Details, Details

So dinner on Friday night at mbarr's was rather nice - and occasionally rather entertaining as well.

One moment in particular that stuck in my head was when the words "self-cleaning onion" came up in conversation between two people, and the words got passed, by repetition, further down the table. It seems someone meant to say "self-cleaning oven," but self-cleaning onion is a far more interesting concept. It seems that such an item, though consumable, could be used along with both dairy and meat, which is not normally possible with onions (because once you have touched the onion with, say, a dairy knife, it absorbs the essence of the dairy-ness and becomes dairy).

This, interestingly, led to a discussion of the genders of dishes. (Because onions, like dishes, take on gender.) It occurred to me that, with dishes, instead of asking "what is the status of this dish?" or "what is this dish used for?" when we want to know whether a dish is for dairy or for meat, we tend to ask, "what is the gender of this dish?"

Which, of course, led to a discussion of gendered dishes. And the realization that though there are only two normative genders when it comes to people (there are other genders that came up - including androgynous and hermaphrodite- but those are not normative), there are actually four normative genders when it comes to dishes: dairy, meat, parve (neutral), and not kosher. And then, if you add in Passover, you get at least five or six... (i.e. passover dairy and passover meat)

Anyway, it was quite the entertaining conversation - and oddly philosophical as well.

Isn't it fun to keep kosher? :)

So the other night, I was in the supermarket, looking for kosher graham crackers - and I noticed the Keebler ones had a heksher (kosher symbol) on them. I looked further to the left, where the Keebler cookies are, and noticed that many of the cookies also had the symbol. I have been looking on and off for six years, since I got back from Israel, where Keebler has been kosher for a while. All I can say is, yay for another food I've been wanting to eat becoming kosher. (First M+M's, then Oreos, now Keebler... and people say keeping kosher can be a healthier way to eat?) Interestingly, most of the cookies had the heksher, but the ones I wanted most - the plain chocolate chip cookies - did not. Now, if the fancier chocolate chip cookies can have it, I am guessing there is nothing wrong with the plain ones, and that they just haven't used up the old packages - or the old packaging - yet. This says to me that the heksher is fairly recent.

My observations led to the following conversation - at least, this is how I remember it. Of course, I forget who the conversation was with...

Me: So I found out Keebler is now kosher
Other person: Keebler? You mean the elves?
Me; Yes, the elves are kosher. Well, not the actual elves - but their cookies are.

I also discovered more kosher food yesterday - of a much healthier variety - while on a quest for kosher rice cakes. I couldn't find them in the supermarket, because, of course, why should Quaker rice cakes, which have apparently taken over the rice cake world, be kosher? Oh well. So after visiting Associated and Food City and coming up empty-handed, I noticed/recalled the "Natural Foods" store across the street. Literally, right across the street. I can see it from my window. So I crossed the street. (There you have it - why did taylweaver cross the street? To get kosher rice cakes.) Anyway, it's amazing how much organic food is also kosher. Not all of it, of course, but a whole lot of it. And the word "organic" makes it sound all healthy and good for me. Anyway, all I bought were the rice cakes, but I think I will go back there and see what other healthy snacks they have to offer.

So that was a good find.

As for the tote bags... well, it's amazing how many tote bags a teacher can accumulate. I already have three, and I have only taught for six weeks. Granted, one is from my sister - and still my favorite - but I also got one when I began grad school - the Teachers College logo is beginning to peel - and yesterday, I got one for free at Staples - along with all sorts of other free goodies. Can I just say, yay free gifts! So I got a red Staples tote bag (I specify because they actually came in other colors, but by 3:30 PM, all that was left was red and orange - and the red looked much nicer) and it had all sorts of interesting stuff inside. Like a single marker and a single colored pencil - white, alas - and a pack of post-its and a pencil/crayon case and lots of smiley face stickers - scented ones. And a catalogue, of course.

But Staples is smart - after I got the tote bag, I stayed, and spent $20.

Which reminds me, I have a $10 online rebate to fill out...

And if anyone hears of someone looking for a place to live who is willing to share a room, please, please, please let me know...

So I walked into the local kosher food store on a quest for salad dressing and snack food this morning, and what should I find? Bissli!

You'd think, the ultimate of chametz. After all, the package itself advertises its contents as "wheat snacks." (or something like that.)

But then I look closer, somewhat confused, and I find that the package says O-U P. I check the ingredients. The very first one? Matzoh meal! Who knew?

At any rate, it was a pleasant - if fattening - surprise.

On a more frustrating note, did you know it costs less to do one-hour developing in the store at CVS than it does to send the film out? The only problem: they can't do the photo CD in the store. So here I am, stuck paying the extra $$.