On siyyum and gender roles and doilies and meat

Last night, a friend of mine (the same one who thought we were vegetarians) had his siyyum - he finished a tractate of Mishnah in honor of his mother's sheloshim - 30th day since her death. May her neshama have an aliyah. (May her soul ascend to Heaven.)

( siyyum )

(no subject)

Tonigh's dinner was broccoli and tofu stirfry.

For which I changed my kitchen. (We only have one sink. When I cook meat, I take out the fleishig (pink) dish drainer and sink rack (okay, the sink rack is black, but I *know*). When I cook dairy, I use the blue ones. I also have matching sponges and so on.) I made it dairy on Sunday because I made cheese omelettes for dinner. I kept it dairy because I made ratatouille, which is pareve, but my dairy equipment would suffice, I thought. I thought wrong. Tonight, I made tofu, which is also pareve. But I changed my kitchen.

This is because all my best equipment is fleishig - better pots, better knives, better cutting board. Plus, my microplane lives in the fleishig drawer, although I've kept it pareve. And my stir-fry pot is also my spaghetti sauce pot and my chili pot. I could make a stir-fry using my dairy equipment, but I'd rather not.

And if I'd changed over for the ratatouille, I wouldn't have just tossed my smaller dairy soup pot. Because you see, it's a lousy pot. The bottom is very thin. A moment's inattention, and I got burned veggies. My fleishig soup pot, on the other hand, has a thick bottom with an extra layer. It's lots safer. (I'm getting a *good* pot for dairy now.)

Also, I got to use my new rice cooker. This would be my third. My first died after one use. The second one I killed by pouring the rice and water into the heating part of the cooker, not the internal pot. Oops. This one's Black and Decker. I like it already - it has a clear top and is fun to watch.