Life and Passover

You know guys, I'm gonna be honest with you, life sometimes SUCKS. You get traffic tickets. You get served with lawsuits. You get threatened to be arrested. You get deported. You lose money. You have panic attacks. You feel lost and overwhelmed.

And then it all comes to a head and you are just begging the universe to right itself.

And the next day you are still here. You can see the sun is out and the ground is below your feet. You can still hear music. You can tell people you love them. You can pet your dog. You can eat chocolate.

And all that bullshit that happened before? It doesn't go away but it gets dealt with. You pay your bills, you find alternative ways to fix things. You fight back against oppressive people. You may not win, but at least you have the power to do it!

So, we all go through it. We all get drama and suffering thrown at us like the rain pours from the clouds. But we still make it to the next day where we can only hope for the best.

To my fellow Jews - hope this Passover is shared with loved ones. Hope your matzo doesn't make you constipated. Hope your food doesn't get cold during the boring prayers during the Seder. And take the lessons of passover, and life, with you - we suffer but we live to see another day.

Happy Birthday!!

I want to wish a special Happy Birthday to a friend of our blog - Pinc! Today is her birthday and last night we were able to get the festivities started by going to the Heat game (v. the Pistons) thanks to her firm's season tickets. What an amazing time we had!!!!! Third row from the court right behind the basket! AMAZING! There was so much energy the whole night - I totally loved every minute of it!!!

Here let me make you jealous with a quick camera phone picture:

Also - A HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the ever wonderful and creative contributor to this blog MM. Tomorrow is MM's Birthday and we should all wish her best wishes on this fabulous day!!!

***UPDATE***

Apparently I am a jerk and last week I forgot to put up a Super Happy Birthday Wish to another amazing contributor - Julie. JULIE I AM SO SORRY!! Happy Belated Birthday!!!!

Thanksgiving and TV

This subject came to my mind immediatly upon thinking about Thanksgiving. The TV! It's a great day to laze about and watch football or movies. But even more interesting is all the various Thanksgiving-inspired TV and movies. Who can forget the consistent Thanksgiving episodes on Friends? Each year they tried to one-up themselves and really started stretching at the end to some hilarious ends. Any family-style show, like Everybody Loves Raymond or Married with Children, seemed to go "all out" for Thanksgiving episodes. I remember a wonderful episode of Mad About You that involved them buying five or six different turkeys because something happenned to each one!

Thanksgiving is so ripe with potentinal for hilarity from all different angles. And the best part is, after watching a fictional family drop turkeys from windows or get into food fights, your quiet delicious meal with the ones you love tastes even sweeter!

(Elad's Thanksgiving Blog Post...and I hope the rest of you contributors remember to put up your Thanksgiving Post)

Thanksgiving....Recipe and Story

(Shawn's Thanksgiving Blog Post)

I love Thanksgiving so much. It is my favorite holiday because it is the only time when it is perfectly acceptable to overeat and pass out at the table. Each year I try really hard to pass out at the table, but I have never been able to. Wish me luck this year!

My mom takes great pride in her Thanksgiving feast. Even if we don't celebrate at her house she brings the food with her. Her turkey and stuffing is a huge treat and leaves us begging for more (which often ends up with my mom also making a New Year's Turkey too!).

Each year I have only one dish I make - Sweet Potato Marshmallow casserole (I guess that is what you call it). I make mashed sweet potatoes all the time, so this is really just that with marshmallows on top. So here is my recipe:

Peel sweet potatoes (as much as you want, maybe 5-6 potatoes) and cut into cubes. Take cubes and put into steamer and cook until you can easily stick a fork through them. If you don't have a steamer cook potatoes in whichever way you cook potatoes (boil is ok).

After they are done cooking, put into big bowl (drain water if necessary), add cinnamon, brown sugar and butter, making it as sweet and buttery as you like it. If you aren't sure how much put less then you think you should, and then add more later. My rule is just cover everything in cinnamon, then sprinkle the brown sugar around (probably using 1/2 cup) and then a few (maybe 3-4) tablespoons of butter added in.

You can also add milk if you want it creamy but just a little milk (less than 1/2 cup), so it can be easily absorbed into the potatoes. Nutmeg is also a good addition, if you have it around. You may also want to add a little salt for taste (a few pinches).

Mash the sweet potatoes with a potato masher. If you don't have a masher you can use a fork, it just takes a little more work.

Taste to see if it is sweet/buttery enough and add more if needed.

After the potatoes are fully mashed and seasoned, put into a rectangle shaped pan for the oven that is about 2 inches deep and spread the potatoes evenly across the pan.

If you aren't serving immediately, you can take this pan and put back into the oven (at 350 degrees) and warm up the sweet potatoes (this could take a half hour). Then follow up with the marshmallows step.

Take marshmallows (mini or regular, but I find mini works better) and cover the potatoes completely. This last step is very quick, so you may want to only do it at the very end, 15 minutes before you are going to serve it. Put in hot oven (you can choose 350 degrees if nothing else is cooking at that time), and toast the marshmallows. They will melt quickly so you need to watch it (maybe 5-10 minutes). When they get browned on top then remove from oven - it is done. The time to melt depends on the temperature of the oven, so you just need to watch it and see when it is brown.

Let's all blog about...Thanksgiving!!

Over here at Getting to Maybe we have many contributors...some silent...some active - but all have something great to say.

I suggest this week that we all take a moment and blog about Thanksgiving. Whatever you want to say - share it here. A recipe, a story, what you are thankful for?