Passover Chaos

I didn't plan on taking a blog holiday - it just sort of happened. As you may have guessed, I've been really busy with the Passover holiday for the past few days. Over the weekend we were preparing the house and Monday I was in a cooking frenzy. I totally intended to take a few pictures to share but I was lucky that it all made it to the table. Stopping to take pictures was just out of the question.

For those of you not familiar with Passover, here are the footnotes on why so many people dread it. This is my kitchen. It's not usually the most organized place but I don't generally live out of boxes. On Passover, those of us who are more observant (and nuts) change from our everyday dishes and kitchen utensils to a whole different set. Paper goods are a very good and sane option but, as I said, I'm certifiable so I go all out and haul my toaster oven, Kitchenaid stand mixer, Cuisenart etc to the the basement and replace it with stuff that I haven't used in a year. In most cases this is the stuff that I disliked to begin with so it was retired to Passover use.

Now, just imagine waking up on Thanksgiving morning to a kitchen full of poorly labeled boxes and having to fumble through those boxes to locate the stuff you need to set a festive table and cook a fabulous meal by sunset. Add in a few trips to the supermarket for stuff you forgot and you've got my Monday.

So, how'd it go? Well, I managed to get everything to the table although the veggies were a little late. We ate brisket, a turkey breast, stuffing, cranberries, farfel rolls (remember it's Passover), sweet & sour meatballs, sweet potatoes, salad with homemade dressing, matzoh ball soup and a few other thing I'm forgetting. I have enough leftovers to last through the week and , more importantly, everyone was so full that they didn't notice how lame the desserts were. Apparently I can make a fab Passover dinner or fab Passover desserts - not both.

In the morning I woke up to a dining room table that looked like this. Note the empty wine glasses. Note the empty wine bottle.

That table only held 8 people this year rather than the usual count of 20 plus. I think it's interesting to note that serving fewer people didn't mean less work. It was nice and intimate and perfect for me this year. Sometimes low-key is good. For the second night we were invited to a friends house. That was such a good thing.

I did play with fiber quite a bit - dyeing, spinning and knitting - last weekend. Yes, somehow, along with all of the holiday prep, I also found time to play with fiber and garden. I can't wait to show you what I did.