CurrentMom

Apples, apples and more apples -- Traditional Apple Pudding

Meal Monday

I love the fall. The crisp, clear weather is refreshing (at least here in New England) and it's all about new beginnings. One of our favorite family traditions has been to go apple picking every year. We have great pictures of our two children as infants on our backs, as toddlers, as youngsters, eating fruit right off the trees.

Now that they're both teenagers, they prefer buying apples to picking them themselves (sigh). But I still love visiting the orchards. All of this leads to a surfeit of apples which we can't eat fast enough to avoid some spoilage.

Independence Day

Truth Thursday

I did not grow up with an appreciation for our country. My family was not patriotic in any way. In fact, we were probably a little anti-patriotic.  Although my parents were too old to really be part of the counter culture, they both cared about issues of social justice and fairness, and in those days, the Left did not embrace the flag.

It wasn’t until I worked for a pro-immigration advocacy organization that I began to understand and appreciate the great privilege it is to live in this country, and the great lengths to which people from all over the world will go to come here and try to build a life here.

During the time I was in that job, our own world came toppling down, and 9/11 was a moment where everyone, no matter their political stripes, believed in America. It was the moment when the Democrats reclaimed the flag as a powerful symbol of what it means to care about your country in a way that mirrors my own upbringing – with a deep devotion to equality and justice for all. 

In my next job, I had a co-worker from England who became a citizen, and I went to his naturalization ceremony.  Over 800 people from all over the world had their names called out as they intoned the pledge of allegiance to this nation.  And just last month, I attended my son’s high school graduation ceremony where over 700 teens took their place in the world as young adults – with well over half of the graduates bearing names from foreign countries.

This is a great country. We are so fortunate to be a nation of immigrants, to be a safe haven, and to be the world’s largest democracy. We are lucky to have freedom of choice in terms of where we live, how we pray, where we send our children to school, how we dress, eat, and live our lives. Yes, there are many problems, not the least of which is the enormous divide between wealth and poverty.  But the hope and the promise is ever there – the opportunity to do better, rise up, become successful, and live a good life. 

Just Another Sunday in May

Truth Thursday

I just can’t bear to try to find another way to talk about Mother’s Day. It’s a non-holiday, one that I really dislike.  I am not interested in cards, in breakfast in bed (which no one in my family would think to do anyway) or even in a day at the spa on my own.

We have a kids baseball game and a field hockey game to attend. That’s good enough for me. I love attending my kids' events. I love being with my family, and relish the opportunities, especially now that I’m working full time. And when I need time and space away, I find it, and not on one particular Sunday a year.  

I don’t need my kids trying to find ways to show their love, when in fact, it wouldn’t really occur to them except in this manufactured way. I prefer to look at the bigger, long-term picture, and hope that our family life, for all its flaws, will sustain them into adulthood and they will be able to look back and say, you know, those parents of ours were ok.

Fudge Cookies -- Delicious Solution for Extra Matzo Meal

Meal Monday

I realize it's a significant and common problem: what to do with leftover matzo meal? Instead of keeping it and hoping it won't go stale before next Passover (unlikely), I recommend using it to make these cookies. Passover or not, these are delicious and very satisfying.

The recipe is from Susie Fishbein's Passover by Design cookbook and she credits the original recipe to Rivki Shaulson. Sounds authentic to me.

As usual, easy to make.

Giant Zebra Fudge Cookies

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

2 cups matzo meal

2 cups good quality Dutch process cocoa powder

4 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp baking powder

confectioner's sugar, sifted

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, mix the oil, sugar, matzo meal, cocoa powder, eggs, vanilla and baking powder until a soft dough forms.

4. Roll the dough into 18 balls slightly larger than golf balls.

5. Fill a small bowl with confectioner's sugar and stir with a fork to break up any clumps. Lower the balls, one at a time, into the confectioner's sugar and toss to coat heavily and completely. Transfer to prepared cookie sheets. Leave room between the dough balls, as the cookies spread during baking.

6. Bake for 18 minutes. If you like smaller cookies, form walnut sized dough balls and bake for 12 minutes.

7. Cool completely.

A Working Mom's Holiday

Truth Thursday

Passover is around the corner. Seders, which are one of my favorite Jewish traditions, are filled with delicious, ritual foods, the preparation of which requires days (and days) of cooking, baking and freezing.

But there’s more to Passover than just the seder. There’s the ritual spring cleaning of the house. In a traditional Jewish home, one is required to remove every single crumb of bread from every corner of the house, so much so that you are supposed to use a feather the night before the holiday to check the corners for crumbs.

There’s also the changing of the dishes. A kosher home requires not only separate dishes for meat and dairy meals, but a whole separate set of meat and dairy dishes that taken out only for Passover.

Then there’s the food shopping – since people who observe Passover cannot eat any leavened product for the entire eight days of the holiday, special Passover foods must be purchased. To shop in a kosher market the week before Passover is taking your life in your hands.

And of course, there’s still laundry to do, homework to oversee, sports to attend, dishes to wash, lunches to prepare and everyday life to attend to.

How on earth is a mom who works outside the home supposed to make all this happen? A fairy godmother? The wave of a magic Passover wand, much like Moses’ famous rod that turns into a serpent?

Or just days and nights of exhausted preparation on top of work and home life?

I’m thinking number three.