Well - our first year together our passover was kind of thrown together last minute. You see, at the time I was pregnant and beyond the point where the airlines would allow me to fly. If I remember correctly I was fine to fly down to Florida (where his parents and grandparents live) but by the time we would've come back, I technically would've been passed it. So - my parents helped me, and we put together a Seder. Since we were a bunch of gentiles, and didn't know too much about it, I got a haggadah from Shoprite (courtesy of our friends at Maxwell House) and went from there. For some reason, I don't remember a ton from that Passover. I think because my biggest concern was how dinner had turned out since i made a turkey breast and a brisket. I was also really pregnant, and had other things on my mind.
The following year I was pregnant - AGAIN. And I was working full time plus trying to get my business up and running. At that point, it was impossible for me to get off work to go to Florida for Passover. My husband took our son down, and I stayed home, pregnant and working.
The next year, my husband's nephew was born the week before Passover. Our plan had been to go up, have Passover and then the following day have his bris. However, my sister-in-law had some complications from her delivery and wasn't in the mood to do passover. So we ordered Chinese food...
Then...last year, I was in the same spot where I was running my business, had no one to cover for me so I could take a week off to go to Florida and wound up staying home alone. At this time I wasn't upset, cause I wasn't becoming Jewish yet, so Easter was still my "holiday". And while I wasn't overly excited about the holiday, I had plans to spend Easter with my parents and my children.
This year I was excited that it would be my first passover on my journey to become Jewish, and I wanted this to be a really special holiday. In our original vision of this Pesach we were going to be in Florida. However, due to the way the Easter falls (and my husband's work) we weren't able to do passover in Florida. Which meant that we were either going to Boston to my sister-in-law's or my husband's Aunt's house. Then - it became obvious what our plans were....we were having one night of passover at our house, and the second at my husband's aunt's. So I met with Rabbi Roston (the Rabbi helping me through this process). And she gave me some great books on the subject.
During my preparations for Passover, I came across a pamphlet of programs being offering at the temple on the subject, and the one that caught my eye, was about kashering your kitchen. I really wasn't knowledgeable at all on the subject - I remembered my mother-in-law telling me that you're suppose to look around the burn bread, but had no idea what that meant and thought that I should know something about it.
So - myself and a few other women met at the temple with Rabbi Roston to go over the subject. And I was fascinated by it. I learned about not only how to kasher my kitchen, but how things can become not kosher - we talked about different kinds of fish that aren't kosher (I don't really eat fish, and am sensitive to shell fish, so it was interested to learn what kinds of fish do and don't have fins and scales). I hadn't really given it much thought, but it was during this meeting that I decided that I was gonna go for it - after all, "Play big or go home" has kind of been my motto for the last few months.
I decided that not only was I going to kasher my kitchen, but I was also going to prepare an entirely kosher meal, separate dishes, and all.
My Menu -
I decided that I needed to obviously plan my menu ahead, to ensure that I wasn't going to do something stupid. Since I primarily eat meat (And that idea of an entirely dairy and parve meal sounded like a meal I would rather skip...) I decided to go meat and parve.
I made -
Matzo Ball Soup
Gefilte fish (aka the "Chicken McNugget of the Sea")
Turkey (Which I brined before I cooked it)
Mashed potatoes (which because of the way I make them, fall into the category of meat)
steamed asparagus with a "parve" margarine, white wine garlic sauce
and steamed broccoli.
For dessert, I made an Angel food cake (again parve) and then I picked up a non-dairy whipping cream that the Rabbi had recommended and made my own whipped cream.
A few notes on my Menu -
I HIGHLY recommend brining your turkey. It was probably the best turkey I've ever made, and wasn't really hard to do. I used a great spice (McCormick's Perfect Pinch - Garlic and Herb (Salt Free), and kosher salt. You can find basic brine directions on google. I had a spare mini fridge left over from college, which I set-up in my basement. My husband works at a restaurant, so I had him bring me home a kosher pickle put, and used a brine bag. I put the bag, and the turkey in the bucket, poured the cooled brine over it, and let it sit over night. It was FABULOUS.
My Mashed Potatoes - they're a little trick I picked up in Disney world. Instead of putting milk when you beat them, use chicken stock. It gives them more flavor, and I throw in some chopped garlic, and WHITE pepper (so it doesn't look like you flicked a cigarette into the potatoes). To keep them non-dairy, I used fleischman's margarine (it's the one with the green label) and it's totally parve. I also use red potatoes, as they tend not to clump up and be dry like the whites or Idaho ones.
