Solving The "Puzzle," First Passover in New Kitchen

Without a doubt, I am extraordinary pleased with the relative ease I had switching my new kitchen into Passover mode, setting it up for Pesach. Even though I made no real/expense effort to plan/build cabinets special for Passover, there ended up being quite a bit of easy to reach/no need to switch cabinets. 

One of the reasons I didn't want to spend extra is because we're not getting any older--meaning that not only don't I host humongous s'darim anymore but even ad meah esrim-we don't have too many left. But that's also a reason to make the Passover switch easier. Yes, that doesn't make sense completely, but we managed to pull it off. And, no, I didn't hire a kitchen planner. Our son-in-law and I planned the kitchen, with one super brilliant tweak by the guy who was hired to be in charge of and do the shuiputz, renovation.

Our kitchen isn't all that big, but it's not small either. My priorities when planning were to have room for two standard Israeli ovens and two separate full-sized sinks. And I have them.

The dairy sink is an "island," and instead of an eating counter, there are closets underneath facing the dining room table. Those closets are full, actually were partially empty, of dairy and parve Passover dishes, pots, etc. They've been empty enough for me to have stored all sorts of Passover pantry items as we purchased them. That was convenient. 

We didn't need to to much switching. I had plenty of room in the big storage drawers to add my mugs and coffee paraphernalia. Then I cleaned and covered the shelves, filling them with Passover mugs, dairy dishes, etc. The only major cabinet switch was for the meat dishes. My husband was able to climb up for that after I emptied, cleaned and covered the shelves. 

My biggest challenge was covering the counters. I was overjoyed to discover that the "oil cloth" I had bought a couple of years ago was more than sufficient to cover all. Cutting to fit required a lot of brain power, engineering skills. I'm very proud that I pulled it off. Here are some photos.

Tonight is the Pesach/Passover Seder, Gd willing, and it is also Shabbat. Blessings and Joy to All.

Shabbat Shalom

Chag Kasher v'Sameach

May You have a Peaceful Shabbat and Joyful and Kosher Passover

Whether Weather? Which is Right?

I'm a bit of a nutcase. I'm super-highly sensitive to the weather. I'm horrendously phobic about housework and cleaning. I need just the right light and weather to clean my house. The sky must be clear and blue. I need the bright cheery weather to cheer me on.

Last week, when I checked the forecast app on my phone, I saw predictions of perfect pre-Pesach (pre-Passover) cleaning weather, even for my nutty standards. But this morning, when I looked at the sky, at what photographers call "Blue Hour," all I saw was a yellowy grey. I got gypped.

Could this be some temporary aberration?

Sitting at the computer, the view was even worse, and it wasn't just the dirty window panes.

So I checked the phone's weather app again.

IMHO that's a forecast for almost ideal weather.

There's another weather site on my computer, which is also calibrated to Shiloh, so I checked that one.

It predicts a different scenario. Which weather forecast is the correct one?

Adding to my mounting panic is that yellowy tinge I see in the sky. It's a clear sign of desert dust storms. That's a weather phenomenon we never experienced on Long Island.

During our first spring in Israel I learned about dust storms and sandstorms, when the clean wet laundry morphed into awful, sandy yellow dirty laundry after hanging outside on dry but yellow days. Days like today.

If I'm forecasting correctly, from the color of the sky, this may be a very difficult and challenging week to clean the house. Spring cleaning must be done when I can safely open up the windows and hang out lots of laundry. True Passover, Pesach cleaning can still be done. I don't need the outdoors all that much to clean the refrigerator, just good music.

So, now I must motivate myself, recalibrate to plan my pre-Pesach cleaning differently. And that also means that non-kitchen, non-chametz cleaning must be after Passover, when the skies are clear and dust-free.

Most Important Passover Tip

Yes, it's good to empty the freezer, clean, polish, shop, but especially when restocking with Kosher for Passover food remember that:

Passover is only a week long!
Passover is only a week long!

PASSOVER IS ONLY A WEEK LONG!
PASSOVER IS ONLY A WEEK LONG!

