Matzo balls, that is.  Also from scratch, in homemade chicken-vegetable soup, my version.

Traditional seders of yore always started with a giant cauldron of Mom’s chicken soup and large, substantial cannonballs, plus the obligatory HB eggs and gefilte fish, misc. symbolic seder foods, then the main uber-course, including multiple meats, kugels, etc., not to mention those horrible Pesach desserts, add sacred syrup and “real” wines, and by the time you forced down some token afikomen, you felt like a quivering mass of hardening cement.  Forget about “the after-meal entertainment”.

Then you turned around and did it again the second night, only with new additions.  Fond memories of family  pressure to overindulge, probably compulsive compensation for all the millennia of fear of going without.

As a kid it always bothered me that we could be so pampered and spoiled, while so many people just a town or two away were poor and even homeless, just by being born into unfair disadvantages.  But I was the black sheep, what did I know?

These days I have to keep it simple and cost-effective, and appreciate every little thing we are able to enjoy.  I live with someone who never had a lot to begin with, so she doesn’t take anything for granted.  It’s a new world of actual food, for her, a revelation.  It’s like an education for both of us, coming from opposite sides of the same coin.  Thus, a hearty bowl or two of homemade matzo ball soup is a feast.

Moral: when life gives you mud and mortar, make–balls!

WordPress says I have 1,000 posts as of now, FWIW.  I talk a lot.

Today I made homemade from scratch potato latkes and roasted eggplant with homegrown herbs, as in herbs, not weed, dopeheads.  Charoset and yogurt make good subs for applesauce and sour cream with the latkes, which I seasoned Indian-style.

Strange things make me happy, like finally being able to compost everything, and have all the scavenger birds and critters instantly take care of it.  They make a great sanitation department.  No bears yet.

Also, the wren nest in my office window appears to have little hatchlings.  I think I saw a little gaping mouth being fed.  And all my flowers and veggie seedlings are coming up on steroids.  It’s call of the wild, out here.

And of course, I’m still hopped up like a double IPA from getting to hang out with my son and Gkids.  I’m not sure how much help I am, getting them even more hyper for their Dad, but that is the job of grandparents.  Git’er done.  Heheh.

Yes, you read right.  Here’s my Jewish take on Easter.  I cleverly dyed the two eggs with natural edible ingredients found in the kitchen.  I’m not sure I’d describe the finished product as digestible, but the colors came out cool.  And here are all our festive fuzzy friends getting in on the act.  Somehow the rabbits keep breeding.  Seriously, we did not drink all the “sacred syrup”  ©™.

I always love hanging out with my kids up on the mountain.  We spent the afternoon and evening, outdoors and in.  It was a beautiful flowery day, and gorgeous sunset up there.  Then the huge full “blue” moon rose and filled the sky.

The first four are at home, the rest are up the mountain.