Butter Him Up With Matzoh Brei

I'm happy to report that I'm feeling much better today. That's the good news. The bad news is that the morning started off with me spilling a glass of water all over the computer keyboard. That did not go over very well with the hubby. I am now in the doghouse, while Sadie, I'll have you know, is making herself quite at home on my side of the bed. 

I decided to butter him up by making some matzoh brei. No, really, I am literally buttering him up -- there's more butter in this recipe than we eat all year. And eggs. And salt. Very bad-for-you ingredients. Not to mention all that matzoh. My cholesterol jumped 20 points just making this. This is not the best recipe to post after what I just wrote about eating healthy, but it's a once-a-year indulgence to help us remember our foremothers, who had a little nosh of matzoh brei in the dessert, as they got ready to flee Egypt.

This recipe should be enough for 5 servings for a normal family, but mine has a bottomless pit when it comes to matzoh brei.  I don't know why, but it never makes me feel full. Gross, maybe, but not full. It's a good idea to follow this with a prune-juice chaser.  Enjoy. 

MS. TOODY'S MATZOH BREI

1 Box (14 sheets) Matzoh
8 Eggs
Butter
Salt or Cinnamon and Sugar

Break matzoh and soak in warm water for 1-2 minutes. Drain.
Beat eggs; mix into wet matzoh till coated, and let sit a few minutes. 
Melt 3 Tablespoons of butter in large skillet. 
Add matzoh mixture, and spread across pan.  Let sit for a few minutes, then stir.
Keep stirring  (like you are scrambling eggs) until the matzoh brei is lightly browned. Add more butter, if needed. I always seem to add another tablespoon, at least. 
Sprinkle with salt or cinnamon and sugar. 

How do you like your matzoh brei -- salty or sweet? 

Don't all these matzoh recipes look alike? 

Doesn't he look happy? Think he'll forgive me?

The Girl WIth Her Throat On Fire

I haven’t been sick in awhile, so I forgot how miserable it is (cough, cough).  It stinks.  But in the spirit of positive thinking, I decided to come up with five good things about being sick:

1.  Someone else will walk the dog. 
2.  I can tackle that pile of magazines that I haven’t had time to get to get to.
3.  For once, I don't feel like eating!
4.  I can catch up on the shows I’ve DVR’d, and finally find out who won Top Chef.

And the top “Good Thing” about being sick...

    5. I don't have to stress over ‘calling in sick’ at the office, since I don’t work anymore!

Junk Food: Open Your Eyes Before Opening Your Mouth

I Cannot. Stop. Munching. 

One of the worst side-effects of leaving my job is that I now have endless time to snack.  While I was working, my days were so regimented, that I barely had time to eat. I had breakfast before leaving the house; lunch was usually choked down in 10 minutes between meetings; and I tried to have a healthy snack right before I left the office so that I wouldn’t snarf down everything in sight while I waited for dinner to be ready.  We ate at about 7pm, so one snack usually sufficed for the evening.  Besides, I was so busy at night doing my second “job” of mom and wife, who had the time to keep running to the kitchen for veggie sticks?  

Ah, but now -- Time -- in this regard, is the enemy.  The sound of the school bus at 3pm seems to trigger my brain to turn on its evil

The Butterfly Effect and the Mudroom

I've had butterflies on my brain since the first post I wrote, which focused on my personal metamorphosis. It brought to mind the "Butterfly Effect". Have you heard of this?   The Butterfly Effect is a real, honest-to-goodness scientific principle, which, simply put, says that the slightest change to one thing can have a huge affect on something seemingly unrelated.  An example often given is that a butterfly flapping its wings in Mexico can cause a hurricane in Florida.  I got to thinking that maybe if I renovated my mud room, it would precipitate some ideas as to how I might re-invent myself, now that I've given up my career. You see, according to the Feng Shui map, or the "Bagua Chart," my mud room is in the Wisdom, Knowledge and Inspiration corner of my house. So if renovating any room in my house could possibly have a Butterfly Effect on my path to self-awareness, it had to be the mud room.  I don't think that sounds any more far-fetched

Matzoh Farfel Kugel and the Measles

Every Passover, I think about the measles.  

When I was a kid, we always celebrated Passover with our cousins.  All of the women in my family were excellent cooks, and they liked to "potchke," which in Yiddish, loosely means to make a big fuss, or spend a lot of time doing something.  My mother was a big admirer of people who potchked; in fact, the highest praise she could give someone was to say "Oh, did she fuss!"  And, my mother?  She could out-potchke everyone.

One Passover, when I was about 9 years old, the seder was to be held at my Aunt's house. My mother offered to bring gefilte fish. Most people would have just marched themselves over to the supermarket to buy a few jars, along with some horseradish,
maybe a few lettuce leaves, and called it a day. But not my mother. She had to

Five Favorite Fotos: Atop the Empire State Building

For many years, I had a perfect view of the Empire State Building from my office. Every night when I left work, I'd look up at it, and try to figure out what the colors represented. Sometimes, it was easy --  like green for St. Patrick's Day or pink for Breast Cancer Awareness.  My personal fave was seeing it dressed in blue, when the NY Giants won the Superbowl in 2012! Other days, it just stumped me, and I'd google it to see what the significance was. Then there were the days that it was completely invisible -- lost in a thick cloud of fog. Like most New Yorkers, getting to the top just never seemed to fit into my plans.  Exactly two years ago, on a clear March day, it took a visit from our out-of-town niece to finally get us to the top of this iconic landmark. It was great fun acting like tourists in our own city (yes, New Jerseyans consider NY their city, too!), especially when we were asked where we were from. These are my Five Favorite Fotos from that day. 

What famous landmark do you live close to, that you have never visited?

Hangin' With My Buds in Spring

I love love love the change of seasons...so much, that I don't know if I could ever pack my bags and migrate down to Florida for good. I think I'd rather hang around here with my "buds" in Spring, and watch the leaves turn colors in Fall.

Reflections Through My Office Windows

Just how long is it, working at the same company for three decades? I'll tell you...it's so long, even I can barely remember starting there! When I was working, I didn’t really notice how time was creeping up on me, but now and then, I got a jolt to remind me that the years were passing. This usually occurred when I saw someone in the elevator that I hadn’t seen for awhile, and thought,

Welcome To My New Blog!

A Mom's Metamorphosis From Full-Time Career To Staying At Home

Today is the premiere of my new blog, "Ms. Toody Goo Shoes."  I hope you will enjoy my perspective on what it's like to transition from a full-time career in the television industry, to becoming an at-home mom. I've re-set the clock from "if I only had time" to "now that I have time, what will I do?" Will I be able to cut it as a car-pooler?  Will I champion a new cause and make the world a better place? Will I really keep my house spotless, and go to Zumba everyday? I have no idea what I'll discover on this "what's next" journey, but as we said in TV land ... stay tuned! 

METAMORPHOSIS
meta·mor·pho·sis (noun)

1. a striking alteration in appearance, character, or circumstances, as from the caterpillar to adult butterfly;or from working mom to stay-at-home mom.

A few months ago, I handed in my keys to the corner office, and walked away from the corporate world.  For 30+ years, I was an executive at a popular TV network, where I decided what time some of your favorite shows would air.  I got to do some pretty cool stuff, like meet famous people and walk the red carpet, but it was time to move on.