PASSOVER IS ONLY A WEEK LONG!

PASSOVER IS ONLY A WEEK LONG!

Keep smiling 😃😍

stocking up

emptying

emptying

Trick to Polishing Silver

When I showed off my fantastically polished silver candlesticks to a friend last night, her reaction was:

"I had never noticed that you had silver candlesticks." 

That indicates that my silver candlesticks are usually so black and tarnished that she really hadn't seen them. And yes, she has been over many times, including Friday nights when the candles are lit.

Everyone knows that my housekeeping skills are horrendous, and at my age, I don't expect things to improve. So, when friends I hadn't seen in person for decades said, since they're not far from Shiloh for a few days, and they'd like to drop by, I welcomed them. They had apologized for the timing since it's pre-Passover madness season and asked what my plans were. I mentioned polishing the silver.

"I'll polish your silver. It's my favorite job." My friend replied.

I figured she was joking. She had no idea how disgustingly black and tarnished my silver was. But I set up the silver for me to polish and moved, cleaned the cabinet where my candlesticks are displayed.

I knew that if I didn't get the silver polishing done before Shabbat, it wouldn't be done before Passover. Shabbat HaGadol, the last Shabbat before Passover, is my general cut-off for non kitchen cleaning, even though this year with a whole week before the Friday night Seder, I'm making some exceptions.

My silver had been looking awfully black and tarnished for years, ever since I bought bargain priced Hepi silver cleaner, which seemed to have damaged more than shined them.

When our friends came in, she quickly rolled up her sleeves, donned the disposable gloves I offered, took the soft rag, applied a generous squeeze of Hagerty silver cleaner and began to rub off the tarnish. Suddenly I saw real shine. It had never happened like that when I tried to polish silver.

What had my friend done differently to make the silver shine?
She used a dry cloth, not the "damp cloth" recommended by the manufacturers of the various silver polishes I've bought and unsuccessfully used. Apparently, water not only dilutes the polish, but it's not good for the silver.  After polishing, she buffed it with a clean dry cloth. I was instructed that only the cups or other eating implements should be washed.

After my friends went back to their vacation tzimmer, I polished not only the rest of the candlesticks, but all the other silver I could find in the house. Even more amazing than the shine, was that I enjoyed doing it. The reason I enjoyed the polishing was that I had excellent results with very little work. Gd willing, with this new cleaning tip, my silver will shine all year long.

Post-Purim = Pre-Pesach EEKS!

I just gave vegetable soup and either a cupcake or nuts as
Mishloach Manot this Purim. 

Purim here in Shiloh is double the fun, mitzvot, work etc. As I'm written before, here in Shiloh we celebrate both days. OK, some people fly the coop after eating an early seuda, feast on the first day, regular Purim, and sleep in a location that doesn't celebrate the second day. But not us. We celebrate both days, at least until the rabbis declare what is very obvious, that Shiloh is supposed to celebrate on Shushan Purim, the second day, since the wall is still at the ancient site, and Joshua was even here. It's all in the Bible. Gd willing I'll blog more about that on Shiloh Musings.

This is what my freezer (just a fridge freezer) looks like after two days of Purim immediately followed by Shabbat. Luckily I remembered to thaw out the food I had precooked for this Shabbat. Besides that, there are still leftovers in the fridge from the Family Purim Feast to eat up.

I keep looking around the house a groaning, when I think of what an awful mess it is. Yes, I know that cleaning for Pesach isn't about dirt and clutter, but I have no excuse not to make an effort to improve the general situation here. I'm retired and not working at all. Bli eyin haraa, not to tempt the evil eye, I'm healthy.

Actually the kitchen is the easiest part of cleaning, since we just had it renovated half a year ago. I got rid of a lot of things, and there isn't much to switch. Most of my Passover dishes, pots etc are in easily accessible cabinets in the new kitchen.

It's scary to think that I only have three and a half 3 1/2 weeks before Pesach. Thank Gd I'm not hosting the Seder.

