Table for Two, Passover, 2020, Pesach 5780 מה נשתנה הלילה הזה?

?מה נשתנה הלילה הזה

Here are two views of our Passover Seder Table, which for the very first time in history was set and ready before I lit the holiday candles. I'm not sure exactly how many of the forty-nine, yes 49 s'darim we've had as a married couple we hosted. It's most probably just over half or two-thirds.



But one thing for sure; I never had the table fully set before lighting candles before. So we have no old photos of the table all set up.

In addition, from the time our daughters were old enough, they took charge of setting the table, so I probably haven't done it alone for well over forty years.

I had too many matzah covers to choose from. I gave my husband his traditional one, which had been given to us by my parents. And I used mine, which I had embroidered from a kit over forty years ago. Others we must have inherited from my parents' stock of Judaica.

On the table there are lots of memories plus the mosaic hotplate I made in our local senior citizen group. The Seder Plate and other hotplate were gifts from friends. The two-handled washing cup was from (one of) our children. I'm pretty sure that the glass wine goblets date back to a rather large seder we hosted in our small Jerusalem apartment over forty years ago.

Another first time in well over forty years, my husband did the entire seder on his own. All I contributed was the ?מה נשתנה הלילה הזה Mah nishtanah...? Why is this night...? aka the Four Questions. And of course I planned and cooked, while he followed his tradition of preparing the charoset (chopped apples and nuts) and chrain, horseradish paste.

Now I must prepare for Shabbat. No time to rest/goof off.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Pesach Kasher V'Sameach

Post-Pesach/Passover 5779, 2019

Yes, it's hard to believe but last night as Shabbat ended, so did Passover for Jews wherever.  This is a rare year when even those of us in the Holy Land find ourselves still in Passover mode for eight full days. That's because as Passover ended, Shabbat began, and on Shabbat we are forbidden to cook, shop, switch the kitchen etc. Also, the chametz we had sold stays sold until after Shabbat.

Before the Chag Shvi'i shel Pesach, the last day of Passover, we make a special blessing Eruv Tavshilin which starts the cooking of a meal which is to be eaten on Shabbat. We may finish the cooking, and do any other food preparation for Shabbat as part of that Eruv Tavshilin.

After Havdala, the ceremony that separates the Holy Shabbat from the regular days, we can then start rearranging the kitchen into regular Chametz mode. About an hour plus after Shabbat, if we've sold our Chametz, we retake possession.

It didn't take me all that long to take off the counter coverings and get my kitchen back to normal. I made sure to find all of my coffee paraphernalia before going to bed, figuring that in the morning I'd be too confused and tired to think straight. Especially since this is the first year/Passover in the new kitchen, it's a bit more complicated to remember where I'd stashed everything.

B"H, thank Gd I found it pretty easy to get this new kitchen in and out of Passover mode. I'm pleased, thank Gd, with my kitchen.

No, I haven't yet had any chametz. Some years it takes me until Shabbat.

Kosher for Passover Lunch in Mamilla, No Kitniyot

Today my husband and I "double-dated" with a couple we've been "double-dating" with for half a century. We spent the day in Jerusalem, and besides seeing the "Plugat Hakotel" museum in Jerusalem's Old City, we had lunch out.

Passover is a complicated time to eat out, or even food shop, for those of us who are Torah observant. And it's even more complicated for Ashkenazi Jews, those whose families are ethnically European. Not only do we need regular Kosher for Passover food, we refrain from eating kitniyot, legumes. I can't complain. It's not as difficult as it used to be to find food and restaurants. That's because there are so many religious Ashkenazi Jews who come to Israel, especially Jerusalem, for Passover, and restaurant owners have realized that it pays to go to the efforts to cater to our needs.

But still, from year to year, businesses change, and I like to know in advance what options we have. So, this year I asked on all sorts of facebook pages and got nowhere. But once we were in Jerusalem, I discovered that there are more and more restaurants, not only strictly and certified Kosher for Passover, but they are also "without a doubt free of kitniyot."

We ended up having an early lunch in Fresh Kitchen in the Mamilla Mall.

Fresh Coffee & Kitchen had an extensive Passover Menu, and even though the place was packed, the wait staff seemed on top of things. There are other branches around the country.

