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Humorous: College Passover Memories

Yes, this is a true story, but it's a funny true story.

When I was in college, our Hillel had a Passover meal plan. A freshman on the Hillel board (let's just call her "B"), was very eager to cook for Passover dinner: she was going to use this as an excuse to learn her mother's secret matzah ball recipe. Her mother made the best matzah balls ever, and she was determined to learn how she made them. Her mother had promised to tell her the recipe in time for Passover. B told us this many times, and was clearly very excited about it.

When the time came, B prepared herself with a pad of paper and a pen (this was in the dark days before personal computers). She called her mother and asked for the recipe.

"OK," her mother told her, "get a box of Manischewitz Unsalted Matzo Meal..."

B diligently wrote down "1 box Manischewitz Unsalted Matzo Meal"

Her mother said, "The recipe is on the side of the box."
* * * * *

I have been told that this was the plot of an episode of Friends (but with Toll House cookies instead of matzah balls). Perhaps, but it happened to my friend long before Friends -- around 1985. As I recall, B was crushed to learn that her mother's "secret recipe" was just the recipe on the box.

In fairness, my recipe for matzah balls is not very different from the Manischewitz one. In fact, it may not even be as good, objectively speaking, but that's what I'm used to.

For what it's worth: to make gluten-free "matzah" balls, try using spud flakes instead of matzah meal. You have to let this sit for quite a while to thicken before you put it in the boiling broth, but it makes very nice, tasty dumplings.

Happy Passover!

Comments

elmindreda said…
It happened to me once, too, with cholent.
4/14/2009 3:49 AM
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