I cook by the book

Remember the blog project I did in 2010 with three other women? Well, Froggie decided to resurrect it with me and we each got to invite another friend to join us. She invited a mutual friend (someone I met through her) and I invited a friend whose blog I really enjoy reading. So now it's Froggie, Mom of Many, Moma Rock and Merrylandgirl. Hope you enjoy the topics that we'll be exploring!

This week, I picked the topic: Cooking

Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock

It all started in the summer of 1988. I took a summer school class at my junior high to learn how to cook. It was a nice introduction to when I'd take cooking in home ec during the school year. People were encouraged to bring in recipes and we'd try those out in class, along with some our teacher gave us. I absolutely loved it (the cooking aspect, not so much the social part, as I hated junior high for that reason already). I would come home every day just itching to cook something. A lot of the focus was on baking, so I was making muffins, cookies, cinnamon rolls, etc. Someone brought in a nacho dip recipe. It wasn't my thing, but it was easy and I made it for our annual block party. It was completely devoured and is still a favorite of my mom's.

As a kid, my mom would let me help with baking, but it usually meant cutting shapes into dough (and then eating the raw dough leftover scraps) and sprinkling colored sugar crystals on top. After taking this cooking class, I was in the kitchen all the time, making all sorts of dessert items. There even was a point where my mom would let me use the stove to make mac and cheese.

When I was in high school, I would bake dessert items for our speech team tournaments. I learned a recipe for how to turn Funfetti cake mix into cookies. One of my friends on the speech team loved them so much that I baked a huge Funfetti cookie for his birthday. Most of my non-mac-and-cheese cooking involved baked goods. I did eventually make a chicken and potatoes dinner for my family. I was so nervous over how it would turn out, but my mom told me not to obsess. Thankfully, it was as good as when she made it.

Fast forward to college...since I lived in the dorms, I didn't get an opportunity to cook much. However, that changed during second semester of freshman year, when I got a job in the dining center...making eggs for hungry college students. At first, I was taught to make omelets, but that didn't go over so well, so I was assigned to fry up eggs in whichever style they wanted. I also had to fry bacon. I didn't eat eggs or bacon, so at least the process didn't make me hungry. The following year, I would help make pizzas in the kitchen, which became a mindless task. Aside from those experiences, I just served food, so I didn't cook again in college until I started working for a woman with disabilities. I had to make dinner for her on the nights I was working, so I learned how to cook chicken and other items in a skillet. It was pretty basic. The following year, I got an apartment off campus, but reverted back to the mac and cheese or spaghetti, when I wasn't eating in the dining centers (because it was a pain to go off campus for lunch). Occasionally, I'd make french toast for breakfast on a weekend and once even made matzo ball soup (from a box though). I also did plenty of baking, which got me started on a tradition of making chocolate chip cookies for Oscars night.

When I moved out of my parents' house in March of 2000, I realized I couldn't live off carbs forever. I started learning how to make meat dishes. I had a Foreman grill and would make hamburgers on it. (At the time, I wasn't keeping Kosher and added cheese on top.) I also made a chicken dish the first time I hosted my parents for a dinner there. I feel like my time there was a blur and don't even know what else I cooked up to the point of meeting my husband. And after that time, he did most of the cooking when we were together. The first time I made a meal for him, I managed to shatter a salad bowl (after we finished the salad, thankfully). I'm glad he liked my cooking and I didn't scare him off, but I usually leave the meat cooking to him. I do the side dishes and desserts.....and matzo balls, of course!

Nowadays, I'm still mainly into baking. I like making food items that require sticking to a recipe. My husband experiments and a lot of good items have come from this method. I just know that if I strayed from a recipe book and tried to experiment with baking, it would be a giant disaster. Baking requires specific measurements and making sure all the items requested go into the dish. If you leave out an item, it can be a major fail. I always tell myself that I'll stop using mixes and bake more from scratch. I made a blueberry cake from scratch this summer and that came out good. My challah is always made from scratch and lots of elbow grease, now that I knead it by hand. The ultimate challenge is coming up though...my best friend is going to teach me to bake a pie from scratch. I usually use frozen pie shells that are already made, but she has encouraged me to go out and buy a pastry cutter so the dough will be nice and flaky. We're also going to use real fruit instead of the canned stuff. Wish me luck!

P.S. I now make mac and cheese from scratch (as in with real cheese) every so often. So good!