I began the process of doing my Kitchen Thursday night, I seriously boiled everything in my kitchen, that I knew I could. Since I didn't want to have to do dishes after dinner, I went to BJ's where I purchased nice "Crystal" looking plates, and plastic ware that looked like silverware. You have no idea how great it felt after dinner to scrap dishes into the garbage disposal and then stick the plates in the recycling.
I also went to IKEA where I bought some inexpensive things like a few glass serving bowls/plates, green/red tongs (meat and parve) as well as cheap measuring cups (since I couldn't kasher mine) and any other serving items. I figured this was great, cause they were $1 or less, and were items I could use for next year.
Another great place I visited - the Dollar Store! I got red/green dish towels and sponges, and in some cases they were a few for a dollar.
I also HIGHLY recommend the Wine Library on the Millburn/Springfield Border. They had a nice selection of Kosher wines (not the usual two) and the man who helped me was very knowledgeable and helped me select wines that didn't give us uncontrollably facial spasms.
In my preparations - I must have seriously looked at about 20 different haggadah. I found one I liked, but it was missing somethings that I wanted. It was VERY important to me that it have English and TRANSLITERATED Hebrew. Most of the haggadahs I found were either entirely in English, or had English with only the Hebrew...not good for someone who hasn't studied Hebrew.
I took the Haggadah that I liked the most (link to that haggadah here) and sat at my computer where I copied a good chunk of the text. I created my haggadah so that there were two columns - the right column had English, the left was transliterated Hebrew.
Now - I know what your'e thinking - why did she have to make her own? I didn't HAVE to do anything. I wanted to add stuff in for my kids - I added songs like The Ballad of the Four Sons, a cute Seder plate song to the tune of This Old Man and Don't Sit on the Afikomen to entertain my kids. I also incorporated this cute video of a Jewish Rock Opera that Rabbi R had shown me. I want my Seder to be fun - I figured that theses were great ways to do it, and make it a meaningful holiday to my family. Creating this haggadah was one of the highlights of my holiday - I highly recommend doing it.
The day of Passover I may have driven everyone insane - considering that since I only have one sink, and I didn't have a tray for the bottom of it, there was no place in my house for dairy...and since I was using plastic cups for everything (Since I couldn't kasher mine) it made getting coffee that morning slightly difficult.
It was a great holiday - some things happened that I hadn't anticipated, and I learned a lot on the way.
- I wound up leading our Seder. Which I hadn't planned on, since I have never actually been to one. But everyone said I did a great job.
- The Miriam's Cup is a great tradition to that if you don't do it in your Seder, you should consider adding. Don't know what I'm talking about? Learn all about it here! (Thanks Rabbi R!)
- I also learned that horseradish comes in both regular, red (for the beets) and HOT. I learned this lesson not at the store, but as every one's eyes were bugging out of their heads - thus curing anyone of any sinus conditions they had, or may have developed for a few weeks....
- I also learned that I made kick ass matzo ball soup, completely by accident. I had planned on buying them, but at $16 a bag, it was easier to use the free mix I got and make them. I also learned that Shoprite Kosher Chicken Broth is cheaper than their regular stuff...even when it's not on sale.
- Matzo balls expand when you cook them, and shouting "Holy Crap these balls are huge!" will inevitably be followed by comments like "That sounds like a personal problem..." or "That's What She Said..."
- With enough sugar and vanilla, no one will be able to tell that parve whipping cream isn't the real deal.
- Kosher for Passover Angel food cake - sounds like a good idea. And it's delicious, unless you ate three helpings of Turkey. Then it may be the last straw that breaks your pants - I mean camel's back.
- Chocolate matzo is not only delicious - it's parve!
- No one in our house has a high enough alcohol tolerance to make it through the whole Seder....
All in all it was a great holiday. I was very happy with how it turned out, and everyone seemed to love the food. In fact - my brother-in-law couldn't seem to get enough of the Turkey, and I ate way, way too much cake.
I hope you enjoyed your holidays and remember that Passover, is about the covenant with God - remember the final promise that you make with God...to tell your children the story. I hadn't learned that part until my preparations. It's important that we teach our children to value their freedom - there are so many in this world who are not, and it is very easy to take it for granted. In going through the Seder, and meal, I asked myself - which of the Four Son's did I want to be?
So now I put it to you - which do you think you want to be? And which would you want your children to be?
No comments:
Post a Comment