Friday, December 28, 2007

A LITTLE FUN FOR THE END OF THE YEAR

dear everyone...i got this list from my good friend chavah...and i thought it was a hoot...good to giggle every once in a while...so i thought i would put it here for you to see...if you want to fill it out and send it back to me i'd love to see what you come up with...yahoooooooo...a happy wonderful new year to you all...
1. YOUR REAL NAME: marallyn ben moshe
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle): marizzle
3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color and favorite animal): black dog
4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (your middle name and the street you live on): janice pinchas rozen
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2letters of your first name): benma
6. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (your 2nd favorite color, and favorite drink): purple coke
7. YOUR IRAQI NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, first two letters of your middle name, 4th letter of your first name, then last three letters of your last name): as ja'ashe (oy)
8.YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (both parents first names): anne charles
9. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your pets): black milkie
10. YOUR STRIPPER NAME: (first pet, and a street you lived on): susie windermere

have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in

HAPPY NEW YEAR

If you love someone you say it...
you say it right then, out loud...
or the moment just...passes you by...
dear family and friends...
just a quick note to wish you all a happy and joyous new year...
a year filled with good health, peaceful nights and glorious days...
thank you so much for being in my life...
from me and mine to you and yours...
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
love marallyn
have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in

Sunday, December 23, 2007

AHHHHHHHHH THERE'S NUTTIN LIKE FAMILY

Every year my brother Dovidle comes for a couple of weeks to Jerusalem to visit. The cheapest flight he could find was Heil Hitler airlines and as Shabbat came in he phoned me on Skype and said, 'Shabbat shalom, Fraulein!' He's a card my little brother. Oy.

So can someone explain to me why flights from Europe come in to Ben Gurion at like 3:30 in the morning? Maybe that is a great time to fly but to arrive? Everyone is zonked and excited and pooped and then you get home like around seven in the morning and by two in the afternoon each chair and bed is full of sleeping people trying to stay awake so they can get into the right time zone. No chance!

Forty-eight hours after landing he got sick...you know the sore throat/cough/dripping nose that everyone seems to have right now. Probably caught it from someone on the plane. Anyways, the first week of his visit he was sick in the house. Then Bubbie Channah started. That left me as the major cook and bottle washer as I had just gone through my own three weeks of yuk...you remember.

So, between taking care of two households...Bubbie Channah's as well as my own and teaching and just sitting around with my mom and brother things have been rather hectic.

The good news is that everyone is feeling better and we are having brilliant quiet time together which is such a great gift.

I move in to Bubbie Channah's place when my brother comes here and I did shlep my laptop but only his is connected to the internet. So while he's sleeping I've come to visit and say hello.

To all my wonderful friends who are celebrating Christmas, I wish you a happy wonderful holiday filled with family, good friends, wonderful food and joy.

A sweet shavuah tov...a good week to you all.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

Friday, December 14, 2007

THE NEXT BEST THING TO FLYING

The next best thing to flying is going to the airport to pick up someone you love. In exactly fifteen hours and thirty minutes my brother Dovidle will be arriving!!! I absolutely cannot wait to see him and hug him. Once a year he comes for two weeks to visit his Israeli relatives--thats US!!!

Dovidle is four years younger than I am and he tells everyone that he didn't start talking till he was almost three because I didn't give him a chance. :)

The truth is that my brother is the best brother/son/husband/father/grandfather of anyone in the Universe. He is the good one! Trust me on that. And I get to be the proud sister.

On top of that is his a clone of our Dad AH...which can be scary sometimes. Everyone loved my Dad and everyone loves my brother. Me the most.

Well, that is not exactly true. Bubbie Channah loves him the best. She does. But he is always quick to remind me that our Dad loved me best. At which point I remind him that Pa is dead.

That is when we sort of giggle and eat something outrageously fattening. Usually it has to do with chocolate or yeast. I have had a yeast infection now for about six decades. OY SIX DECADES.

My Dad used to love halva. Even when he was diagnosed as a diabetic he loved halva. One day when my parents were visiting I went with him to the makolet--the little grocery store that every neighbourhood has here. He bought three bars of halva and began eating as soon as we left the shop.

