The recipe for green beans, which I prepared for our son's
sheva brochos cum Purim Seuda, is really quite
ordinary. The circumstances under which I was cooking were
totally out of the ordinary.
I was standing in the kitchen and to the left of my feet was
a large open hole. A few days before the wedding, the pipes
of the heating system had sprung a leak. The plumbers arrived
and dug up the area from the front door and down the hall
past the kitchen, leaving a sandy, wet sunken hole, which
didn't smell too good. On the day in question, the plumbers
and the tile expert were in the hall attempting to close the
mess over. As the onions were frying, there were frequent
calls of "Geveret." At each call, I set aside the pot
and came to approve the next step in the process. At last the
onions reached the lovely state of golden brown and I was
about to squeeze in a few choice cloves of garlic to quickly
stir before they would become bitter. Garlic should never be
fried or it will spoil the taste of the food rather than
enhance it.
Just as I was about to put on the squeeze, two screams were
heard.
One was, "Geveret!" which I have already explained.
The second was "IMAAAA!" It came from down the hall where my
daughter and daughter-in-law were. The daughter had just
tried on her wedding gown, which had been picked up that
morning from the seamstress. Yes, there was, Boruch
Hashem, another wedding coming up fast and the gown
didn't fit! The lady had sewn the side seams up from where
the rental person had pinned it, instead of down towards the
hips. It was totally wrong.
Garlic press in hand, I stopped over the gaping hole, trying
not to step on the newly laid tiles, to comfort the bride-to-
be and assure her that it would be done right the next time.
I couldn't tell her that there was plenty of time because
there wasn't. Nodding at the tile expert, I jumped back into
the kitchen to add garlic, tomato sauce, spices, water and
bring to a boil. Before the next crisis could erupt, I tossed
in the frozen beans and left to simmer.
For some reason, the green beans were a big hit and everyone
wanted the recipe. The ingredients are all here and told,
except for the extraordinary cirumstances, which I could wish
only the good parts on my friends.
May we all be privileged to prepare only for
simchas.
