Author: Old Jewish Lady

Chicken Soup Recipe

~ Old Jewish Lady
The healthful ingredients of chicken soup.
The healthful ingredients of chicken soup.

Chicken Soup

  • Flanken (or beef short ribs)
  • Soup bones (some marrow, if possible)
  • Chicken
  • Onion
  • Celery
  • Carrot
  • Parsnip
  • Garlic clove
  • Potato
  • Leek (optional, if on hand)
  • Tomato, quartered
  • Salt to taste
  • Peppercorns or ground pepper
  • Fresh parsley
  • Fresh dill
  1. Boil a large pot of water, or water mixed with chicken stock.
  2. Add the flanken and soup bones, some salt and peppercorns. Keep skimming off the matter that rises to the top of the soup. Continue cooking for at least 30 minutes.
  3. Add the chicken. Skim off as much fat as possible. Cook another 30 minutes.
  4. Clean and cut up all the vegetables and add all, except the parsley and dill. Cook about 20 minutes.
  5. Add parsley and dill, cover and cook another 10 minutes.

I have listed ingredients in the singular but amounts will vary in accordance with the amount of soup required.

Tip: Refrigerate the soup after preparation so that the fat rises to the top and solidifies. Preserve the fat (freeze it for later use) to make chopped liver.

 

The Definition of Chutzpah

~ Old Jewish Lady

irs-1040

I have just learned from an actual accountant that the IRS has been hacked and codes used for electronic filing have been compromised.

Now, is that chutzpah or what? How can they think they will get away with that?

I have a feeling this is not going to be pretty.

The Inaugural Explained in Yiddish

~ Old Jewish Lady

in-00_cover_md-2013-inaugural-horizontal-glory

I am not going to spout my opinion of the President. I won’t politicize or pontificate. I will bite my tongue and not say a word. But my mother, if she were still here, would have said something in Yiddish at a time like this:

Es iz a lebedike velt.

Click the audio player below to hear me explain it as best I can…

“Senty” Claus

~ Old Jewish Lady

Photo: Charles Rondeau
Photo: Charles Rondeau

Jewish or not, as a little girl, I got a present every Christmas. I’d wake up in the morning–of course I didn’t want to sleep–and Poppa and Momma would be there and there would be a present on top of my feet. I always knew it would be there. Whatever it was, I was hocking them about it all year long and it would be on my bed Christmas Day, absolutely. And Poppa would be laughing his head off and he would always say, “Senty Claus was here!”

One year I drove them crazy. I drove them out of their minds. I only wanted this xylophone toy with a hammer to play. Sure enough, Christmas morning, there it was on my bed.

Donald Trump Explained in Yiddish

~ Old Jewish Lady

trumpA certain political candidate finds himself in hot water. Perhaps you know someone like this: They are unable to think before they talk. They have no “filter” and just come out and say whatever is on their “mind.” My mother had a Yiddish expression for this type of person:

Voss iz bei ihm afn ling iz bei ihm afn tzing.

What’s on his lung is on his tongue.

 

 

New York’s Smartest

~ Old Jewish Lady

Bay Ridge High School 1918
Bay Ridge High School 1918

To the public school teachers: I consider myself a proud, happy, and grateful product of the New York City school system. In my time, the teachers had a tremendous job teaching children of families who emigrated from all over Europe. They had to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and history to form students into solid American citizens. English very often was not the language spoken at home.

I loved my teachers and I loved school. I still remember their names from my time at P.S. 170 and Bay Ridge High School. (I graduated in 1940 so the post card is even older than I am!) I had Miss Rush in Kindergarten. Miss File in third grade. In sixth grade, I had Mrs. Strauss who was so kind. She invited me to her home where she had a beautiful piano and helped me with whatever songs I was learning as a young singer. My high school French teacher was Mlle. Faust. She used a pencil that was red on one side and blue on the other. So trust me, I learned to speak French like a native.

To all the teachers: Thank you, thank you. You will never be forgotten. And I have no reason to think that in the challenging melting pot of New York schools today, the job of the teacher is any easier or that their work is any less miraculous.

 

 

The New Colossus

~ Old Jewish Lady

Colossuses

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

–Emma Lazarus

 

Colossus of Rhodes image {{PD-old-70}}

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

~ Old Jewish Lady

Below is a century-old photo taken at the English seashore. My husband is the smiling baby front and center. But there is something very wrong here. Can you see what it is? (Scroll down to read the answer.)

(Hastings 1916)
(Hastings 1916)

Answer: There are no men in the photo, only women and children. Their smiling faces belie what is really going on: The men were away serving in World War I.

No News Is True News

~ Old Jewish Lady

Truth Pravda Russian Dictionary

For over a century, Russia had two major newspapers, Pravda and Izvestia. In Russian, “pravda” means “truth” and “izvestia” means “news.” Those sound like good names for newspapers. But they were all propaganda. A famous Russian saying, evoking these pillars of journalism, can be translated to something like this: “There’s no truth in The News, and no news in The Truth.”

Ain’t that the truth?