THE WEISS CHRONICLES

I was at the Nationals game vs St Louis this evening.

Among the highlights was a long HR into the 3rd deck by Bryce Harper. If the HR would have been about 30 feet or so closer to Center field it would have landed outside the stadium.

The video of the HR is here and a story about the game is here.

The game went quickly and ended with a 2-1 victory by the Nationals. About 30k people then left the game at about the same time. The metro rail was very crowded and I had to stand for part of the trip home.

However, when I got to the Metrorail parking lot at Grosvenor, it turned out to be a free parking because a concert at the Strahmore was getting out about then.

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:54 PM

Monday, May 23, 2016

The Personalization of Ordinary Foods

One of the trends in catering over the past decade or so has been in making individualized (or personalized) portions of foods.

The first up on this was individual sized gourmet desserts where a multilayered, multicolored pastry or parfait or pudding was placed in a small glass with a small spoon.

This practice has widened into ordinary foods.

At a function yesterday, they had vegetable sticks in multi layered sauce as one item. They also had macaroni and cheese (or pasta avec fromage if you prefer) muffins.

The event was interesting also. It was something called 'Friendship Circle' and is a program that matches special needs and regular kids who do art projects. The circle then sells the art (decorated mezuzot, tzedaka boxes, etc.)

posted by Martin Weiss # 7:47 AM

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Dancing Mushroom Aliens with Positive Attitude

I had a really odd dream last night.

I was monitoring kashrut at an event but the event was, I think, in a rocket ship of some kind (perhaps it was an Israeli Space Agency event).

During the event, the rocket landed on a planet and I went out to see if any more guest were coming in.

There on the planet were a bunch of aliens that looked like the dancing mushroom in the movie Fantasia (the image is a still from that movie).

I went out to speak with them (perhaps to make sure they weren't bringing in outside non kosher food).

As I spoke to them, each of them said one of those inspirational sports coach expressions. These were expressions resembling those used by the late Joe Paterno of not quite beloved memory, and also by some Jewish day camps - (image from the internet).

One of the aliens said, "I'm getting better every day."

Another said, "I'm for my team and my team is for me"

Another said, "Be yourself by being your best."

I had a big glass of wine before falling asleep.

posted by Martin Weiss # 8:15 AM

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Yet More Irises

The picture was taken on Sunday night.

The irises were picked and put in a vise before Sabbath on Friday.

I have three varieties. The purple are the least tall but have the best fragrance. The Champagne yellows are so tall that many of them flop over.

I'm pretty sure we will have enough blooming for next Sabbath also.

posted by Martin Weiss # 9:06 PM

Friday, May 13, 2016

Fifteen Days of Rain Ends with a misty, no-sun day

May is frequently a nice sunny month around here.

It wasn't this year.

We had 15 days in a row with at least some rain, although on many days the total rainfall was minimal (graph is courtesy of the Weather Gang website).

Yesterday, the streak ended but I didn't see the sun all day. Instead, it was misty and driving through the mist required occasional windshield wiper use (but no rain fell at the airport recording station).

Today, is rainy again and the forecast is for rain again tomorrow.

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:15 PM

Monday, May 09, 2016

Preparing Kadorei shokolad for Israel Independence Day

As in the past, I working with a caterer assigned to prepare food for the Israel Independence day celebration.

What is new this year is that the client wanted Kadorei shokolad, aka

כדורי שוקולד

or 'balls of chocolate'.

The recipe is pretty rudimentary. It has zero baking.

Basically, a lot of stuff is mixed in a bowl and then chocolate balls are made and rolled in coconut or mini sprinkles or mini jelly beans or mini candies.

In Israel, these are generally a home made item rather than a commercial one (I've never seen them sold on Bialik Street where my daughter lives). One of the ingredients is crushed biscuits and, apparently, in Israel, the 'crushing of the biscuits' is frequently done by kindergarten kids who enjoy the 'crushing' aspect.

I have the difficult job of tasting various versions of these chocolate balls pre - event.

My suggestion to the pastry chef was to make the balls covered with blue and white because those are the colors of the flag of Israel (those will be part sprinkle and part coconut).

A link to an article in The Forward about this item is here.

posted by Martin Weiss # 8:51 AM

Sunday, May 08, 2016

M Day Flowers

The flowers we got before Passover from Diane W. are still contributing.

They are supplemented by the first of the irises from the yard.

The champagne yellow iris came from bulbs given us by Cheryl K.

.

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:21 PM

Monday, May 02, 2016

Hail Weisses

About suppertime today we had a hail storm.

The afternoon had been nice.

It was our first warm day in a week and the temperature got to the low 80sF.

The temperature had dropped about 20F in a half hour or so before the hail began. It was also a no wind event so the hail came strait down.

The first image is the hail and our cars.

The second image is the radar image about the time of the hail storm.

The third image is a lightening strike today near the Washington monument (from Capital Weathergang website). The picture was posted to the weathergang website by Joseph Gruber whose photo website is: https://bluemarble.photography/

Click on the image to get a closer view of the hail.

posted by Martin Weiss # 9:05 PM