Cheesecakes I made from scratch for Shavuot 2012

Kneading challah dough with my older son, 2010

The finished product

Hitting close to home

Remember the blog project I did in 2010 with three other women? Well, Froggie decided to resurrect it with me and we each got to invite another friend to join us. She invited a mutual friend (someone I met through her) and I invited a friend whose blog I really enjoy reading. So now it's Froggie, Mom of Many, Moma Rock and Merrylandgirl. Hope you enjoy the topics that we'll be exploring!

This week, Moma Rock picked the topic: What are your thoughts on this article?

Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock

If you haven't read the article in the topic section, it's basically about Canada's top medical journal calling for a nationwide ban on spanking, citing it is bad for childrens' mental health.

While I understand where they're coming from, I want to know how such a ban is implemented and the measures they will take to make sure it is enforced. Will there be video monitors in every room of every home containing a child? Or will all children have sensors implanted in their bottoms so that they go off when smacked? Relying on word-of-mouth isn't always effective. Some children might feel too embarrassed, ashamed or scared to say anything at all, worrying about the overall effects it could have on their family if they told. Other kids might be mad because their parents didn't let them go out partying and lie about being spanked to get revenge. I just can't really hold much faith in a law that tries to prevent what goes on in one's private residence. It's not like driving drunk, where you have a chance of getting caught.

Then there's the factor of what brought on the spanking. Did the child deliberately do something bad enough to potentially warrant it, such as starting a mini-house fire, running out in traffic, severely injuring a sibling, etc? Or was the parent having a bad day and one innocent request from the child set them off? And if it's a non-witnessed event and becomes "he said, she said," who's to know the truth of what brought it on?

While I understand the implications for a child's mental health, maybe authorities should be focusing more on actual child abuse situations vs. discipline. There are parents that just hit their kids for the sake of hitting them, or do even worse, such as not feeding their children or stubbing cigarettes on their skin. Then there are loving parents who become so upset over a child doing something dangerous that their immediate reaction is to spank, even though they feel horrible about having done so.

I think this ban (or law, as I like to call it) has a lot of gray area that needs to be explored and tight parameters that need to be set before it can really have the effect it wants to. At the end of the article, it talks about extending the ban to the United States. If that were the case, Canada would really need to prove it was working before trying to send it our way. I don't think many people would buy into it otherwise, no matter how much previous research was behind it.

Taking a pregnant pause

Remember the blog project I did in 2010 with three other women? Well, Froggie decided to resurrect it with me and we each got to invite another friend to join us. She invited a mutual friend (someone I met through her) and I invited a friend whose blog I really enjoy reading. So now it's Froggie, Mom of Many, Moma Rock and Merrylandgirl. Hope you enjoy the topics that we'll be exploring!

This week, Froggie picked the topic: Louisiana charter school changing pregnancy policy.

Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock

I don't have much to say on the policy itself, other than that it's incredibly obnoxious to expect female students to take a pregnancy test in order to go to school. Everyone has a right to an education. If they were consistently disruptive to other students or posed a threat to anyone at the school (or even the entire building), I could see that being another story. I'm not saying that I support teens getting pregnant, but it shouldn't keep them from getting an education so they can at least get a job and be able to provide a good life for their child, should they choose to raise them on their own. And even if a student was found to be pregnant, they don't ask guys to take a DNA test to see if they're the one who impregnated the girls in question (after the baby is born).

However, I think there should be a boot camp that all teenagers are mandated to go to before starting high school. It would involve them raising a toddler or young child for a month. They would not be given ANY instructions and would be lectured whenever they did something another person felt was wrong (kind of like how other parents lecture each other based on their own opinions). They would have to complete the following tasks:

1. Taking the child grocery shopping where there was temptation for the child in every aisle of the store. They'd have to say "no" to everything and effectively diffuse tantrums while the threat of DCFS being called hung over their head.

2. Taking the child to a restaurant where the service is incredibly slow. They'd have to handle the child not liking anything and throwing it all on the floor and potentially breaking glasses and plates in the process.

3. Participating in a bedtime routine that doesn't account for the child getting up several times after they were tucked in, excuses being they want a drink, need to go to the bathroom, are scared of the dark, etc. They will also be woken up multiple times during the middle of the night. Losing sleep isn't only for parents of newborns.

4. Putting the child in a room with several other children and only one toy for all of them to share and having to break up several fights.

5. Taking a minimum two hour airplane or train trip while the child is screaming, kicking the seats in front of them, wanting to get up and walk all the time, asking for a snack every few minutes, asking "are we there yet," etc. Oh, and there will be a long wait before the trip even begins and you'll all be stuck on the mode of transportation during that time instead of being free to roam around the airport or train station.

