Month: May 2011

For whatever crazy reason, I didn’t post two new recipes I came up with over Passover.

But they were a.) fun! and b.) delish!

And now the world knows: fried matzah balls are crazy-good.  And Passover ‘baby bites’ are crazy-crazy-good.

There’s not even a recipe, really for either!  For the fried matzah balls, just make the matzah balls like regular — you can either use the box or your own recipe, then after the usual 15-minute wait in the fridge for it to come together, take a small ice-cream scoop (I think the one I use is about 2 tbsp size):

Fry them in vegetable oil at 375* until golden brown:

…and they turn out so yummy and almost like hushpuppies!  The next time I make these I may put a lot more herbs inside, like thyme…

The other thing I made during Passover was from just a regular Manischewitz cake box.  Now, I almost never-ever-ever cook from a box or a can during any other part of the year, but during Passover, wellllll…

My friend Leslie loves these little Passover cakes.  And Av has from time-to-time had these serve as his birthday cake depending on when Passover falls.  And we all love little cake pieces called “baby bites”.

So!  I prepared the box according to directions (pic 1), then crumbled it up in a large bowl (pic 2), prepared the icing mix to directions then added 1/4 c. butter and 1/2 c. chocolate chips & let that get all melted together carefully in the microwave — then put that in the bowl with the cake and mixed, then (pic 4) used a very small ice-cream scoop and put the little rounds on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet:

Put the cookie sheet in the freezer for about thirty minutes:

When you’re ready to finish these, just make a simple-simple chocolate icing by combining butter and more chocolate chips in the microwave (watch & mix a lot so they don’t burn).  Basically you’re going to need about two tbsp butter for every handful of chocolate chips.  This is one of those recipes that you really don’t need a recipe for.  Once you get started, you’ll see exactly how much you need to make and that’s one of the fun things about it.  Dunk the top of each piece of cake in the chocolate, then put back on the parchment paper.  I like keeping these in the refrigerator.

…and once they’re all set:

Well, we’ve been busy.

Since the tornado hit, I’ve been to Arab to bring food to a friend, to Cullman with Leslie to bring cases of food we bought at Sam’s for the food banks there (the churches there are doing some great work!) and visit friends (one of whom still doesn’t have power), Leslie has been to Rosedale and Alberta City to help people as a RN, Av brought supplies to Pratt City:

Can you imagine?

…and yesterday, Av and Leslie and I along with a group from one of our congregations went to Pleasant Grove, bringing supplies and helping to clean a residential section.

The homesite we stopped at belonged to an older lady who had taken shelter from the tornado in her bathtub.  It was estimated that she had been thrown 50-100 feet away (bathtub one way, her another, but she survived).  Her home was a tangle.  It was impossible to tell amongst all the lumber — just sticks, really, where the home started and ended.

We made stacks (that’s Leslie on the left and me on the right) of wood, concrete blocks, metal, trash, and personal items.

What a strange thing to say that I felt ‘lucky’ but the part of the site that I climbed into at first looked like an area that I was going to need to pull plastic sheeting and insulation out from — but when I looked closely, it was strewn with mud-smudged photographs and cards:

I worked in that area most of the morning and must’ve uncovered twenty to thirty wet, limp, dirty, torn, battered pieces like this.  There was a wedding invitation, several holiday cards, pages of the Bible with sections underlined, and photographs of football players and small children.  

Leslie found several whole Bibles.  Av worked mostly with moving lumber and metal, but then we found a section strewn with Christmas decorations.  I found a mud-splattered mesh fruit bag for oranges that had a name written across it in glitter puffy paint that had served as a Christmas stocking.  We found strings of those large opaque bulb Christmas lights.  And we gathered the Christmas tree.  There’s no telling what, come December, these items might mean then.

Leaving, I made a little short movie:

Can you help? People can donate through the Red Cross, join groups going into the area (one site if you are in central Alabama is Hands On), Google articles about the recovery effort and try to contact one of those groups/churches, and so on.  Anything you can do to help would be so greatly appreciated.  Thank you!

(This is a blossom from the giant tulip tree that fell in our backyard last week when the tornadoes came through.  Tulip trees grow so tall and bloom so high up on the tree, that it’s hard to ever see the magnolia-like blossoms (tulip trees are cousins to magnolias, which is easy to see in flower).)

I’m going to try to post again tonight, a real post.  We’ve been busy with the tornado cleanup/recovery effort in three different towns, but we’re all going to make it, and things are going to get better, and better, and better.  Please keep those affected by the storms in your prayers.  Thank you!