When I asked him what he was doing, he told me he was measuring. OK. When we got in front of my building he informed me that the distance between the makolet and Bubbie Channah was two and a half halva bars! He was a great guy my Dad.

Nu, so ask me how my Channukah party was. Don't ask! It was that great. Only the immediate family were invited and thirty-five people showed up. And we ate and laughed until midnight.

I made sixty-three potato latkehs...twenty-three sweet potato latkehs...tuna salad...egg salad...avocado salad...tomato and cucumber salad...we had felaffel balls...cheese and potato borekahs...hummus...tehina...eggplant salad...and of course sufganiot...the Israeli version of jelly donuts. And Rena made her famous corn quiche and everyone pigged out...you will excuse my expression.

When they left I crawled into bed and smiled all night.

I am sorry I haven't been online much but I am up to here rewriting Emma. It is so exciting to watch her get better and better...thanks to the brilliance and gentle guidance of my friend/producer/writer/agent/mentor...friend comes first you notice...in California.

Between my writing group here in Jerusalem...boy oh boy do I belong to a humdinger of a writing group...and our leader and great guy David, I am making a dream come true. I am a writer!!! And isn't that special.

Ok, godda go check the cholent. It's supposed to be freezing and rainy and miserable over the weekend and what is better than a good cholent? Here is how I make mine: into a pot that in the olden days would hold a family's washing for a week you put: one good looking turkey leg...a kilo of beef cut into cubes...one cup each of white beans and chick peas which you let sit at least overnight in water to soften...about a half cup of wheat and a quarter of a cup of barley...one or two tablespoons of honey...lots of freshly ground pepper (Rena found a store that sells the new pepper mills that you only need one hand to use and we are having the best time) and I use about a heaping tablespoon of chicken soup powder and the same amount of onion soup powder...you can use salt if you choose...then I added five potatoes cut in half and abou three eggs...fill the pot with boiling water and after it comes to a boil let it simmer till the cows come home. If you don't have any cows then at least for three or four hours and then overnight in the oven or on a shabbes blech or hotplate till lunchtime tomorrow. Trust me on this one...you will LOVE it.

OK godda run. Have to write the next astrology column for the Jerusalm Post and then want to get back to Emma. Once I am finished with the rewrite I hope to be back here more. In the meantime thanks so much for coming to visit and for caring so much.

Shabbat shalom.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

Monday, December 03, 2007

HAPPY CHANNUKAH

Well, it all started out with the idea of gathering the clan together for an evening of candle lighting, good food, and fun.

I mean--you know the old saying: How can you describe every Jewish holiday in ten words or less? THEY TRIED TO KILL US...WE WON...LET'S EAT!

So I began phoning my husband's family to invite them. And they were all thrilled. I was about to invite a few friends of my own when I realized that I had about forty people coming from the immediate family! Yahoooo. So to all my friends...I am sorry but we'll get together in a couple of weeks when my brother Dovidle comes to Jerusalem.

Now the food. Tradition demands potato latkehs and sufganiot...potato pancakes and jelly donuts. Why? because they are both made in oil and Channukah is the miracle of lights. Judah the Maccabee and just enough oil to burn the menorah for one night and it burned for seven...remember? Thus potato latkehs and sufganiot!

My table will be covered with about a hundred homemade latkehs, store bought sufganiot (much better than mine) a mound of felaffel balls (also fried in oil), tuna salad, egg salad, avocado salad, hummous, tehina, eggplant salad, tomato and cuke salad, potato and cheese borekkahs, corn bread, pitas (or pitot in Hebrew), hot and cold drinks and presents for the little kids.

On a personal note, I am up to here with the rewrite of Emma, and if I'm not writing I'm thinking, plotting, and planning the next move. Besides being wonderful fun it is rather exhausting. So if you don't hear from me drop me a line...I'm up to here with my imaginary playmates. The best news is that my agent/producer/friend loves it! What a relief!

I hope you and yours have a marvellous holiday and may your lights always burn brightly.

Happy Channukah!

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.