Frozen Bugs – Yum!

Our community up here in Montreal seems to be very machmir when it comes to food and kashrut, I believe.  I have written before about how most families that I associate with up here will not eat Pas Akum (bread made by a non-Jew) whereas the same types of families down in NY do.

I had a discussion today about whether or not frozen veggies have to have a hechsher. I was of the impression that anything you buy to eat has to have kosher certification, but apparently if there is no risk of bugs being mixed in with your frozen peas and carrots, there is absolutely no need. (This applies to only frozen veggies that have nothing added and have not been processed with anything else). But I remember learning that if you have the choice between buying a kosher brand and a regular store brand, you are supposed to choose the kosher brand and give the money to a fellow Jew.

What about pure fruit juices? Rougemont makes awesome apple juice. They used to have the MK certification. I guess they decided to save themselves some money and no longer bear kosher certification. Most people that I know will no longer buy it due to lack of hechsher. But is there anything non-kosher about it? It’s still the same juice. 100% pure is 100% pure.

Is my community just extra machmir, or does this make sense to you? All thoughts appreciated.

Grocery Shopping with the KoD

We hardly ever do a large grocery shop together. By large I mean enough to feed my boys for a week. This is partly because when the KoD comes up (which isn’t that often due to work and kid constraints) it’s for a brief weekend and I don’t want to spend a couple of hours doing groceries where we could be spending quality time together as a couple / family. Plus when I go to NY we don’t have that much time either…

So, I was thrilled when the KoD asked if he could come with me to go grocery shopping this morning. I had planned to take full advantage of the fact that I have a car at my disposal. (My van, oh how I missed my van). But of course I welcomed the company. I was worried that shopping while fasting would be a no-no for him, but he wasn’t phased.

Ladies, why is it that men get so easily distracted in a grocery store? Men, why? Why did my usual shop take almost twice as long this time? I am walking along the aisle piling stuff into my cart, carrying on a conversation with the KoD, and more than once I realized I was talking to myself, he was lost somewhere down the previous aisle checking out some food item he hadn’t previously seen.

Now, food IS his business so I guess we can reason that he was doing market research, but from my experience, many men seem to get lost in the supermarket. Or take a long time. Or buy things that are not on the list but seemed like a good idea at the time and then it sits languishing on the bottom shelf of the pantry behind the maraschino cherries. I can zip through the grocery store in 45 minutes, still find time to check out the new items (they have Tabachnik broths in stock now. Looks good for cooking with) and check out. I don’t stand there for hours feeling each plum for softness, or knocking on twenty different melons to see if they are ripe. (Not that I am saying KoD did this….but anyone could have theoretically).

However, all tongue-in-cheek griping aside, the awesome KoD did not let me lift a finger to put the items on the cashier’s conveyor belt, nor did he let me shlepp even one item up to our apartment. A total gentleman all the way. He would have shlepped all the bags to the car, except that our store has a car order service, where you pull up in your vehicle, give them the ticket, and they put your bags, that they packed up in the store, in the trunk for you, for free. Spoiled, totally spoiled.

So we are sitting there, in my van, waiting for the guy to pack up the trunk, and the KoD casually asks me if I had ever had a problem with the car order, them giving me someone else’s stuff or items being missing etc. I told him I never had a problem although Z! could tell him a story or two. It’s interesting the conversations that God appears to be listening to with extra attention. Not two minutes later, we realize they were searching for something inside the car order bay where all the orders wait. They had lost one of our bags. The guy asks me for our receipt, and proceeds to go through all the bags they had in the bay. Eventually they found it, the grocery packer had neglected to put a tag on it, and somehow it ended up with all the delivery bags. First time ever that had happened to me. Of course I blamed it all on the KoD (we do joke around a lot)….but the main thing is we arrived home with our grocery order intact.

I am so loving having him here. The kids do too. There is a spring in my step, and a huge smile on my face. I feel complete.

The things they say!!

I got up at 4.45 this morning in order to wake my men so they could have something to eat and drink before the Fast of Esther started (around 5.30 am). They all got up, ate and drank and went back to sleep till 6.30.

I went in to wake Squiggy up. He looked so peaceful and sweet. So I sat down on his bed, and stroked his hair and face gently to wake him up, and told him “you look so sweet and yummy”. It was a tender moment. He cracked his left eye open a bit, and with a slight tilt to his mouth he said “So how about I stay in bed and look all sweet and yummy instead of going to school?”

Nice try son!!

OPEN LETTER TO MY COMMENTERS

In writing this blog, I express my thoughts and opinions. I share a slice of my life with you. I have learned so much from blogging, and from you, my commenters. I have expanded my knowledge and understood ideas both old and new. You open your hearts to me and I love that window into your lives.

For the most part, the comment threads, even on controversial topics, have been respectful. For the most part you civilly agree to disagree, and we move on. Basically, the way adults are supposed to behave.

In the last couple of days there have been some heated exchanges in the comments sections. Name calling, rudeness, personal attacks, unnecessary nastiness. I will not, I cannot accept that kind of attitude here on MY blog. It may be appropriate on other blogs, but here, on In The Pink, it will not be tolerated.

This blog is MY home. I invite you in. You will not track mud deliberately all over my pristine carpet, nor wipe your sticky hands and face all over my curtains. This is my home, and as such, you will follow my rules or you will not be invited back. It is as simple as that.

I don’t want to have to use the DELETE option, as I feel differing opinions are important to every discussion. Both sides of an issue need to be seen. Bad language and vitriol obscure any point you are trying to make. Be respectful, I implore you, if you want your voice to be heard. Think before you press the SUBMIT button.

COMMENTS are closed on this post. If you wish to discuss further I can be emailed at InThePinkBlog@gmail.com