snow day, matzo balls

patterson park pagoda

I woke up extra crazypants early this morning to drive honey to the bus station so that he could go back to Brooklyn (womp womp.) I showered and got ready for work expecting to have to go straight there after leaving the man on the MegaBus but then I turned on the news and looked out the window to see - Winter Weather Advisory! By the time I dragged honey out of bed the local news was calling for a 2 hour delay. Ugh, those are the worst! Once I'm awake, I'm wide awake so there's no going back to bed, I usually just end up futzing around with nothing to do but watch the news, read the paper and be lazy - ugh, that's Sunday stuff! Since I knew it would take me forever to get to work because of the crummy road cleanup, I figured that I could just go hang out at a coffee shop and do the crossword puzzle until I had to be at work. So I kissed my sleepy honey goodbye, watched the bus pull away, and headed back towards the city - only to be greeted by the news that the inclement weather had changed our 2 hour delay to a snow day! Now that's something I can get down with.

I very slowly drove home, put on some warm and cozy non-work clothes, cuddled with the cat a bit, and then decided to get outside and enjoy the snow before it turned to the expected sleet/rain/wintry-mix that is so common in Baltimore. So I strapped on furry winter boots and wandered out into the weather. Patterson Park looked so beautiful and calm and all the little kids sledding with their moms and dads made me wish honey had missed his bus so that we could have picked up a sled and enjoyed a little springtime winter fun. It makes me so happy that we're fortunate enough to live next to a really beautiful park! After my stroll I decided that this kind of weather called for my favorite chilly weather food, soup. And 'tis the season for one of my all-time favorite soups - matzo ball! Off to the grocery store for matzo meal and an onion then back home to make a delicious pot for the first night of Passover.

these are not snowballs... though they might make for a fun fight!

sundown supper

Like a lot of my cozy, comfort recipes, I don't have a proper recipe for my matzo ball soup. It's usually a basic chicken stock, some veggies and matzo balls, salted and peppered to taste and with the standard matzo ball mix - 2 eggs, 1/2 c matzo meal, 2 tbsp veggie oil, 2 tbsp broth, mixed, cooled, balled, boiled. Since we ate chicken all weekend and today is Meatless Monday, I wanted to make a totally veggie version of my traditional broth. I started with a little Rapunzel vegetable bouillon, diced onions, peppercorns, olive oil and thyme in about 8 cups of water and brought it to a boil before adding sliced carrots and celery, handfuls of torn kale, and baby bella mushrooms. I found whole wheat matzo meal at the store, so I picked that up to use in place of standard white flour matzo. The whole wheat matzo doesn't fluff up the way the normal matzo meal does, it kind of falls a little flat after awhile, but it's still sturdy and makes a good solid matzo ball for a heartier soup. I'm not sure what time sundown is supposed to happen tonight, it's been so grey out all day I haven't seen the sun to even make a guess for the time. But I would imagine that it's around now-ish, especially since I just ladled out a big bowl of veggie matzo ball soup for myself. I'll sip on some wine (not Manischewitz,) and celebrate a holiday that isn't my own with a bowl of soup that is probably not Kosher for Passover. But it's definitely delicious. Happy Passover, friends!