We always thought that cream cheese was cheese. Gosh, were we ever wrong! According to Saveur magazine, cream cheese is not cheese!

According to Saveur, cream cheese is made from cow’s milk blended with cream. That “liquid is innoculated with lactic acid,… and solidified with gums.”

By the way, it is the lactic acid that produces the bacteria which in turn give the cheese its acidity.

BIG NEWS PART TWO: Cream cheese was not invented in Philadelphia. It was created in New York state. The original distributor called it Philly brand because Philadelphia was known as a top food town. (And you thought that cheese steaks were about as haute as it gets in Philly!!)

Kraft bought the company in 1928 and kept the Philly name.

So now you know!
(RJR)

We found this idea somewhere recently and just before Purim, we tried it (had to avoid the post Purim black-out dates!). It actually was pretty good!

We took some matzah balls and put them in a pan. We seasoned them with the usual array of Italian type spices. We then covered them with a really good pasta sauce and baked them in the oven for 40 minutes.

Our guests were either very polite, or they really liked it. (Could go either way- they all said they liked it, but no one asked for seconds…. ) On the other hand, we liked it.
(RJR)

For those of you who eat Gebrokts (matzah in liquid), we have a simple alternative to spending huge bucks for KP cold cereals.

Pour some matzah farfel in a bowl. Add a ton of sugar or artificial sweetener (that way it tastes more like boxed, sweetened cereals), pour in the milk, and voila- one bowl of breakfast cereal. Add some sliced bananas, blueberries, strawberries, etc and you have a really fancy bowl of cereal.

One of our kids puts strawberry jam in the bowl. Another one puts chocolate syrup in the bowl. We like it with raisins and bananas. All in all, no matter how you mix, it is cheaper than the boxed Passover cereal.
(RJR)

Imagine our surprise when we found out that our backyard is a veritable gold mine of gastronomic delicasies. Yup, we’re talking about our yard of dandelions! We knew that some old folks make wine from them and that some folks put them in salad, but there is so much more to the story!

Dandelions are nature’s perfect plant! Supplying as much iron as spinach, more beta-carotene than carrots, more lecithin than soybeans, more potassium than bananas, and a whole host of other vitamins and minerals, dandelions are also rumored to help in the treatment of liver problems and digestive disorders. It also is a mean diuretic. Not too shabby, eh??

Some people even think that the original maror eaten at the seder was dandelion greens. Hmm, as anyone who has tried to pull them out of the ground knows, truly it is hard, back-breaking work. No wonder they cried out in distress!

Some good advice: never pick dandelions within 75 feet of the road- they can be contaminated by car exhaust. Pick the leaves and then mow the plant; when new leaves appear, pick them again and again all spring and summer.

As far as store sold dandelions are concerned, beware: most of what is sold in the stores as dandelion is really chicory. Close, but not the same!

Finally, there is a famous French recipe for dandelions called: Creme de Pissenlits. Funny name that one- in French, pissenlit means pee in bed- a reference to the fact that the dandelion is a strong diuretic.
(RJR)

HAPPY PURIM BOYS AND GIRLS!! Join with us in a rousing chorus of that famous Beatle hit: Estherday. Oh, and enjoy the silliness we post today. No, it is not from our fevered mind, but we did like it enough to post it here.

All time best Jewish movies:

Gonif with the Wind – A thief tries to acquire ownership of Tara through a forged property deed.

The Putzman Rings Twice – A mohel murder mystery

Schnorer Rae – A freeloader tries to get in on the union movement

Balaboosta Cockburn – John Wayne’s wife memorizes Grossinger cookbook

The Good, the Chabbad, and the Ugly – A kosher noodle western

Moby Dreck – Captain Ahab harpoons the wrong end of the whale

The Cincinnati Yid – Steve McQueen uses some of his poker winnings to start a reform congregation

Litvak Big Man – Dustin Hoffman learns that his parents are an American Indian and a Lithuanian immigrant

Oy of the Beholder – Singles kvetch about their awful dates

Girls, Interrupted – Women’s section of shul shusshed during davening

The Seder House Rules – Zaydie lays down the law on Pesach

Angela’s Kashas – Woman reveals secret recipes

The Six Cents – Three Jews each put in their two-cents’ worth

Snow Falling on Seders – Unexpected storm disrupts Passover

SuperNova – Space scientists discover powerful strain of lox

Dreydel Will Rock – Chanukah toy comes alive

Sleepy Hallah – On Friday night, father fills up on bread, dozes off

Goys Don’t Cry – Rabbi explains why only Jews observe Tisha B’Av

Isn’t She Gevaldik – Yeshiva boys read Jacqueline Susann

Goy Story 2 – Jewish man divorces shiksa, marries another

Mun on the Moon – Astronauts discover hamantaschen filling, not green cheese, on lunar surface

Stuart Ladle – Mouse makes chicken soup for Shabbos

The End of the Affair – Sheva Brachos last till 3am

My God Skip – Dyslexic worships alte cocker spaniel

The Whole Nine Yids – Struggling shul waits for tenth

The Green Mohel – Young man performs first circumcision