Long time no see

Two of our grandchildren, twins Michelle and Rachael. We saw all three of Harvey and Sandy's girls at the Passover Seder. The twins live in NYC, both working at their professions, design and cinematography, respectively. We are glad to see them as often as they take time off from their many activities.

Dear Friends and Family,

My goodness, it's been many days since I have written, and I am sure you understand that unwritten means not remembered! My blog is my memory!

My calendar is no help: no engagements on the 15th-17th, so I expect I was doing the usual, working on Shakespeare, going for rides with Merwin, walking a little, resting a lot, cooking this and that. Merwin started his daily radiation on the 13th and that has taken out a chunk of our day. Meals are a little strange because he wants his main meal when he returns, and that can be as late as 3 p.m. His appointment is at 1:30, but they can't always take him on the minute, and sometimes unforeseen incidents occur to delay his treatment, which takes only a few minutes. Since I am too hungry to wait for him, I snack continually from the time of my usual lunch till he returns home. Then our light supper is very late for us, sometimes after 8 p.m. Today he'll be home earlier, but neither of us wanted a real supper tonight.

On Monday, Dave drove us, after the radiation, to Harvey and Sandy's for their lovely traditional Seder. Lots of interesting people were there, and I had a chance to be with the three granddaughters at once. They are very sweet and loving; they console for the total absence in our lives of Arthur's two children since his divorce.

For the Seder,I made Charses as usual, but Sandy said I should make only one kind, which I did: Here is what I did:

Blend in Cuisinart:

3 peeled and cored apples

1/4 lb dried apricots (I didn't have this and so omitted it)

1/4 lb dried prunes

1 seedless orange: peel rind off carefully and add to processor, remove pith and discard; add rest of orange to processor

3 T sweet wine

Then nuts, more or less to taste; I used less this time

1/4 lb pecan halves

1/2 lb walnuts halves

Can use almonds also, or instead. The recipe also calls for cinnamon to taste, but I didn’t think it needed it because my big orange supplied a lot of zest: I have a great tool for removing only the zest easily (the outer skin above the bitter white part)

I ate so much of Sandy's good food. She served me 5 matzoh balls,! and I ate every one (plus all kinds of other goodies). We had a wonderful Seder there, and I was even able to sing my solo piece with my voice breaking only a couple of times. A real singer, Sandy's cousin, was among the group, and she could really belt out the songs. A pleasure. Sandy's father Murray, sister Barbara, and brother Lawrence were there. It was the first Seder without Lee, Sandy's mother,, and we all missed her.

We three drove home right after dinner, before dessert. After two days of Passover, I am so tired of this food. Sonia helped me make rolls, I made my own matzoh balls, and I made chicken for Merwin. I'll write out the recipes tomorrow, when I am going to try a gratin. We'll see.

Love to all,

Bernice