6. The final activity when the month is over will be to watch an extremely gross and detailed birthing video, including the insertion of an epidural and removal of the placenta.

There are many more activities, but if this keeps teenagers from getting pregnant in the first place, it will be all worth it. I personally love being a mother, but there's a lot more to it than just the hugs, giggles, and hearing them say cute things. Being a teen mom (or dad) is not as glamorous as MTV makes it out to be. Sorry to break it to all you teenagers!

This is what a toddler having a tantrum looks like....

When I'm 94....

Remember the blog project I did in 2010 with three other women? Well, Froggie decided to resurrect it with me and we each got to invite another friend to join us. She invited a mutual friend (someone I met through her) and I invited a friend whose blog I really enjoy reading. So now it's Froggie, Mom of Many, Moma Rock and Merrylandgirl. Hope you enjoy the topics that we'll be exploring!

This week, Mom of Many picked the topic: What scares you the most about getting older?

Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock

The timing of this topic is funny in a coincidental way. My only living grandparent (my paternal grandma), who is also the only living great-grandparent from both sides of our family, is celebrating her birthday this weekend. Considering all her health issues, I’m impressed that she’s lived longer than any of my other grandparents. She’s made it past the ages they were when they passed away. Definitely something to celebrate, right? I don’t know if she’d agree, but I’m glad she’s still part of our lives. She got to meet her three great grandchildren, including the one named after her husband. And most amazingly, she got to see her own son turn 65.

The first thing that scares me about getting older is the possibility of not being alive to see at least my oldest child turn 65. My grandma was young when she had my dad. I have almost 30 years between myself and my oldest child. So when he turns 65, I’d be 94. That’s quite an age to shoot for, even though some people have made it way past 100. I read a lot of death notices for work. A long time ago, I would have accepted death for what it was, but now it just freaks me out. Maybe having a lot to lose is what makes it harder to think about.

The next thing is the fact that Alzheimer’s is a possibility. My late maternal grandma had it and I worry about her passing it to my mom and then to me or even having it skip my mom and go right to me. I like remembering things too much and it drives me crazy if I forget something really minor.

Finally, I worry about not fitting in as a senior citizen. I know that sounds totally weird, but grandparents are getting younger and younger. My grandparents seemed super old when I was a kid, even though they were around the age my parents are now. My parents still seem young and modern. However, there’s a certain classiness that went along with the pop culture of my grandparents’ time. They had Sinatra music and classic films such as Casablanca or Gone with the Wind. Whereas, I’ll be sitting in my rocker, listening to Alanis Morissette and Nirvana and watching Friends reruns or Clueless. Something about that doesn’t jive with being old.

There are some things I’m looking forward to though. (Like anyone looks forward to aging?!?) I wouldn’t mind moving to assisted living or a retirement community. It’s like going to camp year round. So much to do all the time and very social, as well! I wouldn’t mind having my friends there so we could be like the Golden Girls. Getting to meet my grandchildren is another item on the plus side. At least I hope I’ll have some grandchildren to meet! I’m done having babies but it will be nice to cuddle with them and then give them back to my kids (and teach my younger son’s kids how not to listen to him so that he can finally “get it”). I’m not in a rush for any of this, as I want to enjoy my fleeting youth for as long as possible. After all, as Sally once said, “I’m going to be 40...someday!” (Even though 40 is the new 30, or so it seems. It sounded super old to me when I was a kid, especially when everyone called it "Over the Hill.")

Here's to me!

Remember the blog project I did in 2010 with three other women? Well, Froggie decided to resurrect it with me and we each got to invite another friend to join us. She invited a mutual friend (someone I met through her) and I invited a friend whose blog I really enjoy reading. So now it's Froggie, Mom of Many, Moma Rock and Merrylandgirl. Hope you enjoy the topics that we'll be exploring!

This week, yours truly picked the topic: It's all about self-love...Compliment yourself (as many or as few compliments as you want) OR tell us about something nice you'd like to do for yourself (if money and time were unlimited). You can even do both if you want, but not required.

Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock

When I chose this topic last week, I was just in the mood for something uplifting. I was frustrated because my daughter's school is giving us a time limit for when she should walk before she loses her spot there. And then I saw a video of a guy from my high school totally owning everything fabulous about himself back when he had his Bar Mitzvah. It made me think how important it is to have confidence and pride in ourselves. I thought this would be an easy post to write, but I actually found it more of a challenge than most of the topics I don't have a choice over!

