Bring the goat into the house

This is that very famous story about a poor Jewish guy who came to the rabbi to moan about his difficult life. He and his wife and their 12 kids and his mother in law all live in a one room shack and the noise, mess and confusion are unbearable. What is a Yid to do? Said the rabbi, get your cow and bring her into the house with you. A week later the Jew is back. Oy, things are worse than ever. What to do? Says the rabbi, bring your chickens into the house. The next week, here is the poor man again, at his wits' end, and the only advice the rabbi has for him is to bring his goat into the house to live with him, his wife, the kids, the MIL, the cow and the chickens. The very next day the Jew is there before sunrise. Rabbi, he says, I cannot take it another minute. Fine, says the rabbi, take the goat out of the house. That very Shabbat, after prayers, the rabbi approaches the man in shul and asks, Nu, how are things at home? Rabbi, says the man, you are indeed a genius. I had no idea how spacious and comfortable my house was. Now that the goat is gone, we have all that room, it's wonderful.

Moral of the story: It's all in your perception. The Israelites were very miserable in Egypt. Their cries of suffering rose high enough to get to heaven. I'm sure they felt that their lives are the worst lives possible. Then Pharaoh demanded that they not only keep up the bricks quota, but also find their own straw for making bricks. Talk about going from the frying pan into the fire. Pharaoh's reasoning actually made sense. Apparently the Jews had too much free time on their hands. Free time to come up with silly notions of "We wanna go into the desert and worship our G-d" Excuse me? What G-d? In four hundred years you never once mentioned a G-d who needs a three day sojourn into the desert. Where did this so called "G-d" of yours come from? From idle talk during idle lounging around doing nothing. That's where. From Pharaoh's point of view, it seemed a logical conclusion.

For the Israelites, this was the last straw (pun intended.) They were not the ones to come up with this fokakteh idea, why should they be the ones to pay the price? From their point of view, this Moshe person, who suddenly showed up from the desert, was nothing but a pain in the backside.

Now, I do not blame them. They were not the ones who spoke to G-d and had His assurance that this is all part of a Grand Plan. To them, the misery of slavery was now ten times worse than before. How were they to know that it had to get worse in order to get better? It's all in the perception.

I was sick last week (still am as a matter of fact.) It's nice to stay in bed and have everyone fend for themselves. But I was sick just before Shabbat. Every week I clean and shop and bake and cook for Shabbat. And while I do it willingly, some times I cannot help but grumble under my breath that I wish there was not so much work involved and that someone else will think to share the load. Well, here was my wish come true. I was sick and it was Thursday night and nothing was done. Did I feel good about it? As if. It was way worse than usual. I dragged myself out of bed and cooked and baked as usual because, let's face it, had I left it up to hubby (as he suggested), we would have had some undercooked onions and mushrooms with some defrosted bagels at the kitchen table (which would not have been cleared of mail, used napkins and dirty glasses.) I did make my girls clean the house (at least what had to be clean to avoid the health department quarantining us) and I did manage to get hubby to shop for some basics without too much resistance. Yet having to cook and bake while not anywhere near healthy gave me a new perspective on things.

At least I had something simple and easy to make for dessert:


Favorite Apple Cake

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbs vanilla extract
3 Tbs water
1 1/2 cup self rising flour
Pinch of salt
4 medium apples, cored, peeled, quartered, thinly sliced. (originally, you're supposed to use Granny Smith apples, but any kind will do)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon


In mixer, mix together eggs and sugar for one minute.
Add oil, vanilla and water. Mix for another minute.
Add flour and salt and mix very well. The mixture should be airy and light yellow in color. Don't be afraid to mix a little longer if needed.
Divide equally between two 8-inch square, greased pans.
Toss apples slices with cinnamon and brown sugar. Spread over batter (see notes).
Bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes until done. Do not let it get too brown. The cakes should be light colored.

Note: When you mix the apples and sugar, there might be some liquid at the bottom of the bowl. Do not let it get on the batter. Use your fingers instead of a spoon, if necessary, to transfer the apples unto the batter.  Also, very important: (learned through trial and error) put more apples at the edges of the pans and very little at the center. The center tends to take forever to bake and having too much juice on it (as the apples bake) makes it take even longer, while the edges burn.









I know I always try to connect the recipe to the parasha somehow, no matter how feebly, but I am still not too well and this is really what I made for Shabbat. I had too many apples lying around and going bad and I was in no condition to go out and try to get more supplies (or to think too hard about a more complicated dessert).
So how about this? You find a connection between the cake and the parasha and I will be grateful. Do not scoff. It is way harder for me to be nice than for you to find associations, believe me.



OMG!! I just realized that this is the third week in a row I am posting desserts. For someone who doesn't really like sweets, that must be some kind of a record. I promise to try for a proper dish next time. Maybe something with actual nutritional value....