Marvin and I are not from the biggest travellers or adventure seekers, but I tell you it's been quite a year. Writing and producing our book was a learning experience in and of itself, and then we went away for Pesach to cook for a large family in a small boutique hotel.
Camp Moshava in Indian Orchard (Honesdale) Pennsylvania is just lovely. It smells of grass and wood, and everything is so green and lush and thick compared to Israel- I'm jealous of the water and the wetness, and the thick forest that forms the scenic backdrop everywhere you look. People here don't know what it's like to thirst for rain so badly it hurts. Getting in the shower is such a shock- strong, boiling hot water on demand, no guilty feelings for staying in the jetstream for a few minutes longer...
We were whisked over to see the camp's most famous sites that we had heard about for years already on the afternoon we arrived - Walmart, followed the next day by the Salvation Army store. Walmart was everything we had heard about- the eye department fixed my broken glasses in minutes, no charge of course, with a "my pleasure, ma'am, you have yourself a nice day". Bottles of shampoo and soap for $1, huge bags of barbequed chips for $2, extra firm pillows were $5 each. I've already had malted balls, junior mints (seinfeld memorabilia), a heath bar, and a delicious, banana-ey banana (unlike the tasteless ones I'm so used to) from Costa Rica (strong urge to make banana bread..). The salvation army store has loads of name brand clothes for great prices, and even with that it's 50% off on Wednesdays....but we just looked.
In the kitchen I've already been treated to a creamsicle (tell me those aren't the best!), instant hot chocolate, and instant oatmeal. The blueberry muffin mix I had to use this morning to bake slabs of "blueberry muffin cake" for 450 people was quite different for someone who baked muffins from scratch for most mornings of 21 years! (the funniest part, is that it was quite tasty! I'm serious. I can't help it- I love a lot of really crappy junk food...)(I wish I didn't , but I do.) Bread pudding for lunch today was the recipe from my cookbook- but we made it with about 30 loaves of bread, 400 eggs, 240 cups of milk, and about 18 kilos of bright orange (what on earth do they feed the cows here?) shredded cheddar cheese. And this was only for the staff...
750 kids come up to camp Tuesday morning, so this is all just a warm-up act... but it is sooo much fun in the kitchen! Marvin and I are definitely part of the "alte kackers" in the kitchen with all the young kids around helping us, but it's still fun (except I have to buy earplugs- I like working to music, but the decibel level these kids like working too is definitely damaging my eardrums).
That's it till next time- I really have to try to concentrate more on salads, but I still need to get to Baskin Robbins and Krispy Kreme you-know-whats, so the dieting will have to wait till I get back home....
Have a great Shabbat, everyone.
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