Pesach Cooking
Whew!! It's been a big week for cooking. At our home on Mount Bolus Road in Chapel Hill we had a whole set of dishes, pots and pans, silverware, etc. dedicated to Passover. Now it's all stored in our locker at Carol Woods. Here, of course, we don't have anything dedicated to Passover. But I did have a set of dishes from when I came here in the 80's that we haven't used since then, so I figured they would be good enough so I washed them in the dishwasher on a very hot cycle and pronounced them fine for Passover. Likewise knives, forks, spoons, etc. Poured boiling water into all the cooking pots and cake pans. Ritual sanctification! And everything was on the counter tops. So we definitely had the feeling that we were not in our usual routine.
For those readers not familiar with Passover (Pesach) customs -- Ashkenazi Jews do not eat anything during the week of Passover that could possibly be made into flour. So the only thing you can use is matzah meal. No corn, beans, rice, grains. Just matzah. Basically you can eat fruit and vegetables, meat, eggs, and milk products, and anything you can make out of matzah. Turns out you can make some very good stuff!
We had three different evenings with company during the week. On Monday we had Avi and Batsheva Hill Mizrachi and their three great boys; on Thursday we had the Gavriely family including assorted boyfriends and girlfriends and on Friday we were delighted to host Adam and Elianna Goldstein, friends from Chapel Hill. Elianna is on a program for high-schoolers here and Adam is visiting her.
So. Over the course of the week I used 5 1/2 dozen eggs, 2/3 of a liter of canola oil, nearly a kilo of sugar, and a lot of matzah meal. Everything uses the same ingredients -- matzah balls (matzah meal, eggs, oil, salt, water), Passover popovers (matzah meal, eggs, oil, salt, water and a little sugar), sponge cake (matzah meal, 8 eggs [!], oil, salt, sugar), pashtida (eggs, mushrooms, onions, oil, salt, matzah meal [just a little]).....you get the picture. I did have a great time cooking and a great time having people over. It was a very good week.
This evening Frank and I went to the Flower Exhibit. Every year they have one in Israel, in different places, and this year it is in Haifa, down by the sea. I had heard disappointing things about it -- horribly crowded, you can't park, you have to wait in line hours to get into the pavilions, etc, so I had very low expetations, but our friend Eti had gotten tickets so we went. We must have had extraordinary luck because we found a place to park, there were no long lines, and the exhibits were spectacular!!! It was just gorgeous. There were nine of these "pavilions" -- huge tents, really, very dark and lit up, and the exhibits were incredible. Tomorrow I will put pictures up so you can see for yourselves...
So since I had such a good time during Pesach, I was kind of sorry to see it end and we still haven't had any bread just because we don't have any. Tomorrow...
Pat
For those readers not familiar with Passover (Pesach) customs -- Ashkenazi Jews do not eat anything during the week of Passover that could possibly be made into flour. So the only thing you can use is matzah meal. No corn, beans, rice, grains. Just matzah. Basically you can eat fruit and vegetables, meat, eggs, and milk products, and anything you can make out of matzah. Turns out you can make some very good stuff!
We had three different evenings with company during the week. On Monday we had Avi and Batsheva Hill Mizrachi and their three great boys; on Thursday we had the Gavriely family including assorted boyfriends and girlfriends and on Friday we were delighted to host Adam and Elianna Goldstein, friends from Chapel Hill. Elianna is on a program for high-schoolers here and Adam is visiting her.
So. Over the course of the week I used 5 1/2 dozen eggs, 2/3 of a liter of canola oil, nearly a kilo of sugar, and a lot of matzah meal. Everything uses the same ingredients -- matzah balls (matzah meal, eggs, oil, salt, water), Passover popovers (matzah meal, eggs, oil, salt, water and a little sugar), sponge cake (matzah meal, 8 eggs [!], oil, salt, sugar), pashtida (eggs, mushrooms, onions, oil, salt, matzah meal [just a little]).....you get the picture. I did have a great time cooking and a great time having people over. It was a very good week.
This evening Frank and I went to the Flower Exhibit. Every year they have one in Israel, in different places, and this year it is in Haifa, down by the sea. I had heard disappointing things about it -- horribly crowded, you can't park, you have to wait in line hours to get into the pavilions, etc, so I had very low expetations, but our friend Eti had gotten tickets so we went. We must have had extraordinary luck because we found a place to park, there were no long lines, and the exhibits were spectacular!!! It was just gorgeous. There were nine of these "pavilions" -- huge tents, really, very dark and lit up, and the exhibits were incredible. Tomorrow I will put pictures up so you can see for yourselves...
So since I had such a good time during Pesach, I was kind of sorry to see it end and we still haven't had any bread just because we don't have any. Tomorrow...
Pat
posted by Frank and Pat Fischer at
6:02 AM
1 Comments:
Ohmy, Pat, I am so impressed with the preparations of the pots and dishes and so forth, for Passover. Great. And then all the cooking. w.o.w. Will we see pictures of the Flower Exhibit? fingers crossed here.
Our spring break is over here . . . so back to schools tomorrow. love, Sara xoxo
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