The big picture

 On Friday night I bless my children.  Weirdly, my teenagers who usually scowl at me love this one moment of intimacy.

Instead of shouting at my 17 year old daughter (“watch out for cars”) when she leaves for school in the morning, on Friday night, I whisper in her ear “May God bless you and keep you”

Instead of the usual morning checklist I yell at my son(“glasses, phone, Oyster card, wallet and lunch card”) on Friday night I stretch up and whisper, “May God shine his face upon you and be gracious to you”

Instead of yelling at my little one (“switch off the TV now, no you can’t have more ice-cream, and have you practised the piano?”), I put my arms around her and whisper: “May God turn his face to you and establish peace for you”

I am the one who is blessed.

Chicken soup

I could only make this soup properly when I went out and bought myself an enormous soup pot.

Ingredients

Slug of sunflower oil

Four chicken carcasses

(Go to a butcher for this, not a supermarket)

Three carrots sliced

Three sticks celery sliced

Bunch of fresh parsley

Two leeks sliced

One turnip sliced

Two Telma chicken stock cubes

Lots of boiling water

Method

First put oil in the pot, then veggies, then carcasses, then stock cubes and finally water.

Boil on low for three hours.

Pour soup through a sieve.  Add salt to taste.

Make kneidlach from a pack. Boil kneidlach in salted boiling water. Add to soup.