High Holiday Ball Busting

Cooking for the Jewish High Holidays (New Year's and its conclusion on the Day of Atonement), is something of a competitive sport in Cincinnati. It may be in Chicago, too, or other cities, but I never kickboxed there with a bunch of Jewish girls, so I wouldn't know.

Since kickboxing and brisket don't seem like a natural fit, let me explain further. For the past year, I've been taking kickboxing at the Jewish Community Center. Our instructor, former military, who we will call Bob Weaver, is a generous guy who puts up with a lot, including trading of brisket recipes during class. The sessions during the week leading up to Rosh Ha'Shanna sounded something like this:

Gal One (hitting bag): "I've got twenty people coming!" "HRRAA!" "THUD"
Gal Two: "What are you making?"
Gal One: "THUNK" "Brisket! Of course!" "KEYUP!"
Gal Two (hitting bag): "HAAA" "How?" (pant pant)
Gal One: "WHAOP KA THUD" "Cooks eight hours"
Gal Two: "What?" (Here, the punching stops.)
Gal One: "Yeah. Four at 250 degrees and then it rests overnight. Then another four at 250 the next day."
Bob Weaver: "COME ONE NOW STOP PLAYIN' PATTY CAKE OVER THERE AND POP IT!"
Gal One And Two Hit Bag: "HRRAAA!" "THUD"
Gal Three (kicking bag): "My mother in-law makes it in advance and freezes it."
Gal One: "WHOMP" "Well, that's efficient."
Gal Three: "No, it's disgusting!" "HRRUMPH! THWACK!"
"It's all...GUHGH! Mushy!"
Bob Weaver: "COME ON LADIES, FOCUS!"
Gal Four (leaning over the top of the bag): "The best brisket I've ever had has 7-Up in it. My mother swears by it."
Gal Two (pausing mid-ab crunch): "Really? I've heard of using Coca Cola, but not 7-Up."
Bob Weaver: "SLACKERS! COME ON!!!!"

And so forth...

Inspired by my girls, I made a brisket with fig confit, a carrot souffle, spinach, a homemade challah and a plum tart. Isabelle, my mother, called me a "ballabusta", an archaic Yiddish word meaning something like Supermom, but not so nice. But I don't speak Yiddish, so I said, "Yeah, I've been taking this kickboxing class. I guess I am a ball buster."