Retired From Seder Making

I was suprised at the enthusuam this statement got on facebook.

I must admit that I am happy I'm not making the seder this year. Honestly, I hope that I never will have to again. I paid my dues.

And I was even more surprised that my husband said:

"Next year let's go away."

It's not in our budget, and I really do prefer my cooking and most other home cooking to hotels and restaurants. Hotel coffee is probably better than what I serve myself. My Passover perked coffee, made with Turkish isn't that awful. It's better than most instant coffee. And this year we got Tasters Choice for a nice discounted price.

In years past, when I was much younger and the kids very little, I'd do all of the cleaning before Passover. And I'd generally pull an all-nighter to switch our kitchen from regular aka chametz to Pesach mode.

To switch the dishes from upper to lower of the upper cabinets, I'd stand on the counters. Then when all was moved, I'd cover them with hard-to-remove Contac paper. Just to think about it today, a short few weeks since suffering terrible hip pains... And then I'd cook everything for the Seder and following day and days after...

My husband just had three jobs, other than a lot of the shopping. He would make the charoset, grind the chrain, horseradish in the coffee-grinder attachment that came with our Passover blender and cover the diningroom table.

When our daughters got older, they helped a lot with the cleaning. And when our sons got bigger, they not only cleaned, but they helped me move the dishes, pans, etc. That's when I discovered that not only did tall boys not need to stand on the counters, but their strong, large hands could hold more dishes than mine ever could. They did the "switching" in record time. After the army grabbed them, I hired teenage boys from the neighborhood, which was money well spent. And then when my husband's job switched him to part-time, I insisted that he learn my routine and help.

But covering counters is still my job. Now I use reusable "oilcloth," heavy plastic, cut to size. The hardest part is trying to remember how to fit it all.

Now, at my age, and with a very empty nest, after all this work, the last thing I have the interest or energy to do is to cook food for a Passover Seder. Every two years one of our daughters (plus her family) hosts us and the rest of the clan. On alternative years, we joyfully accept invitations. May all of our generous hosts be blessed with good health, gifts from GD and children willing and able to take on the role when they, too, are ready to retire from Seder making.

My Weaving Project, Finally in Use

Almost a full year after finishing my weaving project, I finally found something to do with it. You may notice that it has no name, other than "weaving project," because I never knew what I'd do with it. I just learned and experimented with weaving techniques. I hadn't done any real weaving since I was a little girl and made "potholders." 

Because of the spontaneous, unplanned patterns I had fun creating, I ended up with a strange shape, rather than a rectangle. And as it "settled," it became even less of a rectangle. One of the enjoyable things about weaving was that I could even take it home as I worked on it. It didn't leave a mess, nor did I have to change into clothes that could get messy.

This year, cleaning for Passover and trying to get rid of things, I even thought of giving it to my son's dog. Yes, I was that desperate. One of the reasons I didn't give it to her is that she's much bigger and wouldn't enjoy or fit sleeping on it. Then, also as my pre-Pesach purge, throwing things away, I decided to dump our two bathroom mats. That's because every-time I laundered them dirt would clog up the washing-machine filter. So instead of either buying another mat or using floor rags in the bathroom, I decided give my weaving project a purpose.

What do you think?

Now I really have a reason to smile!

What can one do with a work of art like this?

Removing the "work of art" from its loom.

Passover Approaching, Freezer Empyting

Yes, I cleaned off the top shelf of the freezer already. And now that I see the picture, it's clear that I didn't put it back properly. And some of the food on the bottom shelf is actually chicken that is Kosher for Passover.

Considering that we have a week until Bedikat Chametz, bli eyin haraa, we're doing OK.

I'll be giving away and throwing out some food. Not the end of the world...

Pre-Passover Countdown Just 2 1/2 Weeks

I sincerely hope I am wrong, but if next Shabbat is Rosh Chodesh Nissan then we barely have two and a half weeks until the house must be ready for Bedikat Chametz.

I don't think there is too much in the freezer, but there definitely too much forbidden chametz in the house. And in terms of general junk, we are drowning in it.

