I’m going to admit I’m cheating on this one. I never measure when I make matza balls. Too much trouble. I just mix 2-3 eggs, some matza meal, some oil, some seltzer, a touch of salt, a bit of pepper until I get a goopy but not too gluppy mixture. Then I refrigerate for a few hours, take it out when my soup is boiling hot, form the balls quickly and throw ’em in the pot.
Since you probably want measurements, I’m taking them off my box of Streit’s matzah meal:
1 cup matzah meal
4 large eggs (I don’t usually make this much)
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup seltzer
1 tsp. salt or to taste
pinch of ground pepper
Beat eggs. Add oil, salt, pepper. Mix well. Add matzah meal and stir thoroughly. Refrigerate for 1/2 to 1 hour. Bring soup to a boil. Moisten palms with cold water (I’ve never done this: have you?). Form mixture into balls 1″ in diameter. Drop balls into boiling water. When all the balls are in the pot, reduce heat to low. Simmer covered for about 30 minutes.
Tricks: don’t handle the balls much. Do use the seltzer.
Anyone else got any good matza ball tricks? My paternal grandmother’s matza balls supposedly floated out the window. The opposite are some I have tasted from a can that would make great golf balls.
In honor of Ilana-Davita who is hosting the Kosher Cooking Carnival at the end of January
Northern border of Israel (Rosh HaNikra), where Beirut is closer than JerusalemThe skies are gray in New Jersey. The leaves are brown, rain fell, we have no snow. My clients (thank you, thank you) are busy sending me work, and I’m not tempted to photograph much right now. When I do have time, I’m checking up on the news in Israel. Or on Twitter, to see what links are posted there. Mostly, I click on the ones related to Israel (and the ‘situation’ or ‘matzav’ as it’s known in Hebrew). I check certainblogsmoreoften. In Facebook I see friends wondering “what is the best way to support Israel?”. A new website called Help Us Win has many suggestions.
Today a blog called Real Israel (the blog is new to me, just learned about this last week via Twitter) posted:
I thank her for including my post on Art in Israel (often pics speak louder than words for me).
I just read on the Jerusalem Post that the Israelis are expected to wrap up the operations in Gaza in about a week or so. That will be a relief for many.
A beautiful song is in this week’s parsha of Vayechi. The scene is Yaacov on his deathbed, blessing his grandsons Ephraim and Menashe. Part of the blessing has become a pretty song that parents often sing to children at bedtime.
Translation in English:
“May the angel who redeemed me from all harm bless the youths, and may they be called by my name and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the land.”
Click on the little girl to see the same little girl with Play and Pause buttons. Click on Play to hear my daughter (and me) singing the song. Or click here for song. (I couldn’t get the Flash to embed directly in this post; one still needs a plugin for this.)
Rashi states that “the youths” refer to Ephraim and Menashe. But I like to think of the youths as any kids that are in the room at the time the song is being sung.
Hope you will find this relaxing and a calming way to get through the rest of the week!
Rafi hosts the “cut short by the war” edition of JPIX, the blog carnival of Jewish photo bloggers. I greatly appreciate his link to my post on the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi and the inclusion of my ibex photo (see that cute guy at right).
Speaking of blog carnivals, Ilana-Davita will be hosting the upcoming Kosher Cooking Carnival, so be sure to submit a food-related post to her. This past sentence will appear on my blog on Asarah B’Tevet, the 10th of Tevet, so I apologize in advance to anyone who reads these words while fasting.
Last week Mary asked for a red sign. I didn’t really want to photograph a stop sign and was fortunate to find the above sign in my archives. It was taken in Modiin, Israel last June, home of bloggers Baila (who has been blogging bits about the war) and triLcat (who is about to give birth, if she hasn’t already).
This is what I would show, if I weren’t showing a sign today. I’m pretty sure this is my chrysanthemum, buried in a December snowstorm. A brief snowstorm, it was.
Lest you think New Jersey looks like the snowy pic, here are recent strawberry leaves. No snow here.
This is the last flower I can find on my block. It is in a neighbor’s front yard, a neighbor who has many perennials planted in front of her house instead of grass.
I believe this is a kind of heather of the family Erica.
Today’s Flowers is hosted by Luiz Santilli Jr. Thank you, Luiz, for this lovely and fun meme.
