Taste a Rainbow

In this week's parasha, it's all about the flood. The rainbow is almost an afterthought. Yet I believe that, from G-d's point of view, the flood was an unfortunate necessity, whereas the rainbow is the main point. After all, the flood was a correction of a past situation. Once everyone was dead, it was over and done with. Sort of like a good parent: if punishment is needed, hand it out. Once it's over, it's over. And we are to move on to the next item on the agenda. The rainbow, on the other hand, is forever. It is a sign to remind both us and G-d that if we don't watch our tempers, bad, regrettable things will happen.

As such, the rainbow is a puzzle. If the idea was to remind us of the flood, why is it so beautiful? The flood was not very attractive, to say the least. Of course, we all know, why. Because the rainbow is to remind us of the promise to not bring a flood of such proportions any more. And promises of loving kindness, of forgiveness and of acceptance are very beautiful. 

I like to think of G-d looking at the rainbow and remembering that, despite our insanely annoying ways, despite our stubborn insistence on (almost) always doing the wrong thing, despite our childish disregard of common sense, G-d still sees us as beautiful rainbows. He still sees our potential, our multicolored abilities and our worthiness. 

In Psalms chapter 8, verses 4-6, the psalmist says that, when he looks at G-d's mighty and awe-inspiring creations, he is amazed that humans count for anything at all; never mind hold a place in creation that is as close to G-d as possible. 

Isn't that what the rainbow is there to remind us of? G-d's promise to love us even when we are naughty and flawed. And He is using one of his more beautiful creations to do it. Something that is so wonderful and amazing that when we see it, we feel totally awed. Even when you know exactly how a rainbow happens, even if you spend years studying light frequencies and the mechanisms of refraction and reflection, you will still look up at a rainbow with breathless wonder. And you will still say "Oh, look, a rainbow" and feel a little uplifting of your heart.

So this week, forget about the flood, and Noah, and the logistics of fitting all those animals into one ark, and the endless fighting that the stress of so many days of rain must have brought about (is it any wonder he got drunk at the first opportunity?) and the dove and the olive branch (much good these two have been doing in the middle east lately) and focus on the rainbow. Forget the disaster and focus on the hope and the beauty and the knowledge that someone loves us even when we misbehave.

So. No recipes. Just ideas and you can play around with them:

Rainbow salad 
(since it's too hot for soup, flood notwithstanding)

Simply arrange in an arc on a large platter, in the following order:
Grape tomatoes; baby carrots (or carrot sticks); sliced yellow bell pepper; sliced avocado; thinly sliced red onion (which is actually purple). If you want to get super fancy, place baby blue potatoes, cooked whole, in between the avocado and onion (or you can use blue corn tortilla chips and your kids will love you for it, even if your hips won't.) Mix some vinaigrette and pour all over or serve as crudites with a dipping sauce of your choice.


 

I thought long and hard about a main course and finally had to surrender to the inevitable:  
Rainbow trout. 

Grill it with a little butter and fresh herbs of your choice. And if you have a better idea, please let me know. 




Rainbow orzo 

You can use another grain (rice, brown rice, quinoa, Israeli couscous, regular couscous, whatever). Cook it according to package instructions and add: cubes of red bell pepper, peas and carrots, corn kernels, red onion (cubed) and spices of your choice. Before mixing all these into the grain, saute the onion in a little butter or olive oil until soft, add pepper and keep cooking until starting to soften (2-3 minutes), add the rest of the veggies. spices to your taste and a little water (1-2 Tbs at most.) Cook, covered for 5 minutes or so, just until everything is a little tender. Then mix with the grain.




Rainbow cake

Use a ready mix (or your own mix) and make enough for 3 low round white cakes. After you mix the basic ingredients, add different food coloring to each cake and bake as usual. You can choose whatever colors you like: red, yellow and blue seem to work best for some reason, but feel free to use what you like (or have on hand). Once the cakes are cool, stack them (you can use colored frosting between layers) and then frost to your heart's content and cover the cake with colorful small candy (m&m, maybe?) in stripes of rainbow colors (or use rainbow sprinkles.)

Or -

Rainbow diet cake

Like with the salad, arrange the following in order: Raspberries (or strawberries); mandarin oranges (or a regular orange, sectioned and sliced); pineapple chunks; kiwi slices; blueberries (you can use dried or frozen if you must); purple grapes. Serve with or without a sweet dipping sauce. 
If you call it cake, you may not feel so deprived when looking at everyone enjoying the rainbow cake while you have to suffer through all the fruit.




When things look bad, it's easy to remember only the flood. But remember, too, that it takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow. And it's the rainbow that counts at the end.