Objectivist Round Up

Happy New Year!  Rational Jenn has the New Year's edition of the Objectivist Round Up, which highlights some of the best posts of 2009.

Christmas Day

Jewish Christmas Dinner was a success, although I got a bit tired of all that beige food.  (Why is it all beige?)  But I enjoyed cooking it and everybody had their favorite dish.  I think Sammy ate most of the latkes, Adam loved the apple cake, and I, of course, loved the brisket, although the matzo ball soup was surprisingly good, too.  Only the broccoli souffle was a disappointment.  Luckily, it was much better for breakfast this morning!

Unfortunately, we're all sick.  Adam and Sammy are on the tail end of a bug but I think I muscled through those two days of cooking only to crash hard today.  And Christmas Day is not a good time to be off your game.  Well, not for me, anyway.

I'm not so sure I like Christmas Day.  It's so chaotic and messy.  There are a million presents mixed up with wrapping paper.  I'm constantly paranoid that gifts will get thrown in the trash.  Also, I'm generally very uncomfortable when there are too many objects around me.  I feel like I have to keep track of every object and it overloads my system.  So after a while I freak out and make everyone clean up before moving on.  But where are you going to put all the stuff?  Nothing has a place yet because it is all new, so there really is no putting away.  And you really don't want to put it all away, right?  That would not be fun at all.  You want to pile it up and go back to the pile over and over throughout the day.  But that pile of stuff, oh my god, it just drives me nuts.  Does anyone have a system for an orderly Christmas morning?  I fear that when we have two children that I might have to just excuse myself from the whole event.  I mean, I'm exaggerating here, but I do have a real problem with too much visual input.  I've been meaning to write about that for some time but now it will have to wait until next year.

My neurosis didn't cause too much trouble though, because Sammy seemed overwhelmed as well.  The mess didn't get too bad because she only opened about half her presents, and that took all day.  She'd go off to play with the latest thing and then she'd forget about the presents and want to color or wash her hands for a half hour (her normal activities).  Also, the only thing she really seemed to want was candy.  She begged for candy all day.  Candy was the number one thing on her wish list when she visited Santa at the mall.  I swear, we said this last year but I'm saying it again:  I will never again make the mistake of allowing so much candy at Christmas-time.  Sugar turns my daughter into an unpleasant creature, to put it kindly.  Next year, we will not do an advent calendar with candy (maybe I'll write cute little notes or find tiny toys), there will be one small piece of candy in the stocking, and if we make cookies, Sammy will get one.  One cookie, and then the rest are given away or go in the trash.  But we cannot have cookies available in this house for an entire month, along with chocolate and Pez and all the candy that is given out at the stores.  No, no, no!  I swear, never again.  Will you remind me, please?

So anyway, we're off to New York tomorrow, where Adam has a conference.  We decided to make a little family trip out of it and stay a few days.  It's been quite a while since I've been to The City, and I'm really excited.  We've got a list of fun activities planned, but really, I just want to soak up the unique energy of the place. 

So long for now.  I'll be back in 2010, reporting on all the Little Things going on in my world.  I wish you a Happy New Year!

Objectivist Round Up

Miranda Barzey has the Christmas edition of the Objectivst Round Up at her blog, Ramen and Rand.  This week the round up has a theme:  The Benevolent Universe Premise.  (Objectivists often refer to this idea as the BUP.)  Leonard Peikoff describes the Benevolent Universe Premise this way:

Although accidents and failures are possible, they are not, according to Objectivism, the essence of human life. On the contrary, the achievement of values is the norm—speaking now for the moral man, moral by the Objectivist definition. Success and happiness are the metaphysically to-be-expected. In other words, Objectivism rejects the view that human fulfillment is impossible, that man is doomed to misery, that the universe is malevolent. We advocate the “benevolent universe” premise.

The “benevolent universe” does not mean that the universe feels kindly to man or that it is out to help him achieve his goals. No, the universe is neutral; it simply is; it is indifferent to you. You must care about and adapt to it, not the other way around. But reality is “benevolent” in the sense that if you do adapt to it—i.e., if you do think, value, and act rationally, then you can (and barring accidents you will) achieve your values. You will, because those values are based on reality.

Leonard Peikoff, The Philosophy of Objectivism,
lecture series (1976), Lecture 8.

