Weather It Is (Winter Arrives)

Good Evening:

The debate between the air conditioner and the heater was won this past Friday night by the heater. With a long rumble of thunder and additional flashes of lightning -- and some light rain -- the warm weather of Friday was replaced by much cooler weather of Shabbat.  No longer is the window open and no longer will the air conditioner cool the air.

True, this week's weather won't be particularly cold, but the nights will be on the chilly side, and some clouds and additional some showers on Monday and (hopefully) heavier rain at the end of the week will have folks running to turn on the heat.

The cause of our winter time weather is a deepening trough in the eastern Mediterranean, which will bring the coldest weather of the fall/winter season as we head into the end of the week and early next week.  The rain is not forecast to be very heavy, but it should be enough to make for a wet day or two in areas from the north to central areas (although there is still some uncertainty about how far south into central Israel the rain will get).

With the cold weather comes a greater desire for something sweet to eat with a cup of hot chocolate.
Thus, I was not surprised when my wife mentioned that her mother used to make a very moist and tender chocolate cake.  Unfortunately, the recipe has been lost -- but not to worry I found something that at least is called "Moist and Tender Chocolate Cake (picture of what's left over and recipe below).

This all seems very innocent, but then I checked the calendar.  You see, my wife made this request just a few days before her birthday period (here we celebrate birthdays from the date in the Gregorian calendar until the date in the Hebrew Calendar -- or vice versa).  While a birthday boy or girl could conceivably get presents on any of his or her birthday days, it occurred to me that my wife was also trying to get two cakes (tradition says: just one cake) for one birthday. So, I did the smart thing: I declared the start of her birthday period two days early.  So, despite her objections,  she's now a year older even though she's really not.

Barry Lynn
P.S. You can make the icing from powdered vanilla or chocolate pudding, with the addition of one regularly sized container of Rich's whipping cream, and some powdered sugar, etc).

https://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/32386/Moist-and-Tender-Chocolate-Cake