. Suddenly, I<br />
recalled my granddaughter’s comment<br />
about the cholent aroma. I took a look at the<br />
label on the aerosol can. One of the main<br />
ingredients was—can you guess?—carrot<br />
seed oil. So that persistent scent of cholent<br />
that my granddaughter has labeled as “a<br />
sprinkling of Nana,” was actually eau de<br />
carrot. Mystery solved. At any rate, I was<br />
pleased to learn that my granddaughter<br />
associated my very essence with cholent,<br />
and by extension, with Shabbos.<br />
Many years ago, we lived in an apartment<br />
building. A grad student, looking for a<br />
way to economize and simplify his life<br />
while finishing school, would occasionally<br />
knock on our door late on a Saturday night.<br />
Did we have any leftover cholent that we<br />
would like to donate to his worthy cause?<br />
He would collect cholent from several willing<br />
neighbors, mix it up in one big pot, and<br />
have a taste of Shabbos all week for supper.<br />
As much as I love cholent, I would not<br />
want to eat it every day. My carrot-juice<br />
“cologne,” however, is a scent that I sometimes<br />
like to savor in the middle of the<br />
week. It reminds me that Shabbos, with all<br />
its delights, is coming soon. I just need to<br />
hang in there a little while longer.<br />
Be grateful for the gift of life<br />
BY<br />
Cecile<br />
Waronker<br />
ror, I do not think about my age. I look at<br />
the beautiful Sara Alterman, Edith Gordon,<br />
and Lena Sisselman and wonder at these<br />
lovely women in their 90s. I used to love<br />
being around Bertha Hirsch, Minnie<br />
Kolodkin, and Bertha Rubin. <strong>The</strong>se women<br />
all lived into their 90s and were delightful,<br />
smart, witty,<br />
charming, and<br />
fun to be<br />
around. That’s<br />
how I hope I<br />
will be.<br />
F r a n k<br />
Sinatra sang<br />
about being in<br />
the autumn of<br />
his life when<br />
he passed seventy.<br />
I love<br />
autumn. We<br />
should all just<br />
be healthy and<br />
current with<br />
our lives.<br />
Nobody likes<br />
to be around someone who laments about<br />
what should have or could have been. Just<br />
be thankful for what is.<br />
Cholent<br />
4 medium potatoes, cut into eighths<br />
1 sweet potato (or, as a neighborhood<br />
three-year-old likes to call it, “cholent<br />
plant”), cut into eighths<br />
3 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces<br />
3/4 pound flanken<br />
1/4 cup pearl barley (or 3/4 cup kasha<br />
for a gluten-free cholent)<br />
1/3 cup cholent beans (dry navy, kidney,<br />
pinto assortment), soaked<br />
overnight and drained)<br />
1 large onion, quartered<br />
A sprinkling of salt, pepper, paprika,<br />
garlic powder<br />
3 tablespoons ketchup or barbeque<br />
sauce<br />
3 eggs, raw, in shells (optional)<br />
1 roll kishka, store-bought, regular or<br />
gluten-free (optional)<br />
1/4 cup raisins (optional)<br />
1 cup water (or Coca Cola or beer—the<br />
not-so-secret ingredient!)<br />
Place ingredients in slow cooker on<br />
Friday morning. Cook on high for one<br />
hour, then switch to low. Serve the following<br />
day for Shabbos lunch. (<strong>The</strong><br />
eggs, which become hard-boiled in the<br />
slow cooker, are served on a separate<br />
plate, peeled and sliced. <strong>The</strong> kishka can<br />
also be served on a separate plate,<br />
sliced.)<br />
I know how thankful I am for my wonderful<br />
family and friends. How blessed I<br />
am! I love telling grandchildren stories and<br />
marvel at them. Just talking to my twentyyear-old<br />
granddaughter on the telephone<br />
brings a smile to my face. She is sunshine to<br />
me. Showing off pictures of all five of my<br />
grandchildren brings me joy. My late husband<br />
used to say that if he had known<br />
grandchildren were so great, he would have<br />
skipped the children.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y are<br />
our dividends.<br />
However, my<br />
children are special,<br />
too.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are things<br />
we can control<br />
and things we<br />
have to accept.<br />
That’s life, and<br />
how fortunate we<br />
are to celebrate it.<br />
We have just<br />
observed a New<br />
Year. May it be a<br />
healthy, happy,<br />
sweet, and prosperous<br />
one for us<br />
all.<br />
Put a smile on your face and a hop to<br />
your step, and celebrate life. Better than the<br />
alternative.