Cabbage shortage, excess RC

Religious junior and senior high schools start Sukkot vacation from Erev Yom Kippur. This year that means two extra days of vacation, today and Sunday. Sukkot vacation for the younger ones lasts ten days.

That means my 12- and 14-year-olds are busy cooking for Shabbat. The 14-year-old is baking "Chanukah Gelt Double Fudge Cake None Better," from Marcy Goldman's Jewish Holiday Cakes. It calls for flat soda. We happen to have two unopened bottles of RC from Pesach, but we'd have to make a lot of cake to use it up. (Please don't tell anyone I allowed this.) We are making it in a flat pan, with no layers and no frosting. Frosting around here is only for birthdays.

My son A, 12, is making burgul (what Americans called bulgur wheat), potatoes, chicken with vegetables, mayonnaise, and potato kugel. Some family members object if unadulterated potatoes do not appear on the table. A said that he like the feel of raw chicken, bless him. I have challah and soup from Erev Yom Kippur. And the sukkah is being built by my husband and various helpers, slowly but surely.

My sister-in-law invited us for the first day of Sukkot. I offered to bring challah and stuffed cabbage but we can't find cabbage and the stores are unlikely to be restocked on Sunday. That happens sometimes in a Jewish country. . .

My daughter and I just examined the RC supply. We found *four* bottles of the stuff, because I had bought a six-pack on sale. Until my daughter saw the bottles she didn't realize what they were (bilingual vocabulary issue). She belongs to an "anti-Coke" club in school; I hope she won't be expelled. She is also complaining that the RC is not really flat, but I think the recipe will come out fine. My teenage guests for Shabbat chol hamoed should be able to finish off the rest of the RC.

My mother z"l used to buy Coke on two occasions: For Pesach (along with chocolate), because she believed that people needed something sweet to make up for chametz deprivation; and for offering workers who came to the house. Now that I think about it, she kept a few bottles in the basement for that purpose. I guess she didn't worry about it getting flat.