There was such a large selection of food in Fresh Kitchen's Passover Menu that I had trouble choosing what to eat. In the end I chose the Nicoise aka Tuna Salad, and the bowl was full. It was very tasty, too.

One of our group had a sandwich, which came with a nice salad. And the other two had the Halumi Salad. There were no complaints. We finished it all. Prices were reasonable, too.

I couldn't find a phone number for them, but click here for their facebook page, which does have a message option.

Delicious and Simple Passover Chicken Soup and Meal

This chicken soup with kneidlach, matzah balls, was the most delicious and super easy to make soup.

Before the Passover Seder, my main cooking contribution was to bring two types of kneidlach, regular and vegan kneidlach. This time when I boiled the kneidlach I used Chicken Broth.

First I prepared the kneidlach mixture, since it's supposed to sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. Click Kneidlach.

Chicken broth is also, so simple to prepare. All I had to do was to boil the cleaned chicken until just cooked, not until crumbling and disintegrating in the liquid. Then I removed the chicken and refrigerated it.

When you're ready to make the kneidlach, boil the chicken stock and either roll the kneidel mush into balls, or just get two spoons ready to "drop" ball like pieces into the broth/stock.

While the broth/stock is boiling carefully drop/add the kneidlach. When all the "mush" is in the broth/stock, cover and lower the flame, so that it just simmers for about 40 minutes.

After they cool a bit, remove the kneidlach and refrigerate or freeze if you won't be using them for more than a few days. Or you can make a large quantity and just freeze some.

I brought them all to my daughter's for our family seder, but afterwards she gave me leftovers to take home. When serving at the seder, those who wanted kneidlach got them added to the soup she had made.

Yesterday I made a wonderful meal with the chicken and the stock and the kneidlach, plus my all time favorite oven-roasted vegetables.

To turn the stock/broth into a delicious chicken soup, I cut an onion, a couple of carrots,a parsley root and parsley leaves. I put them plus the kneidlach in the pot, added the stock and covered it. After the soup began to boil, I lowered the flame to simmer for about 40 minutes.

I carved the chicken and took two pieces, added some diced onion, seasoning and olive oil to another pot, covered and cooked on a low flame.

We had an amazingly delicious lunch. It was very easy to make. The soup was rich and didn't have a drop of salt.

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

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

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.

Kosher for Passover Lunch in Jerusalem

The other day when we were in the Old City of Jerusalem, part of the plan was to have lunch out. We needed a kosher for Passover no kitniyot certified restaurant. At first we thought that we'd have to walk back out and either go to one of the restaurants in Mamilla Mall or Nachalat Shiva. I dreaded the usual lines and jacked up special Kosher for Passover prices. But then we noticed a small, modest looking restaurant with all of the required kosher certificates in full view.

It was the Holy Cafe, on Tiferet Israel Street in the Jewish Quarter. They had tables under shade umbrellas outside, but we requested to sit indoors. And within a minute a table for four was set up for us. By the time we finished our lunch, lots of other diners were also seated around tables indoors.

The menu was simple, but we all found something to eat.

My husband and I had the Tuna Salad. It wasn't bad, but I should have asked for olive oil. They also served us those "potato starch rolls," which could almost pass for regular white bread. The menu had promised that they would come with butter, but there wasn't any. I decided not to ask for the butter, since we're all trying to keep our weight down. Don't worry. The next day I made up for it and had much too much butter with matzah when picnicking with friends. 

The plastic cutlery looked "real," until you touched it.

Our companions had the quiche, broccoli, and the "Geek," sic Salad, which was the typo for Greek. You'd think that somebody would have the common sense to proofread the menu before printing it.

Since we don't know what their regular prices are, we don't have any idea if the Passover ones were higher. Portion size was nothing special, which meant that we didn't stuff ourselves. We're all big eaters, so not a drop of food was leftover. We didn't order dessert, even to share.

I don't know what other restaurant options there were nearby. We didn't notice any. Yes, I'll recommend it if you want a nice simple meal. Even when the main indoor area filled up, it wasn't noisy. We could hear each other easily, which is important for me. And I'm glad we didn't have to fight the crowds. If you know more about this little spot, please let me know in the comments, thanks.