Being Unable To Share

 These days, one of the hardest things about social distancing is being unable to share. . .  Being unable to share anything --- hugs, kisses, treasures, or baked goods!!!!

Missing My Anoushigner Already!!!

 

Mystery in Cold Springs Park

 

How long has this been there?  What is it?  One day left from the very old days? Or a recent planting?

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, Armenian style!

 

"AMEN OR GER MEG KHUNTSOR, YEV MEG OR BEDK CHE DOCTOR!"

"Every day, eat one apple. and one day, you won't need a doctor!"

                                                                                                   Translation by Marash Girl

Thank You, Healthcare Workers!

 

How one digit can make all the difference!!!!

Yesterday morning, Marash Girl found a bouquet of flowers on her front porch, a bouquet of flowers with a card that read, "From your favorite jerk!"  Wondering who that might be, Marash Girl enjoyed a half hour of fun trying to figure out who the jerk was.   Well, as it turned out, the flowers were delivered to the wrong address.  The flowers were meant for 19 and not 18 M Street.  

Thank you to Lisa's favorite jerk for a few minutes of floral joy!

Refrigerator Soup (Named by Joan Scully Metz)

Don't have anything but leftovers -- a little of this, a little of that -- in the refrigerator?   Then you've got the makings of a delicious soup.  Simply take a frozen block of chicken broth from the freezer, broth that you've made by boiling the remnants of the last chicken or turkey that you roasted -- or open a can of all natural chicken broth, bring to a boil, add a little of this, a little of that -- one peeled and chopped carrot, one peeled and chopped onion, and one celery stalk (washed & chopped, of course), a cup of leftover rice, boulghour, pasta, or a peeled and chopped potato, a cup of leftover veggies, some bits of chicken left from the roast chicken you just served . . . heat it all together, simmer until veggies are tender, add some hot sauce, if you like hot sauce, or some tamari, if you like tamari, some garlic, if you like garlic . . . and there you have it!  Taste before serving to adjust the flavor exactly to your liking, perhaps by adding a small can of tomato paste or some wine vinegar . . . be creative!!!

Cold Compress?

Going online to look up an all-natural, "non-medicinal" relief for itchy eyes, Marash Girl found a suggestion for using a cold compress.  The only problem was that the person posting the suggestion stated that the cold compress would cause the reader to relive (rather than relieve) itchy eyes.  What a difference one letter makes!!!

Lorig's Recipe for Beet Hummus

 Beet Hummus - Lorig's version - "Very Simple"

1 ¾ cups Chickpeas (about one 15 oz can, or cooked, drained)

3 Tbsp Tahini

2-3 cloves Peeled Garlic (more or less to taste)

¾ cup Cooked Peeled Beets (roasted or boiled) cut into pieces

4-5 Tbsp Freshly squeezed Lemon Juice

4 Tbsp cup Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Chop garlic. Drain chickpeas. Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Taste and add more garlic, lemon juice, or olive oil, to adjust to your palate. Add salt and pepper to taste

What's going on? asks Peter Rabbit

 

    Peter Rabbit visits Maple Avenue   

 Photo by Marash Girl

                                                                                                     

Jesus Saves!

 

                                                                   Photo by Marash Girl

       Moving van driving down Maple Avenue yesterday shouts the good news:  JESUS SAVES!!!!

Grieving the Passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Asdvadz hoki lousavoreh.  May the Lord welcome Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg . . .

What would you say then, Mr. Twain?

 Mark Twain used to quip, "If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a minute!"  But what should we do if we do like the weather in New England, Mr. Twain?

Prayers for Healing

 Please pray for the healing of sister Arax who is presently and hopefully recovering in the hospital.

Madame LaFarge?

On these beautiful September afternoons, as the sun begins to set, Marash Girl sits on her front porch, watching the world go by, and knitting scarves to gift her family at Christmas.  She has been accused of using her knitting as a ruse to register exactly what is going on in the neighborhood.  Were her neighbors accusing her of being Madame LaFarge? 

Dirty Copper

 Every time Marash Girl finds a penny on the sidewalk, it reminds her of her elementary school classmate, David S., who used to throw pennies at police cars and shout, "Dirty copper!"  And guess who joined the police force of the City of Newton!

after graduating from high school?

3 Eggplant Recipes, 3 Generations

3 Eggplant Recipes, 3 Generations by Karoun

Last Friday when I picked up my farm box downtown, the Hadley farmer gifted me a large round eggplant on top of my full box of local veggies. My mother shared eggplant recipes from her mother, with my siblings and I. Here are the three recipes, in my mother's words. I made the first one. It is delicious and a great hangover cure too, nice and fatty and salty, but not too heavy.

Fried Eggplant with Egg

Wash the eggplant chop off the stem. Sliced Into thin Round slices. Dip both sides into a dish that has beaten egg in it. Put into hot oil fry for a minute on one side and then flip and fry on the other side. Serve immediately with salt and fresh sliced tomatoes

Eggplant Salad

Another grandma recipe: broil the egg plant until it is soft and squishy inside. Remove carefully from oven. When slightly cold cut the egg plant in half and remove the flesh from the skin. Mash with a fork. Add chopped fresh tomatoes and chopped fresh scallions. Served cold as a salad. Add salt and pepper and red pepper to taste before serving

Eggplant Dolma

You can also make dolma by picking baby egg plants chopping the stem off and digging out carefully the energies leaving the thin out a thin outer shell. Then continue as you would when you make Dolma.

