The importance if planning ahead

My brother in law Eddie is a very spontaneous sort of a fellow. He is fully capable of getting up one morning; deciding, over breakfast, to go to Israel; leaving on the 11:30PM flight that night and staying there for 3 years. I kid you not.

Apparently it is a family trait. If ever (G-d forbid) hubby will be in charge of our Thanksgiving meal and (G-d forbid) we will have people coming over that day, here is what would happen: About half an hour before the guests were scheduled to arrive, hubby will stumble downstairs, half asleep, and order the girls to clear the living room and load up the dishwasher. He would then retreat to the pantry and emerge with 3 cans of tuna and a box of stale crackers. This will make the main course since a turkey needs to be bought, prepped, and cooked. Which takes planning. Which is not spontaneous and therefore not cool enough.

Then there was my grandmother, of blessed memory, who would finish washing the dishes after the Purim se'uda and go out in the yard with a huge glass jar, a sack of beets and her Pesach meat knife and start peeling and slicing. She would preserve the beets in water to be used on Pesach. Apparently the beets needed to be soaked for weeks before they could move to the next phase (beef and beet cutlets cooked in borscht.) 

Is it better to plan ahead or to be spontaneous? 

This week's parasha seems to side with grandma (wise choice, as she was a much better cook than Eddie is.) The Torah doesn't dwell on it too much but just think how long it must have taken Noah to built the ark. With no Home Depot, no electric tools and no help from anyone. Never mind no help. Think of how much ridicule the man had to put up with. "Hey Noah, what'cha building out there?", "Hey Noah, you planning to go around the world in that tub?" "Hey Noah, you think it's gonna rain any time soon?"

We planners, who start working on the Seder menu sometime around Tu BiShvat, are used to being laughed at, criticized and sabotaged at every turn. Naturally, when the rain starts, everyone is suddenly our best friend. Well, guess what? There is only room in the ark for those I planned for. Which does not include you. So there. Let's see how spontaneous it is to drown. Huh.



Anyway, I soaked some dried rosemary in honey about 3 weeks ago because I was planning to cook the following:

Butternut squash baked in honey

3 cups butternut squash, cubed (cubes no bigger than one inch)
2 Tbs vegetable oil
2 Tbs rosemary infused honey
3/4 tsp kosher salt


Mix all ingredients and bake for 35-40 minutes at 385F until soft and starting to brown a little. Stir occasionally.


Note: I used my brand new "Chamba" dish, which is awesome, but you can bake it in any clay dish, ceramic dish, glass dish or even aluminum. Just spray it first and stir occasionally and watch that it doesn't get too brown. Cooking time may differ.

I'm not sure how many servings this makes. We were 4 and finished it up as a side dish, but it was really very very good because I used hubby's home grown squash which is sweeter and creamier than the stuff you buy at the store. Let's call it 4-6 servings.


Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah started building an ark in the back yard, attracting attention and driving his wife crazy with the mess. But she was sure happy about it when the rain came.