Off the site, but not off the (kosher) wagon

I’ve been extremely remiss in posting here – not just the “fluff” of recipes I find elsewhere, but of the real meat of this site: what it has been for my family to “go kosher”.

I’m going to correct that. I have A LOT to tell you, but I’ve been somewhat distracted. Not that I owe you an explanation, but I’ve been:

• moving from a distant suburb into a more observant neighborhood
• changing jobs, working for a company that is out-of-state
• moving my kids into a new school
• becoming more observant myself (actually ourself – it’s a family activity. I guess everyone needs a hobby.)
• working a lot on my other site – The EdibleTorah
• also working a lot on my other other site (a technical blog) Leon’s (Technical) Log

With the exception of the last bullet point, all of those activities have implications for THIS blog – they all feed into my family’s experiences with Judaism and kashrut.

And you can expect to hear more about them soon.

Thanks for reading, and to those who left comments or emails asking where I’d been.

L’Shalom

- Leon

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What this is all about, part 2: Family

(this is the second essay in a 3-part series “What this is all about”. You can find the first part here.)

If you read the “About Us” page, you know that we’re a pretty average midwestern (Jewish) family. We’re not ultra-orthodox. We’re not in the “orthodox” or “modern orthodox” camps either (not that there’s anything wrong with any of those, it’s just not us. It’s not where we came from and I don’t believe (at this moment) it’s where we’re headed).

But obviously, we don’t do nothing either.

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What this is all about, part 1: God

Like it says in the sidebar, this is not a “how to” guide – as in “how to keep kosher”, or “how to kasher your home” or even “how to move as a family from a non-kosher to a kosher lifestyle”.

While you might find tips and ideas you can take with you (I certainly HOPE you might!), the truth as I see it is that everyone’s dance with God’s commandments is a personal one. Trying to fit your two-step to match our bunny-hop is just never going to work.

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Let’s Start At…

According to my wife (“Pandora”) every story I’ve ever told features a few consistent elements:

• it never starts at the beginning
• it always involves exaggeration, hyperbole and fanciful reframing of the facts
• it is usually funnier when I tell it than when it actually happened.

You have been warned.

So to say “Let’s Start At the Very Beginning” would be a lie. I never do. I’ll start where I am and work outward from there.

But I also want you to know that, as of this writing, some stuff has already happened. I’ll try to catch you up as fast as I can, without giving the good parts short shrift.

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