I tend to be hard on myself. I don't like that it's been 18 months since my last child was born and I still can't fit in most of my pre-pregnancy clothes. I see people who lose all the weight in a matter of months. (Doesn't help that I can't resist dessert items.) No matter how often I get my hair cut or how much conditioner and gel I use, every day seems to be a bad hair day. I have yet to get myself organized and that leads to procrastinating all the time. I get frustrated over the smallest things sometimes and have a lack of patience. (It's ironic that I tell other people to be patient when I need to work on that for myself.)

Now to find the stuff I can proudly boast about....

1. I am a good friend. I love my friends and they know it...especially the ones nearest (not by proximity) and dearest to me. I am available to lend an ear or a shoulder to cry on. I also share in their happiness.

2. I am a good cook. At least when it comes to baking desserts and challah. I do make a tasty batch of garlic mashed potatoes.

3. As I said a couple of weeks ago, I've been told I am a good writer. I believe that about myself too and I love when something I write really comes together on paper (or screen). It makes me so proud!

4. I produce adorable children. I know every mom could say that about themselves, but I've received feedback from others that has convinced me even more. What makes me even happier is hearing that I've raised them right...like when someone tells me how polite or sweet they are.

5. I've taken one of my passions and really made something of it. It's not just a book blog, but a forum for authors and readers to come together. When I started it, I thought it would go nowhere and now it's become a force to be reckoned with! I love hearing reader feedback that they love my blog and that they keep coming back for more. It's such a huge warm fuzzy for me. (I'm also glad to give credit to everyone who has worked with me to get it where it is now.)

6. I can sing. I can't hit the high notes that well, but I like how I sound when I sing some of my favorite songs.  I took voice lessons in high school. It didn't get me a part in a musical or a solo in a choral concert, but I did feel more comfortable with my singing voice overall.

I think I'll stop here, as I don't want my head to overfill. :)

I've also decided to include the second option of this topic. The nice thing I'd do for myself is throw a huge party to bring all my friends and loved ones together in one place. I'd even invite all the authors I've connected with. Since time and money would be a non-issue, I'd fly everyone in from wherever they lived and we'd all hang out at a posh hotel with all the fixings. I'd  have a dress custom designed so that it looked incredible on me and felt comfortable so that I could just enjoy myself and feel gorgeous. I'd hire Idina Menzel to put on a concert, as she's one of my favorite performers. The party itself would rival anything Naomi ever put together on 90210, but it would be non-pretentious. All of my guests would have someone to chat with, as I love introducing my friends to one another. I'd find a way to spend time with everyone there, chatting with them to find out what is going on in their lives. I'd also make sure there was plenty of time to dance with my husband. There would be a section of the party room where people could play fun pop culture and getting-to-know-you games. The food would be all Kosher, of course, and my favorite things. We'd have pizza and cheese fries from my favorite Kosher pizzeria and then an ice cream sundae bar. It would be THE party of the year, but an exclusive event only for those I care about.

A girl can dream big, right?!?

My Kind of Olympics

Remember the blog project I did in 2010 with three other women? Well, Froggie decided to resurrect it with me and we each got to invite another friend to join us. She invited a mutual friend (someone I met through her) and I invited a friend whose blog I really enjoy reading. So now it's Froggie, Mom of Many, Moma Rock and Merrylandgirl. Hope you enjoy the topics that we'll be exploring!

This week, Moma Rock picked the topic: Recap of the Olympics in your own words. What is your favorite event or athlete to watch? If you don't watch, why don't you?

Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock

I'm in the latter category. I've never been interested in the Olympics. I'm not a sports person and I just don't have the time investment to put towards watching. The only shows I've watched all summer are The Glee Project and The Big Bang Theory (in reruns). I also have political reasons for not watching this time. Even though the International Olympic Committee said they're not political, they did something that was really bothersome to a large chunk of the population. I won't go into detail here, but it's bad.

Maybe if these events were brought to the Olympics, I'd watch:

*Musical Theater competition. Nations could write and perform in their own original musical production. Then the judges could rate on music quality, acting, originality, etc. There would be translations available in all languages.

*Comedy competition: Each nation could have a representative to be a comedian and do a five minute stand-up routine. They'd be rated on how much they make the audience laugh. Again, there would be translations available in all languages.

