A Pact

Years ago our friend Frank made a pact. He promised that at every Solstice and Equinox, he'd show up at the Bodega Headlands (cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean), to express gratitude to everything that Life gives us ... including the challenges that make us look at our lives in different ways.

The Autumnal Equinox was on the 22nd this year at 8:09 pm and was enhanced by a full moon rising just as the sun set (only happens maybe every twenty years or so I've been told). Ted and I bundled up and drove through vineyards and farmland to join Frank and others to honor this spectacular event.

Ted and I spend a lot of time indoors in our little 10'x10' office, glued back-to-back in front of our computers until our eyeballs bleed. So I was thinking the other day that all I wanted to do was run outside and get SLAPPED in the face by Nature. She didn't let me down.

We arrived at the Headlands just at sunset. In the west, the sun looked like a giant egg yolk dipping into the sea. At the same time, the full moon floated up and they seemed to nod at each other as they switched places in the evening sky. A cool, sharp wind SLAPPED me in the face and I laughed out loud.

(Moon rising photo courtesy of Rogelio Herrera)

As we all stood at the Headlands, holding hands in a circle, honoring the four directions, being blessed by a full Harvest Moon, giving thanks to Life for our lives, we were blown open by the Mystery of it all, forgetting the small details of our day-to-day existence and just fully experiencing the magnitude of being human.

Thank you Life ... and thank you FRANK!, for making a pact, and sharing it, and reminding us of what it really feels like to be wondrously, miraculously ALIVE.

"Oy!"

I have rich memories at this time of year, of family dinners at Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. As a very young child, my grandparents, and a great grandparent or two, were still alive - living links to an ancient lineage. Holiday time brought us all together at the dinner table where the Lineage Baton was being passed from the elders to the younger generations.

As sweetly sentimental as that may sound, my experience of those dinners was both wonderful and slightly torturous. I loved the energy and excitement of having lots of people in the house but by the time we all took our seats at the table I was always ravenously hungry. Surrounded by aunts and uncles, and old grandmothers with thick accents and equally thick heeled shoes, and large men with suspenders and tallits and yamulkas, I remember fidgeting at the table, bored by languages I didn't understand (Yiddish and Hebrew), smelling food from the kitchen that peaked my already roaring stomach, and wondering why there was so much "special" talk (prayers) over candles and bread and wine, and why we just couldn't EAT right NOW.

I didn't fully appreciate those rituals until later in life, when older relatives passed on, family members moved away and holiday dinners dwindled. I missed them and realized that joining together for a meal at holiday time not only continues personal lineages, but connects us to all human lineages that are thousands of years old — Rosh Hashana, Christmas, Ramadan, Diwalli, Kwansa, Cavepeople celebrating their Mastodon kill — whatever the holiday, whatever the form, the substance is the same ... people enjoying each other at special times of the year, building memories, and expressing love through food.

And that brings me to a story about this year's "High Holy Days" ...

Ted and I are finding joy in being closer to family up here. For Rosh Hashana we all gathered at my sister and brother-in-law's house for ... Chinese take-out? Yep, as much as I reminisce about those holiday dinners of my youth, Chinese take-out eaten casually around the table with lots of beer and laughter at Jewish New Year is equally as evocative, memory-building and loving. Where I enjoy tradition and it definitely has it's place, I'm also for new traditions in the making.

Enter Neela.

Neela is an East Indian woman who owned a wildly successful restaurant in Los Angeles called Bombay Café. Her talent was Indian home cooking and Oh Man her food was gooood! Neela moved up to Napa with her Cuban-American Jewish husband Franklin, a couple of years ago (about the same time we did), and opened "Neela's" some months later. Having loved our Bombay Café experiences down south, we were happy to discover her up here, so when we got her email about her Yom Kippur dinner — Jewish traditional food with Indian influences — who could resist that?

Yom Kippur Dinner at Neela's:

ON THE TABLE —

Raisin Challah (no Bernie, not as good as yours, but good)

Yogurt & Walnut chutney, Red Onion-Tomato Chutney, Fruit Chutney

Manischewitz wine.

Really! Manischewitz wine! For those of you who don't know Manischewitz wine, it was a staple at our family holiday dinners. It's sweeter than sweet, very syrupy, grapey and only 7% alcohol, but as a kid it used to make me loopier than Crazy Googenheimer. The waitress poured us a huge pour and guess what ... yep, loopier than Crazy Googenheimer.

STARTERS —

Latkes with smoked salmon and creme fraiche

Indian spiced deviled eggs

Smoked Trout with spiced garbanzo beean spread crostini

Pearls of Wisdom Soup with mini matzo balls and chicken meatballs in a chili-cilantro scented broth and a mirepoix of vegetables

ENTREE —

Brisket au jus with whole spices

Savory Kugel with cabbage and carrots and jalapenos

Asparagus with garlic and green chili

Pineapple and Avocado salsa

DESSERT

Apple Strudel with Cardamom Ice Cream

Raspberry Rugalachs

So how do you say "groan" in Hebrew? Or should we say it in Hindi?

Well in the Universal Language of Overindulgence, we'll just say, "Oy!"