Waking up to the news that Hamas attacked Israel and that the country is now at war, I immediately texted my friend Yael Bar tur, who lives in NYC but is home in Tel Aviv visiting with family, a family I know and love.
I had not yet read anything else, but for her tweet below. If you’re on Twitter, you can follow Yael, who will assuredly be posting updates.
Ten minutes before I checked in with Yael I’d gone through the handwritten recipes I have sitting on top of the microwave, to choose what I would write about today. It would be kugel, because it’s delicious and easy; because October is a month of Jewish holidays, and because I had a funny story about the first time I ate it and got the recipe. Also, the last time I made one, it was for a Passover this spring hosted by Yael and her parents. Today, I told Yael I was sending all love and courage and faith, and that overnighting cookies seemed beside the point but…
“Can I have the cookies when I get back?” she wrote.
Of course, I told her, that today’s Pie Talk would be kugel, at which she responded with today’s subtitle: “Pies for peace!”
Cross-posted at Smoke ‘Em if You Got ‘Em, where Pie Talk is a weekly Sunday paid subscriber bonus but considering the day’s events, is free for all. Pies for peace.
Episode notes and recipe:
The Bad Mother: A Novel, by Nancy Rommelmann
Michael Moynihan, yours truly, Yael Bar-Tur and Matt Welch at Israel Supreme Court, 2022
The light in Israel, plus Michael shows appreciation for the Israeli military
Reporting from Israel 2022:
Bill Schulz reads at Yael’s family Passover in NYC, 2023
American Playhouse’s Roanoak, on which I met my daughter’s dad. We built those villages in swampland, weathered one hurricane and 10,000 chigger bites; I crashed a truck into a tree and got chased up a different tree by a wild boar. Two marriages ended, one baby was born, and I fell in love so hard I thought a train had fallen on me. Tim is not in any of the scenes of this clip (which I’ve never before seen), but during the opening scene (or one like it), he and two other guys in the longboat fished me out of the river when my over-the-shoulder hip-waders filled up and pulled me under. At 2:43 you can see, rear right carrying the wounded man, the man who would become my daughter’s godfather, and at 3:03, Tim’s dad and my daughter’s grandfather Will comes in, as the Chief, always cast as the Chief, both because that’s where Natives in film were back in 1985, and also, maybe, because he was 6’7”.
Just after Tavie’s baptism, with her two non-Catholic godmothers
I misspoke when I said, the priest pressed $220 into my dad’s hand. It was of course the other way around!
Alison Segan’s Mother’s Kugel
1 12-ounce bag egg noodles
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter softened, plus more for buttering the pan
1 cup milk
4 eggs
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup white raisins
Frosted Flakes cereal
Boil noodles in boiling salted water until just cooked. While noodles are cooking, with a hand-mixer or standing mixer, blend the cream cheese and butter. Add all remaining ingredients (except noodles and Frosted Flakes) and blend until smooth. Combined drained noodles and cream cheese mixture, toss, and pour into an 8 x 12 (or so) buttered dish. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 350F. Unwrap noodles, sprinkle with a generous amount of Frosted Flakes, and bake for 1 hour, 15 minutes. Serve warm or cold.
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