Better than Bubbe's Matza Balls

I've been meaning to do this post for ages, but I really wanted to do it with photos, so you all had to wait until my camera finally arrived. This is the full recipe for my famous matza ball soup. If you want to learn ONLY matza balls, skip to the end.

You will need:
Heavy stock pot
Large bowl
Sieve that fits inside bowl

Ingredients:
Soup-
1 lb chicken parts (bones, wings, necks, whatever)
2 large onions
4 medium carrots
1 small bunch celery
handful of parsley
Salt
Hawaj (soup spice, a mixture of turmeric, cumin, and black pepper)

Place the pot on med-high flame. Once warm, add chicken parts and cook until brown on all sides
While chicken is browning, roughly chop onions.Add onions to pot once chicken is lightly browned. Cook until onions are limp and bottom of pot has a nice dark brown glaze.

Chop up carrots roughly and add to pot.Add Hawaj (I use 2 Tablespoons, you may want to use less until you know how much you like the flavor) and salt (to taste, about 3 T) to pot.

Now add water to the pot, until it is nearly full (the amount will depend on your pot). Then chop parsley and Celery (including the leaves) and drop into pot.
Lower heat and let simmer for several hours, up to 10 hours. The longer it goes, the better. I average about 6 hours. Keep adding water as necessary.
Later, your soup will look like this:

Not so yummy looking, but trust me it will taste wonderful! Put the strainer inside the bowl and pour the contents of the pot into the strainer. scrape the sides of the pot to get the gunk off.Pour the broth back into the pot and bring it back up to a gentle boil. Now is the time to add any veggies, barley, rice, noodles, whatever to the soup. My husband is a purist, so no veggies for us. Oh well.

Now, get ready to make the matza balls!!!


Matza balls-
Small bowl
mixing fork
2 eggs
1 T Oil (any kind)
1/2 c matza meal
1 tsp baking powder

Crack the eggs into the bowl and add oil. beat it...just beat it...
Put the matza Meal in and the baking soda. Beat...oh wait, no, just mix it all until just combined.
Put it aside for 15 minutes. In the fridge, if you're unusually worried about salmonella, but the counter works fine for me. Now, get ready to form balls by wetting your hands. take 1 Tbl or more of the mixture (depending on the size you want them) roll it into a soft ball (no perfection needed) and slide it into the boiling broth.Repeat until you run out of batter. Never, ever boil your matza balls in water. bland city. it also works best if you are going to serve them in the next hour or so after you make them. keeps them from being too mushy.

Now, sit down and enjoy your soup. It cures many ailments and keeps kids happy.

wordless tuesday...sort of

I thought I'd put up a few recent photos of Shevy. A friend was here over the weekend and took these lovely shots. soon, I'll have a camera again and won't be in a photo wasteland any longer.

Birthday Update

Because it's my Birthday today, I thought I'd do 7 things you may not know about me as I was born on 7/7/78. I was going to do 30 (as that's how old I am now, ACK!) but my attention span is too short for that.
Without further ado:
1. I have worked A LOT of different jobs. In Chronological order: Thousand Trails bathroom cleaner, After school care worker, Nanny, Chef at assisted living home, Taco Bell, Subway, Sears, ASB secretary (paid position), Pea Tenderometer operator (not joking), Carrot QC, Admitting at a hospital, Nanny again, Balloon artist, Camp videographer, After/before school enrichment teacher, Summer intern for UGM at-risk program, Preschool Admin, Videographer again, Kmart Checker, then photomat operator, Children's activities coordinator, Janitor, High school teacher, Hebrew language teacher, and now, seamstress. wow, I'm tired.

2. I am the only Jew I know who grew up on a Christmas tree farm.

3. I am late a lot, but I hate being late. it stresses me out, but stuff always happens to make me late, especially now with the baby. argh.

4. Someday I'll write about it in more detail, but I had a curse. Boys who liked me fell horribly ill (6 that I know of), guys who proposed ended up dead (fortunately only 2). My DH is in perfect health, by the way.

5. I loved performing in Opera and Musical Theater. I still sing selections for my daughter, although singing for mixed company is out for Jewish Modesty reasons. I just might audition for one of the all-women for-women groups here in J'lem. when I have spare time. ha.

6. I didn't hit puberty until I was 14. then I went up 4 cup sizes in one summer. Talk about an embarrassing return to school. you should have heard the rumors fly...

7. I have a sad, sad addiction to Mt. Dew. I know it's AWFUL for me, and nearly impossible to get here, but I still manage somehow. If anyone feels like being an enabler, they can mail me some!

My thanks to all those who commented and emailed to see if I'm OK. I;m feeling better, but they still haven't figured out why I fainted so much. I've got an appointment to go over my Med history with an American Doc next week and get orders for all the tests, so I'll keep you all posted as to the results. Meanwhile I'll post my Matza ball soup recipe sometime this week, which will cure you of anything!