Pre-Passover: Eaks!!! It's Inventory Time!!!! #4

I can't believe I have just over a week to get my house in Passover mode. The freezer is emptying if you're keeping track with me. 

When I first started this year's series in Eaks!!! It's Inventory Time!!!! my freezer looked like this:

Now, this is how it looks:

I have made some progress in emptying things out and cleaning. But I must be honest, pre-Pesach cleaning just isn't "my thing." Actually cleaning isn't my specialty. But there are things we must do, and I will just do my best. There isn't anything else I can say.

Why isn't there some simple abracadabra we can say/do to get it all done?

Eaks!!! It's Inventory Time!!!! #3

I must admit that I cheated a bit with this series of photos, because I already began buying chicken and beef for Passover. And if I had a way of getting more home, I would have bought lots more last night at Rami Levy, since he had a great sale on poultry in Sha'ar Binyamin.

Before putting in the new stuff, this is how the freezer looked:

I still have some cooked meat, a meatloaf/moussaka and some beef in tomato sauce, in the freezer and half a pack of chicken breasts that must be finished before we go Kosher for Passover. I'm almost finished with the salmon I had bought months ago. But the big problem is that there's wholewheat flour and a cake up there, too. A lot of the rolls are eaten, but there's more to go.

There's plenty to get ready/done before Passover. This year, for the first time in four years, if my memory is correct, we'll be making a seder. It will be small, but still, we're hosting. I'm glad it's a Friday night seder, since that gives a full week from Shabbat to finish the kitchen and start cooking early.

One of the empty bedrooms has had a quasi-thorough cleaning. It's not a room that has seen food at all, but it must be made clean enough.

Weather reports have been springlike, perfect for opening the windows and hanging laundry.

Eaks!!! It's Inventory Time!!!! #2

I know that the freezer still looks pretty full, but I did take out a lot of stuff this past week, since it was Purim.

There aren't too many Shabbatot from now until Passover, so I really won't have to cook and shop all that much. As you can see, there's plenty waiting to be consumed and cooked.

And if you compare today's situation with the way it was on  FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2016 you'd see that I have used some stuff up. OK and there are some new things too....

I just checked the calendar and counted. I didn't want to trust my head and calculations. There are three more Shabbatot. And since the Passover Seder will be on a Friday night, we can start the heavy kitchen stuff and switching right after that third Shabbat.  It would be easier if I knew what we will be doing for the Seder, but that's another story....

Eaks!!! It's Inventory Time!!!!

It's times like this time of the year when I'm very glad that I don't have large freezer, and I don't have an extra freezer, because keeping track of the (chametz-forbidden on Passover) food to finish before the Pesach Holiday is complicated enough for me with my limited storage here.

At some point very soon, I'm going to have to put on my heavy gloves and check what's hidden in the back. As you can see, there are pittot, rolls, prepared food and lots of stuff hidden in those plastic bags. I know there's chicken (raw and cooked) and beef and cakes and flour, too. There's also a big mess of course as you can much too easily see.

Considering the mess, it's very obvious that I don't need a second freezer. There was a time I had a small one, but then fridges and their freezer sections were smaller, too. And even then I had trouble efficiently filling it. I make a point of generally having the basics for Shabbat cooking in the freezer, so if I end up not being able to shop, I can still make the chicken and meat. That doesn't take up all that much space.

I freeze leftovers, since my meat/chicken cooking is only once a week, and we just keep eating Shabbat food until I cook for the next Shabbat. I'm not home every evening. There are weeks that I'm not home any evening. This upcoming week may be one of those. And since my husband and I do have to eat, I just cook in advance, which isn't all that hard. Remember that we have five kids, and there was a time when they (and various guests) lived here with us, and I did cook everyday for all.

Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov everyone!!

That "Sponja Gedoila," Pre-Passover Custom

For many, many years it would annoy me that although the house was clean of chametz, the forbidden leavened foods in time for the ceremonial bedikat chametz, when the head of the house checks and finds "planted" chametz, the house would just be a dirty mess. I didn't grow up with this part of Jewish Law. My mother made sure the kitchen was clean of chametz, but not the  rest of the house and my father didn't do any searching followed around by giggling children.

