songbird's crazy world

 Do you know what matzoh brei is?  Have you ever made it?  My mother used to make matzoh brei at Passover.  She’d use four sheets of matzoh,  she’d break it into small pieces and soak the pieces in water until soft.  She’d squeeze out the extra water.  Then she’d beat four eggs and add them to the matzoh.  Then she'd heat up some oil in a frying pan and add the matzoh-egg mixture,  and cook it like a frittata, flipping it once so that both sides would brown.  She’d dust it with some sugar before serving. I’ve made my mother’s recipe a few times, Drew’s version of matzoh brei is slightly different, after he pours the matzoh-egg mixture into the pan, he cooks it the same way he’d cook scrambled eggs, so that when he serves the final product it looks like a mound of fried matzoh. Well, since my celiac diagnosis three years ago I have not been able to eat real matzoh. Fortunately Yehuda makes gluten free “matzoh squares”.  They’re not b...

  Easter Parade Welcome to  Saturday: 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme! Saturday 9: Easter Parade Revised and revived from the archives Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it  here . 1) This song  is best known from the 1948 movie of the same name, but it was originally written for a 1933 Broadway play called  As Thousands Cheer . In the play, a young man reads about the parade in a New York newspaper and decides to go and show his lady love off to parade goers. What's the most recent parade you attended? I don’t think I’ve been to a parade in decades … when my kids w...

 I believe you are in my spot Neighborhood cat on my fence Shadow worries about her weight She loves her boxes She loves high places Dominance games  But they sleep near each other, so I guess they actually like each other. So Duchess was in the “bucket”, the top level of the cat tree.  And then shadow came over and started using the bottom pillars as a scratching post. If looks could kill, Shadow would be dead right now. But she’s so innocent, right?  Just sharpening her nails … Just like sisters …

 We went out to dinner last Friday. We finished eating, got into the car and started driving home. And the sky was … amazing.

 Did you watch the launch?  Artemis II is headed to the moon.  The television coverage reminded me of how the Apollo missions were covered.   Drew and I heard about the Artemis mission back in 2016, when we visited the Kennedy Center in Cape Canaveral.  Maybe someday I will see a rocket launch live. We are going to Florida in a few weeks.  Not to the Space Coast, though.  We have friends who live near Tampa.   We haven’t seen them since 2022, when we visited them just before our cruise. It’ll be a mellow getaway.  I’m really looking forward to it. And I’m so happy the TSA agents are being paid and the airports are back to normal.  And that we have TSA PreCheck. The best and worst of our country … But what did you expect, with a full moon on April Fools Day? No, I don’t really believe in signs and portents, but the combination was curious. In other news, I’m really enjoying my little home gym.  I’ve been working with resistance bands...

 In the Book of Exodus we are told that the Israelites fled Egypt in such haste that they could not wait for the bread to rise, but baked it while still flat.   From this comes the tradition of eating matzoh during Passover.  Matzoh is made by mixing flour and water, and baking it within 18 minutes so that it does not have the chance to rise. So on Passover Jews are not permitted to eat any grain-based products that have the potential to rise.  Nothing made with wheat, barley, rye, oats or spelt may be consumed.  No bread, no cake, no pasta…  What most Jews use instead?  Matzoh meal.  It’s basically matzoh ground into a fine powder, which can be used instead of flour or bread crumbs.  Matzoh balls are made with matzoh meal. Want to make a meatloaf?  Use matzoh meal as a binder.  Dredge chicken cutlets in matzoh meal and fry them.  My mother used to make matzoh meal pancakes. But there is a small group of Jews who think using ma...