Cooking Up a Storm for The Kiddies

We set up a second table in order to accommodate the clan yesterday. There were chairs out for all but the youngest, who's under a month old. Just because I'm no longer in the Passover Seder business doesn't mean that I'm neither hosting nor cooking for them. Not only did I have everyone over for our traditional family Pesach food, but I served on real plates. And I even washed up all the dishes, pots and pans afterwards.

Photo by Yisrael Medad,
Yes, the husband

The highlight of the menu was Savta Brei, a calorie laden dish that can be described as "latke-coated matzah" fried in olive oil. Basically, it's just a matter of taking onions and potatoes, grating (you can use a blender or food-processor) them together, mix with eggs, matzah meal, salt and pepper. Yes, just like classic raw potato latkes. Heat some oil in the frying pan, then take matzah, coat with the mush and fry well on both sides. Serve it with applesauce and/or sour cream, just like you'd do with potato latkes.

I'm not quite sure that anyone ate them besides my children. Since the frying went really slowly due to the lack of a good gas stove, I baked up some of the mush as oven latkes. But my husband was overjoyed to have the traditional holiday food of his family. The latkes were more popular with the younger generation and the in-laws.

For my children, I decided to serve one of their childhood Passover treats,  Instant Chocolate Pudding. It had been decades since such a dish had graced our table. As an extra adventure, the grandkids were introduced to what was once the most necessary Passover kitchen tool, the eggbeater. Some of the older ones took turns trying to mix the chocolate pudding with it.

I think everyone had a good time. There was just one almost disaster. The folding table began spontaneously folding mid-meal. Luckily I was sitting at the end and held it up until my son-in-law reopened it. Nothing was lost, especially not weight. We will have to resume our diets after Pesach.

The farewell blessing was:

"Next year in a new kitchen."

Gd willing, speedily in our days...

Easy TNT Never-Fail Knaidlach, Matzah Balls

I discovered this super easy, never failed me yet, TNT tried and true  Matzah Ball recipe when I was newly married a gazillion years ago. I use olive oil when making it on Passover and vegetable/soy oil during the year. It's best cooking it up in the soup, chicken or even vegetable soup, but when I bring them to my daughter, I just cook them up in lightly salted water. This time the water also had a pinch of pepper.

Way back when, every good housewife had a little Recipe Box of handwritten index cards, I wrote this one:

3 eggs
1T water
2 Ts oil
1 tsp salt
dash pepper
1/2 c מצה meal

mix thoroughly
-in fridge several hours
shape into balls
drop into boiling soup or water

Here are pictures from this year when I quadrupled the recipe:

I'm just bringing the Matzah Balls, since my daughter is hosting and making the Chicken Soup.

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This, how to double-spoon drop for making Kneidlach, is from last year, when I was cooking on gas, which gives a more powerful flame than the electric stove I'm using this year. Gd willing, next year I'll be back to cooking on gas, or at  least a more powerful stovetop.