One Sunday Morning in Watertown, Massachusetts

One Sunday morning, Marash Girl and her family attended the United Armenian Brethren Evangelical Church of Watertown, Massachusetts, as they did every Sunday morning.  Marash Girl's dad, Peter, was sitting next to Mrs. C., a woman who was moneyed, but known to be parsimonious.  When the velvet lined plate came around for the offering, she put a dollar bill into the offering plate and started scrounging around for change.  Peter asked her what she was doing . . . Her answer: "I'm looking for change. I need 75 cents back."  Peter answered, "In this church, we don't take change away from the church . . . we give our change to the church!"

How To Lie And Not Feel Guilty About It!!!

In elementary school, Marash Girl and her classmates bought into the theory that, as long as you kept your fingers crossed behind your back, you could tell a lie and you wouldn't have to feel guilty because fingers crossed meant that the lie you were telling wouldn't count as a lie!

Do you remember where you were on THE 9/11?

Marash Girl still thanks the Lord that her son, who was living  and working in New York City in full view of the Twin Towers on that fatal 9/11,  and at that fatal hour, in full view of the crash, lived to tell the tale.  To this day, Marash Girl thanks the Lord for her son's life.

Dropped A Stitch?

The easiest way to knit a fancy scarf is to drop a stitch or two.  Drop a stitch or two, you ask?  Yes, ma'am (sir)!!!  Most fancy knitting stitches were originally the result of "mistakes". Here's how this mistake makes for a beautiful scarf.

Knit your scarf as you would, using the typical knit/purl or knit/knit, and when your scarf is as long as you would like, simply drop a stitch or two, preferably in an orderly manner . . . i.e., if you have 30 stitches on your needle, drop the 11th stitch and the 20th stitch.  Or play around with the patterns, and perhaps drop every fifth stitch.  In any case, when you have dropped the stitches you want dropped, simply pull them all the way through the scarf, and you will have created a lovely pattern for your scarf with very little effort.  

Marash Girl suggests that you experiment a bit with a small length of knitted scarf . . . i.e., knit about 6 rows and and drop a few stitches to see what pattern/s you prefer!!!  For sure, you'll be able to knit a  simple scarf that will appear quite fancy and complicated to all who see it and any one who is lucky enough to wear it!

Keep Them Guessing!!!

Whenever Marash Girl prepares batter for banana cake or white cake of any kind, she loves to add a "secret ingredient" . . . an ingredient that will keep her guests guessing.  (Isn't that what your guests are supposed to do?) So how does Marash Girl keep her friends guessing?  Here's the secret . . . and don't you dare tell!!!  Add a tablespoon or two of rum or any sweet liqueur to the liquid ingredients before stirring the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients.  That will do it!!! 

Try it, you'll like it . . . and so will your guests!

Beautiful weather today!

Beautiful weather today!!!  Reminds Marash Girl of the famous "re-mark" by Mark Twain: "If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a minute!"  He never, to Marash Girl's knowledge, said anything about what to do if you DO like the weather in New England . . . which Marash Girl does today!!!

Grandma Jennie, Cinnamon, and Sugar!

Grandma Jennie was, herself, as sweet as cinnamon and sugar.  And she loved to serve her children cinnamon and sugar on buttered toast.  Preparing that treat today for breakfast reminded Marash Girl of how sweet her mother was . . . and how feisty!!!! Grandma Jennie was, in fact, cinnamon and sugar personified. 

Sad Farewell to Rug Store in Newton Corner

 

Achku Chap!

 Medzmama never cooked or baked using a cookbook; when her daughters complained, she would answer, "What?  Did God make the recipe?"  She only measured "by the eye", or, as she put it, "Achku chap!"  She baked and cooked intricate Armenian meals and pastries by her sixth, seventh and eighth sense!!!    And what sense she had.  Folks would come from all over to watch her and record what and how she baked, but no matter how carefully they watched, no one was ever able to replicate many of her dishes, and certainly not her paklava which she made from scratch, rolling out ten layers of paklava dough at once, using cornstarch to separate the layers.   The flavor of her dishes was unbeatable!!!! 

                                                                      Thank you, Medzmama!

"Bir yumuşağ var mı?"

In the old days, whenever Armenian guests came visiting to her family home in Newtonville,  they would always bring a box of chocolates -- usually Whitman's Chocolates.  As Marash Girl has written elsewhere, we kids loved the nuts and would seek them out; thus, we were delighted when an elderly Armenian visitor would ask, ""Bir yumuşağ var mı?"  (Is there a soft one?). Were guests to look underneath each chocolate, they would clearly see if there was a soft one, for the bottoms of the soft ones would have been broken in and left for them by us kids!!!

Sidewalk Art: Dylan=Frida Kahlo at 5 Years Old?

 

One day left from the old days . . . Pudd's great grandchild!!!

                                                                                                   Photo by Marash Girl 

SIX FEET APART?

Survivor of the Armenian Genocide, Grandpa Peter, were he living today, would quip, 

                                        "Better six feet apart than six feet under!"

A NEW DOG?

Yesterday, sitting on the front porch watching folks passing by with their puppies on leash, Marash Boy quipped,  "Can't teach a new dog old tricks!!!"