Pages

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Important questions

According to an old family joke, there are three important questions* which one must ask a prospective spouse.

And so when YZG and I were practically engaged, I decided that the time had come to find out where he stood on these critical issues:

1) “Which part of the chicken do you prefer – the white meat or the dark meat?” Since YZG likes white meat but I prefer the dark meat, he was able to answer this question to my satisfaction. (This way, both of us get to eat what we like.)

2) “How many hours do you wait between meat and dairy?” I approved of his answer to this question, too. After all, I grew up waiting a full six hours, but YZG’s family only waits five and a half hours. In other words, I gained half an hour.

3) “Do you eat gebrochts?” I should note that this third question is really supposed to be the joke’s punch line. I mean, who doesn’t eat gebrochts?!! But instead of laughing along with me, YZG said, “I don’t think you’re going to like the answer to this question…”

And so every year around this time, I quote the Journeys “Pesach Blues” song and remind YZG that, “it’s not my fault we don’t eat gebrochts!”

But the truth is that not eating gebrochts really isn’t that bad. (YZG – you didn’t see that, right?)

Like A Mother in Israel (who was also surprised to learn that her husband doesn’t eat gebrochts), we’re not fanatic about no gebrochts. Basically, the only thing we avoid is matzah mixed with water. Other liquids are fine.

For instance, I make Pesach rolls with not-from-concentrate orange juice instead of water, and we enjoy matzah meal-based brownies. (The latter point is very significant. I’m not exactly a fan of so-called shehakol brownies…)

In any event, the following recipe contains no matzah products at all.

Non-Gebrochts Broccoli Kugel

Ingredients

  • 2 large onions, chopped
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 5 heaping TBSP potato starch
  • 1 32-oz bag frozen broccoli
  • A pinch of salt
  • A shake or two of pepper
  • A pinch of onion soup mix
  • 6 eggs, beaten

Directions

Sauté the onions in the olive oil. When golden brown, add the potato starch, and mix through. Then add the broccoli, and heat through. Remove from fire, and mix with remaining ingredients. Place in a greased pan. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes.

!בתאבון

Update: I posted a picture of this kugel here.

___________

* Check out Mother in Israel’s post for other shidduch questions…

18 comments:

  1. Nice post and thanks for the recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ilana-Davita - I'm glad you liked it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I didn't know to ask that question--I had a low-level awareness of the minhag. Anyway, misery loves company. Thanks for the links.

    ReplyDelete
  4. MiI - Maybe we should start a support group. We could call it MWWMWM ("Married Women Who Miss Waterlogged Matzah") or perhaps MMMM ("Mushy-Matzah-Missing Mothers")...
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. My gebrokts situation stayed the same but I lost the half hour between meat and diary (we kept 5-1/2, husband's family a full 6).
    And regarding Mother in Israels' post-how come YOU get the hat tip??

    ReplyDelete
  6. Malke, were you the source?

    ReplyDelete
  7. 5 and a half hours? you call that good? I only wait 3! My wife was thrilled when we got married....

    ReplyDelete
  8. you could also replace the Broccoli with grated potatoes :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Do you eat Matzah Brie? My kids live on matzah brie. It was my favorite Pesach food when I was a kid, too.

    My husband and I are both dark meat eaters. We try to get our daughter to like white meat. Hasn't really worked. She likes what we like.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Malke - In my defense, I *did* tell MiI that a friend forwarded the link to me. But you're going to need to start your own blog if you want hat-tips!
    :-)

    MiI - Meet Malke. Malke, meet MiI. You both know lots of people in common...

    Rafi G. - Trust me. Coming from 6 hours, even five and a half looks very good! But as Malke noted above, it's much worse going the other way. Therefore, a girl who waits 3 hours has to find another yekke or else - if she's really lucky - someone from Holland...
    :-)

    "Anonymous" - It's easy for you to say that. You can alternate your potato kugel with matzah farfel kugel. But if we didn't have broccoli kugel, we'd get to alternate our potato kugel with... more potato kugel.
    :-)

    Leora - I've found that matzah brei doesn't work when you can't first soak the matzah in water. But my kids prefer matzah pizza anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous" - It's easy for you to say that. You can alternate your potato kugel with matzah farfel kugel. But if we didn't have broccoli kugel, we'd get to alternate our potato kugel with... more potato kugel.

    sounds good to me

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous - "sounds good to me"
    Even if all-potato-kugel-all-the-time means no kneidlach???
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. "MiI - Meet Malke. Malke, meet MiI. You both know lots of people in common..."

    We actually know each other from "the old country" and we're even sort of related as my second cousin is married to mii's b-i-l...

    Anyway, some people are actually busy CLEANING for Pesach instead of just writing about it and so have no time to start their own blogs...

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous - "sounds good to me"
    Even if all-potato-kugel-all-the-time means no kneidlach???


    I would trade no kneidelach for not having broccoli kugel

    ReplyDelete
  15. Malke - What is this "cleaning" you speak of?
    :-)

    "Anonymous" - Hmm. Even kneidlach with gribenes??
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Great post.
    Re: the chicken parts. I gave up trying to recycle white meat for a clan of darkie eaters. I now just buy bottoms. My husband is the "chicken soup maker," and he uses drum sticks for that, too. Yes, Bassar Shomron packages/markets those separately, too.

    And considering all the celiac diagnoses recently, not eating gebrocts is just a week and less of a problem.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Batya - Thanks. YZG (aka "Mr. S.") always says that he doesn't understand what everyone's complaining about. After all, we DO eat gebrokts 358 days a year...
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Waving belatedly to Malky. I've been too busy cleaning to respond to the comment. . .

    ReplyDelete

Feel free to leave a comment.