A number of years ago, after about  fifteen years of marriage, if I remember correctly, my husband was in miluim, army reserves and I did some of my Passover shopping in Jerusalem with a neighbor. He told me about his wife's family custom, the "Sponja Gedoila," which she grew up with being from a family that had been in Jerusalem for many generations.

Just before bedikat chametz she washes the floors of the entire house. And ever since, I do it. too. This isn't a thorough cleaning, which had just been done recently. I just quickly go over all of the floors with a damp cloth, Israeli style. In Israel most floors can be cleaned like that. If your home is carpeted, then you'd do a quick run with the vacuum cleaner and wash the toilet and kitchen floors.

And then I sit in my favorite corner of the couch while my husband does the ritual inspection.

Have a Healthy Chag Kasher v'Sameach all of you!

Skipping Rooms as I Clean for Passover

First of all, I'm also "skipping blogs" this morning, since I must leave the computer and start serious Passover cleaning in the kitchen.  Since Jewish Israel's Ellen has posted a very important article (or teaser for the complete one) on my Shiloh Musings about Lincoln Square Synagogue's giving a dangerous missionary a platform to speak to Jews, I'll let that suffice for this morning's post.

Since I don't have much help at home, and Passover is very soon, and I work at a job that does not take vacation before Passover to help the staff. Actually, since it's a clothing store, our workload and work hours are much longer and harder than usual, I'm working more before Passover. I also really want to go to the ISRAEL BOWL VII // Tel Aviv Pioneers vs. Jerusalem Lions on Friday. I need your prayers to get home safely before Shabbat.

So, even though there are rooms in this "empty nest" house that haven't been thoroughly cleaned, I've started the kitchen. We don't eat in the bedrooms. At most I have to find places for chametz pans that have been sleeping on beds. Five out of six "spare beds" have been cleared. No chametz enters the den, which looks like a storeroom.

Closet number one #1 was covered last night.

Here I come with rags, cleaners and rubber gloves!

So, kitchen, I know your number!

Busy Blog World, HH on Esser Agaroth

Esser Agaroth is the host for this week's Havel Havelim, the weekly International Jewish Blog Carnival. He has collected a wonderful selection of blog posts from all over. Check it out, enjoy and share.

Adventures In AliyahLand will be hosting next week's edition. Please send your submissions directly to her via e-mail at Jay3fer@gmail.com.

More information can be found on our facebook page.

This week, since tomorrow is Rosh Chodesh Nissan, I'll be hosting the Chodesh Nissan, aka pre-Pesach Kosher Cooking Carnival. I'm not quite sure when I'll have the time, but bli neder somehow I'll manage. We also have a facebook page. Please send me your links about all aspects of kosher food and kosher cooking to shilohmuse at gmail dot com, with "kcc" as subject, thanks.

With Rosh Chodesh Nissan tomorrow, we're really getting into the home stretch before Pesach. Personally, I feel less ready than usual. I miss being a teacher here in Israel when I'd have at least a full week off, as paid holiday, beforehand.  Now I work in a store, and we get no holiday pay and certainly no pre-holiday vacation pay. So when you're shopping, please be extra kind to the staff. We're under terrible stress between the pre-holiday rush at work and the pre-holiday stress at home. Thanks. Hmm, I wonder if anyone will read this paragraph. If you do, mention it in a comment, please, thanks.

Pre-Passover Pictures

My house, ok-the kitchen, is almost ready for Passover.  Last night my husband and I pulled down and up all the dishes, pots etc, so the kitchen closets are done.  Th is morning I was able to perc my coffee in the Pesach Percolator, a simple aluminium stove-top one.  The coffee comes out strong and hot, which is all that counts.

Today, I'll send him off with bread banished from the freezer. 

There's not much to eat here.

There's still more to cover.

At least I put back all the fridge shelves. 

And now on with my day.