*Storytelling competition: The competitors would be given a classic children's novel, such as "Corduroy" or "The Cat in the Hat" and have to tell it in the most engaging way possible. Scoring would be based on how well they brought the story to life. Same deal with translations as the above two events.

*Housecleaning competition: The competitors would be set up in a house occupied by someone featured on the show "Hoarders." They'd have to clean the entire house from top to bottom in the span of a day. The team who made the most progress would win.

*City scavenger hunt: Teams would be sent to various cities around the world with a set of items to find. The team who found their items first would win. And these would be challenging items too.

*Shopping competition: It would be like that Shop-Til-You-Drop game show. Teams would be released into a huge mall with a budget. They'd have to get the most items and use as much of their budget as possible without going over. The team that had the most items and was closest to the budget limit would win.

*Double Dare obstacle course competition: If you remember the kid's game show Double Dare and all the crazy things they had to do on the obstacle courses at the end of the show, then you'll really like this competition. Whichever team does the whole course in the quickest amount of time will be the winner of this event. Sundae Slide, anyone?!?

Now that's my kind of Olympics...

Take your passion and make it happen

Remember the blog project I did in 2010 with three other women? Well, Froggie decided to resurrect it with me and we each got to invite another friend to join us. She invited a mutual friend (someone I met through her) and I invited a friend whose blog I really enjoy reading. So now it's Froggie, Mom of Many, Moma Rock and Merrylandgirl. Hope you enjoy the topics that we'll be exploring!

This week, Froggie picked the topic: Pursuing your passion.

Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock

I’m sure everyone and their mother knows by know how reading is my passion and I’ve pursued it with my book blog. I am thrilled with how far it has come in two short years and had a whirlwind summer of meeting various authors. I even made a new friend in my community as a result!

Now that I’ve created a blog and been able to feature some amazing authors and get all the books I’ve wanted at no cost….what’s next? Aside from the typical response—going to Disney World (which is in the works)—I want to write a novel.

Reading and meeting authors and seeing how many great books there are out there just makes me want to toss my hat into the pile. I’ve been given positive feedback about my writing, even though I’m just sharing my thoughts in a blog format or writing introductions to authors. I think the best feedback was just recent and it came from an author I really admire, Jane Porter. She told me she liked my writing as much as she liked the answers from authors in our interviews. Coming from her, that was a HUGE compliment and it makes me wonder what I could really do, if given the chance to write a novel. I’ve had ideas in my head and just don’t know how to get them on paper (or screen, in this case). I’m sure I could if I really was motivated and applied myself. I’m just scared of what I would see or that I would balk at the first sign of negative feedback. I took a writing workshop class 10 years ago and wrote a short story that I was proud of and made my mom cry. It was about a college-aged girl spending Passover with her family and all the craziness that happened in the span of one night. It ended with her meeting her besherte. However, the class received it differently and I felt so stifled afterward.

In 2010, an idea popped into my head for a story. Two years later, it is still in my head, which means maybe it should be told. Some of the circumstances in the story have changed, but it still carries the main idea and most of what I had in mind when it first came about. I also got another idea recently that I really like, and I see many possibilities for where it could go. I already have lead characters for both of these stories too. However, they are stuck in my mind, as I have yet to write them out in any type of format. For a while, in 2010, I participated in a blog exercise called Fiction Friday. I received positive feedback on my work, but after my daughter was born, I didn't have time to participate, let alone any creative thoughts. You can find some of my Fiction Friday posts here.

After hearing how brutal the publishing world can be and how many hoops a writer has to jump through, I don’t know if I’d even want to be an author. However, there’s also the glory of becoming a bestselling novelist. Seeing my favorite authors this summer has shown me that much. They have a great fan turnout and are gracious to everyone who shows up to get their books signed. (At least they were to me!) I love learning new things about authors through my interviews and realizing that I usually have something in common with each of them. I’ve connected a lot with an author featured on my blog earlier this summer. We have so much in common and I hope to meet her in person one of these days. I could see her being incredibly supportive if I did go the route of writing a novel. Would I want someone like me reviewing it though? Now that's another story...

I guess only time will tell with such an aspiration. All I know is that I love to write, I’ve been told I’m good at it, and I’ve seen so many wonderful and well-deserving authors make it big in the industry. That should be enough encouragement, write…I mean, right?!? Until then, I always have my blog and my current goal is to meet Marian Keyes, even just via e-mail. I’d be thrilled to pieces if she did an interview with my blog. Wishful thinking, right?!?