Why the name Tzofia Reevi….
We knew as soon as Ziva was pregnant that we somehow wanted to name the baby after her father who died three years ago after a long and painful struggle with pancreatic cancer. His name was Jack (Ya’acov) and we didn’t exactly like the sound of Ya’acova for our little girl, so we decided to get a bit creative. We quickly decided on the name Tzofia for several reasons.
Tzofia in Hebrew means “looking onward” or “looking toward.” Tzofia connotes optimism and hope, and we believe it conveys the way Jack lived his life - always looking on the bright side of life, viewing the glass always half full and always taking on challenges with an unmeasurable amount of positive energy and enthusiasm. Jack could always be relied upon for encouragement and positivity and we hope these wonderful attributes live on in our daughter.
Tzofia is also from the Hatikva, Israel’s national anthem.
עין לציון צופיה
Ayin L’tzion Tzofia (An eye still watches toward Zion…)
Little Tzofia is the first sabra of our family and we are unapologetic Zionists, so we thought the name was a nice fit and it’s nice to express our love of Israel through our daughter.
Her second name, Reevi, is after Ziva’s aunt Reeva who died two months ago after her life was cut short by a terminal disease. Reeva was “the cool Aunt” who had a tremendous amount of influence on Ziva growing up. I’d like to share a small paragraph from a speech that Ziva wrote and that read at Reeva’s funeral.
Aunt Reeva always opened my eyes to new and exciting ideas. For my Bat Mitzvah, Aunt Reeva took me around NY for the day. We went to brunch downtown, the MoMA and a Broadway play. Walking around the museum, we had a heated discussion on ‘What is Art?’ Though I was all of 12 - and without any of the Art History degrees I later acquired - Aunt Reeva listened and challenged me. She let me pick the play and so we went to Starlight Express, which I imagine wasn’t on Reeva’s list of ‘must see theater’. A few years ago, when I met Reev at the new MoMA for a reunion tour of the new galleries, we laughed about how I enjoyed the rollerskating play about trains and the MoMA equally - my own clash of high and low-brow culture. Perhaps my taste was just ahead of my time, I said. “No one I’m related to can have taste that bad, Ziv,” she laughed.
We can only hope that Tzofia Reevi will live her life with the positivity, optimism, open mindedness, creativity, humor and love of life that Ziva’s dad and aunt did.
Yeah, I’m like tired and stuff
First of all, thank you so much for all the nice comments. We checked them often and I’ve reread them about 40 times. It’s quite rare that people say such nice things to me. I just started replying to my emails today, so I’ll get back to everyone soon.
Whew. They weren’t joking when they say you don’t get much sleep once a little baby comes into your life. Not only am I not sleeping, I’m way behind on Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Heroes, Smallville, Scrubs, Ugly Betty and Beauty and the Geek. I guess being behind on television shows is a sacrifice I must make. Granted, I have no problem with it. I may be exhausted and out of the pop culture loop (more into poop culture these days) but I’d sacrifice all of my favorite television shows in a nanosecond to continue with the unbridled joy I have been experiencing in week one of my daughter’s life. Except Homicide: Life on the Killing Street and The Wire. I won’t sacrifice that. And if Battlestar Galactica kills off Helo, I wouldn’t give that up either. But besides those three shows, I’d give up anything.
Please forgive me for that poop culture joke. That was incredibly dreadful and corny. It made me hate myself even more than I already do.
What I’ve learned this week. Infant shit does not smell. Someone should patent that.
Does she come with an instruction book?
Man, the past two days have been a whirlwind. More later, but let me just say that Ziva is unbelievable. Her strength and resolve were absolutely mindblowing. I’ve experienced emotions yesterday that I never knew existed.
Allow me to introduce our daughter (!) Tzofia Reevi. She’s very rock and roll. And no comments about the shape of her head. You’d also look like that if you were pulled out of a vagina with a suction cup.
Descriptive links
Cool.
Liberal anti-Semite or anti-Israel? Take the quiz and find out!
Slate has a quiz up asking “Are You a Liberal Anti-Semite?”
My results:
Phew! You’re an unbigoted liberal - painfully capable of striking a middle ground and excruciatingly tolerant of all points of view. Please enjoy this complete set of Barack Obama’s speeches.
Yeah. That’s about right.
Say you love strawberries!
To me, Winter in Israel means strawberries. Strawberries are hot! What better way to use fresh seasonal Israeli strawberries than make strawberry ice cream? Strawberry shortcake? How goyish! When a nine month pregnant woman demands strawberry ice cream you best deliver! And deliver I did (actually the ninth month pregnant wife did most of the work)! We make a lot of ice cream (usually in the summer months). We’ve made green tea, chai, halvah, cinnamon and other funky flavors. This might be the first time we made a traditional flavor. The results were outstanding. And yes, it tastes as good as it looks.
Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe
Ingredients: 3 heaping cups of strawberries, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/3 cup sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 1/2 cups half-and-half, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract (or a half of a vanilla pod)
Puree the strawberries with the salt in a food processor. This should make about two cups of puree. Put any extra puree on the side for a strawberry sauce.
In a medium mixing bowl, beat the sugar into the eggs until thickened and pale yellow.
Bring the the half and half to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan. Slowly beat the hot half and half into the eggs and sugar. Make sure you temper first or you’ll end up with scrambled eggs. Pour the entire mixture back into the pan and place over low heat. Stir constantly with a whisk until the custard thickens slightly. Do not let the mixture boil or you will most certainly end up with scrambled eggs. Remove the custard from the heat and pour the hot custard through a strainer into a large, clean bowl. Allow the custard to cool slightly, then stir in the strawberry puree, cream and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate for at least three hours. Now is a good time to make the strawberry sauce.
Stir the chilled custard, then freeze in 1 or 2 batches in your ice cream machine. When finished, the ice cream will be soft but ready to eat. Firm it up in the freezer for a couple of hours if that is your taste.
Heat up the extra strawberry puree and add some sugar to taste, a bit of vanilla (I used a dash of vanilla liquor), a drop of balsamic vinegar and reduce by a 1/3. Refrigerate.
This recipe was adapted from The Ultimate Ice Cream Book: Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, And More
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