Shabbat Shalom!

This week has been a hectic one - aren't they all? Last night was the zimriya at the elementary school here, where Dani attends. Amazingly, it was called for eight and intended to last about an hour - and we were actually done by nine!! It was fun, with a really nice atmosphere - the kids performing, and lots of parental singing along. I loved how many of the songs Ariella knew, including Hatikva, and even I knew the words for many of them.

Today we got ready for Shabbat, though Shana had to go to school for a test that took her all of four minutes, and Dani had a baseball game that his team lost 4-3. Reflecting on the year's record, that was a darned good score. Shanie is here with three friends (Avigayil who was here on Pesach and whom we really enjoyed having here, and Sharona and Chaya, all from Darchei Bina), and she is leaving on Wednesday. I can not believe the year is over already! We really loved having her here, and are going to miss her a lot.

I actually did make the cookies I thought I would, though an additional experiment for rolled cookies didn't come out as beautiful as I would need them to for selling purposes. I guess I should not have monkeyed around with the thickness after the first batch, which came out okay, but were gobbled down way too fast for a picture. But since the rejects taste delicious, the family is more than happy to hide the evidence. I will have to try them again soon, and try a couple of things differently.

First cookies this week are ginger crinkles, chewy and spicy and simple. It's one of those classics that just works.

Another classic - chocolate crinkle cookies. They are soft and cakey and rich, with chocolate chips accenting the texture.

And the last for today, the thin mint sandwich cookies. Chocolate cookies, chocolate mint ganache, dipped in chocolate - they're heavenly, scout's honor!

The other flavors for this week will have to wait to be photographed. Now it's time to finish up the Shabbat preparation and gulp down the food that we spent all that time cooking today. Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach.

Dvora