What a perfect theme for Christmas!  I hope you enjoy the round up and I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

A Little Thing

Adam:  Sammy, you're so much fun we're going to make another one.

Sammy:  MAKE ANOTHER ONE!  MAKE ANOTHER COOKIE!

Jewish Christmas Dinner

When I was growing up, my family usually had two big dinners for Christmas, one at my parents' house on Christmas Eve, and one at my aunt's house on Christmas Day.  My mom and my aunt are both great cooks, but despite my aunt's fantastic shrimp cocktail appetizer and chocolate mousse dessert, by the time the evening of the 25th rolled around I felt like Christmas was over.  Santa had come and gone, the presents had all been unwrapped, and everyone was a bit tired.

Christmas Eve was always the big event for me.  Even as a child, I think I loved Christmas Eve as much as I loved Christmas morning.  Christmas Eve is when we sang Christmas carols and felt the magical anticipation of what was to come the next morning.  Christmas Eve is when the kids would plot how we would stay up late enough to catch our parents playing Santa Claus, while the adults got toasted and argued about politics, God, and football.

So as an adult, I decided Christmas dinner would always be on Christmas Eve in my house.  And a few years ago, I stumbled upon the idea of cooking traditional Jewish food for Christmas dinner.  I think I had the itch to make a beef brisket and the idea just blossomed from there.  That year I made brisket, potato latkes, a buttery noodle dish called kugel, and a fruit dish I've forgotten the name of, although I do remember it had Manischewitz wine in it.  That mostly-full bottle of wine sat in our pantry for over a year, mocking Adam by bringing back all of those painful Passover memories.

Anyway, I fell in love with the idea of making Jewish Christmas Dinner a tradition in the Mossoff home.  I was looking for some kind of food-theme that would carry over from year to year, and I'm not really crazy about turkey or any of the other traditional foods.  I also love the humorous dig at the supposed religious nature of the holiday!

That was in 2005.  Now, finally, in 2009, we are having Christmas at home again and I'm getting my second chance to cook Jewish Christmas Dinner.  I spent 3 days planning the menu and making my shopping list.  Today, I do the grocery shopping, and tomorrow, I start cooking.  I had to create a written schedule for the cooking because so much requires advance preparation (brisket is much better after sitting in the fridge for a day).  Here is the menu:

• Matzo ball soup (appetizer)


• Beef brisket


• Broccoli soufflé


• Potato latkes


• Jewish apple cake (dessert)

And check out the cooking schedule:

Wednesday

• Noon – 1pm:  Prepare and brown beef brisket


• 1pm:  Get brisket into crockpot on high


• 2pm:  Turn crockpot to low


• 4 – 5pm:  Make chicken soup and refrigerate


• 7 – 7:30pm:  Remove brisket from crockpot, separate meat and veggies, and refrigerate

Thursday

• 10am – noon:  Make apple cake


• Noon – 12:30pm:  Prepare matzo balls (don’t forget the schmaltz from soup) and refrigerate (for at least a half hour)


• 1 – 2pm:  Prepare latkes batter and refrigerate


• 2:15 – 2:30pm:  Take 6 eggs out of fridge and separate.  Keep whites at room temperature.


• 2:30 – 3:30pm:  Boil matzo balls and reheat soup; add matzo balls to soup and cook for a few minutes


• 3:30pm:  Serve matzo ball soup


• 4 – 5pm:  Prepare broccoli soufflé


• 5pm: Put soufflé in oven


• 5 – 5:30pm:  Prepare brisket and veggies in 9X13 pan for oven


• 5:30pm:  Put meat in oven with soufflé


• 5:30 – 6pm:  Fry latkes


• 6 – 6:15pm:  Make thicker sauce for meat if necessary


• 6:15:  Dinner is served!

I am so excited to cook all of this good food!  And now there are 3 of us to eat it instead of just 2.

Adam Sandler

I caught Adam Sandler's Chanukah Song on the radio the other day and it made me smile for about an hour.  You've probably heard it before, but who can get tired of a song that rhymes "Scrooge is" with "Stooges."

Music, Maids, and Mail

Three Good Things for the day:

1. I finally started practicing on the piano, and it's all coming back to me.  For my first song, I'm going to learn Sammy's favorite, The Rainbow Connection.


2. I had somebody come in and clean the house for me.  What a luxury!


3. The Christmas cards are pouring in.