Sufganiyot = Doughnuts
On Saturday night we learned that after 8 years of suffering under rocket attacks from Gaza, Israel has struck back. This rather colored my week, as I anxiously think of family, friends and my people.
Memories of Mums in Watercolor
Let’s Play Pretend (please watch this short video about war if you haven’t already. thank you).
Elsewhere in the Blogosphere
Seraphic Secret, the self-anointed Bob Hope of the Gaza War, has his10 best movies of 2008 (from Hollywood’s Golden Age). Here’s part one of his picks. I must check these at some point: when movies were movies!
First, I want to give a big thank you to the Babysitter for giving me a blog award.. I am a big fan of her other blog, the Jewish Side, especially her parsha posts. I’ll have to think about whom to send this next.
Sky Watch Friday is a photo meme with photos of sunrises, sunsets, blue skies, gray skies, pink skies, dark skies and any other kind of sky posted by bloggers all over the planet.
It was early in the morning last week, and she was supposed to be getting ready for school. But when she quipped, “look a sunset,” (she’s only 6) it was hard to resist running to get the camera and taking some photos.
Then my visually observant child noticed the pink on the other side of the house as well, so I took this photo out of her other window. She eventually did get dressed and get to school (sometimes a major struggle in our household).
First, a link to what I wrote last year about Parshat Vayigash (yippee! first time I can do that, link to an old parsha post): Why Didn’t Yosef Send a Letter to Yaakov
From this parsha onward, there are not a lot of women in the Torah. We have Moshe’s female relatives (mom Yocheved, sister Miriam, wife Tzipora). And there is a woman who is mentioned only three times in the Torah: Serah Bat Asher. Actually, in this week’s parsha her name is affiliated with her brothers, not her father:
And the sons of Asher: Imnah, and Ishvah, and Ishvi, and Beriah, and Serah their sister
Commentators suggest that perhaps she is the adopted daughter of Asher, and her mother is his wife but she is from a different father.
When I was younger and I heard a midrash, they would sound silly or fake to me. The text would make sense, but then why the fantastic midrash? Midrashim came about because of questions in the text, and now as an adult I have more appreciation for them. Indeed, all we know in detail about Serah is because of midrashim, and because a big question regarding Serah in the text is: why mention her at all? She must be there for a reason.
In Torah of the Mothers (see previous posts about Devorah and Daughters of Tzelafchad), Rachel Adelman writes a whole essay about Serah Bat Asher. In this post I will just quote one midrash, the one where we learn how she brings “life” back into Jacob as she tells him his son Yosef is alive:
[The brothers said:] If we tell him right away, “Joseph is alive!” perhaps he will have a stroke [lit., his soul will fly away]. What did they do? They said to Serah, daughter of Asher, “Tell our father Jacob that Joseph is alive and he is Egypt.” What did she do? She waited till he was standing in prayer and then said in a tone of wonder, “Joseph is in Egypt/ There have been born on his knees/ Menasseh and Ephraim” [three rhyming lines: Yosef beMizrayim/Yuldu lo al birkayim/ Menasheh ve’Ephrayim]. His heart failed, while he was standing in prayer. When he finished his prayer, he saw the wagons: immediately the spirit of Jacob came back to life.
(This quote is from Midrash HaGadol 45:26, translated by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg in Genesis: The Beginning of Desire).
This paragraph does not say anything about a harp, although my daughter, who is sitting next to me as I write this post, clearly told me she learned that Serah plays a harp as she gently gives the good news to Jacob. With midrashim there is frequently more than one version. However it was that she broke the news to Jacob, with a musical harp or poetry or both, we can learn from her about how to relate shocking news to an older person, with gentleness and caring.
I’m going to admit I’m cheating on this one. I never measure when I make matza balls. Too much trouble. I just mix 2-3 eggs, some matza meal, some oil, some seltzer, a touch of salt, a bit of pepper until I get a goopy but not too gluppy mixture. Then I refrigerate for a few hours, take it out when my soup is boiling hot, form the balls quickly and throw ’em in the pot.
Rafi hosts the “cut short by the war” edition of 
First, I want to give a big thank you to the 
From this parsha onward, there are not a lot of women in the Torah. We have Moshe’s female relatives (mom Yocheved, sister Miriam, wife Tzipora). And there is a woman who is mentioned only three times in the Torah: Serah Bat Asher. Actually, in this week’s parsha her name is affiliated with her brothers, not her father: