Coming up for air on Isru Chag

In spite of the dark, I had an extra bounce in my step when I set out to run at 6:40 this morning. It was a feeling of coming up for air after three days of Yom Tov, third time around. (After havdalah last night, I made my family applaud my 16/18 homemade meals from this past month–kudos to all the mommies!)

I reached the beach, near Oakton, exactly as the sun was rising, ran across the sand and stopped to watch the sun rise on Lake Michigan’s horizon. Stunning. Today was a day to celebrate the mundane. Here are some of the highlights.

1. I took my kids and a few neighbors back to feed the chickens behind the JCC. No eggs this time, but we gathered a bag full of dinosaur kale, baby lettuce that tastes like broccoli and hot peppers. Yes it’s free for the taking.

2. The lime team won the soccer game. (I’m above yelling at my kid from the sidelines, but I can’t help but cheer when they win.)

3. My husband fixed the leaky kitchen sink for the second time this year with the aid of a YouTube video for $1.50 (no, it wasn’t the same part). Sure beats the plumber’s $90/hour rate. Oh, and he also put away the sukkah.

4. I made pumpkin power bars from a great blog, Peas and Thank you. I used honey instead of Stevia, whole wheat flour instead of soy protein powder and added raisins. If you ask me, anything pumpkin is yummy.

5. I tossed the leftover tins from my fridge and cooked up the kale we picked this morning. We rounded that out with whole wheat cous cous, squash soup blended up with cashews and a Mothership Wit beer.

That’s a wrap.

SAUTEED KALE
3 large handfuls of kale, roughly chopped
T butter or olive oil
1 onion
3 cloves crushed garlic
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Saute the onion and garlic in butter until lightly brown. Add the kale and saute 2-3 minutes. Add 1/4 cup water and cover to steam for 5 minutes. Lift lid and saute until all the water is gone. Add salt and pepper. Serve over rice or cous cous.