New Blog and other matters

Many things going on lately. Working on our Chanukah camp for kids with special needs and preparing the budget right now as we speak. It's tough as we don't really have any funds yet, other than the funds that we raised for the summer -which were for the summer - and now we need to see if we can make the program more specialized for our kids and train the staff the way we'd like, and of course, that all costs money. Fortunately, I'm working with 2 other people that I really enjoy - Miriam Avraham and Uri Lahav. They both speak the language of the special needs world - Uri from his work with adults and kids and Miriam because she's got a kid with DS (I think I've mentioned her before). We met last night to talk over the program that Ein Yael has presented us and to talk budget and as usual, to dream - to dream over the program that we'd like to build and make happen for our kids and the kids of Jerusalem and beyond. I guess I have to learn how to fundraise in addition to learn how to really make this thing happen. First, we'll work on Chanukah and then decide how to officially become an 'amuta' - charitable organization. We do need a name, though. How about 'Kaytana She'lanu' - Our camp. That is, camp for all of us.

Natan and I have started a new blog, Cooking without a Parachute, which is still under construction. Natan has long wanted to 'have a cooking show together', as he used to say when he was younger and we watched too much of the Food Network. In those days, we'd cook together and pretend to be hosting a show, Natan providing color commentary to whatever we were making, while I chopped and described the dish and its method of preparation. Our idea with the blog is cooking by the seat of your pants. Looking into your refrigerator, pulling out whatever seems interesting and just making something. Even if you consult a cookbook, you let your ingredients and your mood guide you to adjust as necessary. Everyone can do this even though most will so, 'oh no, I need to follow a recipe.' There's nothing wrong with recipes except that they often prevent you from making a dish. You don't have carrots, or are missing mushrooms. Ok, so don't make mushroom soup if you don't have mushrooms but you can still make something else with whatever you do have in stock. As well, most of us have an excellent choice of condiments on our refrigerator doors. Condiments are our friends. From those bits of chutney, aging mustards, mystery sauces that you picked up or were gifted once, and salad dressings, come marinades for tofu, meats and fishes as well as quick toppings for simple grain and veg meals.

We see the blog as a way of engaging the boys in cooking as well, which they already do but which I'd like to see happen more, especially during the week. As a matter of fact, Gabe made dinner last night and you can read about it right now...

Other big news is that we're all going to Budapest to meet up with our beloved, Erszi. You too, can meet us in Europe one day, especially if Ira continues to be the master of frequent flyer miles. He schemed and plotted and now we're all flying frequent flyer. Ok, we're not all flying together but that's another matter. We still have to find a place to stay but we're working at it. If you have any ideas - need a short-term rental for 5 days.

Lastly, The Honey will be sending out a survey next week - if you're a Honey reader, please click and fill it out as we need to know more about our readers so that we can learn how to best serve them...and make money.