Pesach Excess

Cleaning a Rug for Passover

While my house gets turned upside-down in advance of Passover (and no, I won’t tell you where I’m “holding”), I’ve gathered yet more thoughts about Pesach.

First of all, it is hard. Even the minimum involves hard physical labor and more important, planning. Not everyone is blessed with organizational skills or the discipline to follow a strict schedule.

But because it’s Pesach, we let things get out of hand, and pay for it in all kinds of ways. Here are some examples:

1. Too much kashering. I used to kasher my microwave just because I could, until I realized I only used it once or twice during Pesach. Now I have it available until the last minute. Same with some pots. After Pesach I plan to write down how much of these things I used.
2. Too much space. I used to spend a lot of time preparing cabinets I didn’t need. This meant finding a place for the contents and preparing the cabinets. Sometimes it’s easier to make do with less storage space–if you have this luxury.
3. Too much cleaning. We all want to sit down to the seder in a sparkling, clean house. Even if we know that there is no halachic need (according to Jewish law) to wash windows, we take pleasure in the view.  And  it’s a worthy goal, especially if you start early, have lots of help and no toddlers undoing your work. I’m convinced children can hear clean mirrors and windows calling out to them. Anyway, we are all aware by now, at least theoretically, of the dangers of taking on too many cleaning jobs too close to the holiday. But it can be hard to let go of the ideal.
4. Too much clutter. I just realized I bought those cute little wine glasses because my parents had identical ones. Every year we take them out of the Pesach cabinet and back again, and hope they don’t break. But we never use them. Any takers?
5. Too much time on detail. Some homemakers spend an inordinate amount of time ensuring that the table settings are just so, or polishing the silver to perfection.
6. Too much laundry. If you’re like me you wash most of the tablecloths and cloth napkins “just in case” (unless you have special ones set aside). Eventually I realized I could count them out according to meals and add an extra one in case. Throwing all the sheets and towels into the wash on erev Yom Tov is another custom to reconsider. We’re not eating off of them.
7. Too much buying. Because we feel deprived by the holiday food restrictions, we add bottles of soft drinks or cake mixes to the cart. Then we are stuck with the leftovers after the holiday—in the pantry or worse, on our waists. And we feel the lack in our wallets.  The same goes for household items.
8. Too many courses and dishes. It only comes once a year, and everyone is looking forward to their favorites. But unless you’re lucky enough to eat kitniyot (legumes), the food consists of potatoes, eggs, meat and matzah with some vegetables thrown in for variety. (Not to mention fat). So if you feel it’s worth the time to cook, clean, serve, and store leftovers of these items, enjoy. If not, consider spreading the joy over the course of the holiday.
9. Too much stress. You have decided not to do the windows, but the dirt bothers you. Since you are more or less on schedule you do them anyway. Even if you technically have the time, this adds stress. This is the time to play with the kids, relax, or sleep. But we feel like we are shirking if we take a break. (This feeling lessens with age.)
10. Too much guilt. We feel guilty if we occasionally lose patience with our kids, and we feel guilty if the house or meals aren’t up to some imaginary standard. We feel guilty that we can’t put Pesach together with a smile, like the neighbor down the street or the newspaper columnist.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting a stunning table, clean windows or a choice of vegetable kugels. Not everything has to be simple. But we do have to keep our priorities straight. And our first priority is our family, and our family is counting on us. So we will make wise choices, pick a few extras that are meaningful and manageable, and remember that Pesach is a holiday of joy. And we want as much of that as we can get.

The checklist.

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Creative Cooking Using Leftovers: Chicken Casserole

chicken casserole

I am enjoying Mimi’s challenge of cooking with whatever she has in the house. As food manager of a large family I have had to learn to keep well-stocked, but when I run low I try not to run across the street. We shop at a large grocery every three weeks or so, the shuk for produce once a week, and daily at the makolet (corner store) for bread and milk . I’ve talked with my husband about buying produce once in two weeks, but he fears we don’t have enough room.

We are enjoying the variety of inexpensive vegetables post-shmitah and I had put up a couple of batches of marinara sauce. I don’t know why fresh tomatoes are so cheap while canned tomato products shrunk in size and grew in cost.  Last time I bought fresh chickens I cut off and cooked the white meat and saved the broth for soup, since most of the family prefers dark meat.

We usually eat Shabbat leftovers on Sunday and dairy the rest of the week, creating a problem when there is meaty food left over after Sunday. Sometimes I freeze it to add to soup or combine with other leftovers for a day I don’t feel like cooking.

This week I solved the problem by adding leftovers to a meat meal I prepared Tuesday.  I chopped a large mushroom and some vegetables that never made it onto last night’s pizza.  Then I added chicken breast cut in bite-sized pieces, marinara sauce, the last few tablespoons of cholent, two pieces of leftover cooked potato with the cooking water and voila, chicken casserole, served on top of plain rice.  I would have added the roasted vegetables I’ve been making since Abbi mentioned it here, but some family members would have rejected the dish had they found bits of beet or turnip. So I served those separately.

Related posts:

The Day is Short and The Work is Great: Easy Shabbat Preparations

What’s There to Eat? Saving Time in the Kitchen

Rosh Hashanah Menus and Meatball Recipe

What’s for Dinner?

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Updated: Lessons for Life: Rude Pizzeria Owner Lambasted on Internet

Who could imagine that a rude storekeeper would attract such attention in our little country, never admired for its warm customer service?

According to financial magazine Globes, a woman came with her autistic child into a pizza store for a lesson in practical living, giving him a 20-shekel bill and instructing him to buy a slice of pizza and a can of tomato juice. The store owner helped another customer instead, despite the boy having stated his order three times. Finally the owner told the boy’s mother, “This isn’t a school.” The mother put the story into an email decrying the owner’s rudeness toward children with special needs and included his name and address. Thanks to the internet (she only sent it to fifty of her closest friends), the email spread far and wide and the pizza store owner was harassed. Mothers came into the store, dropped off a copy of the email, and left. Garbage was thrown. 25,000 members joined a Facebook group advocating a boycott of the store.

The Globes reporter was the first party to ask owner Shraga Gross for his version of the story. According to Gross, three mothers came in with their autistic children for this life lesson. The mothers did not coordinate with the store, and chose a time when it was full of customers. Gross claims that the boy did not utter a word, but he did tell the boy’s mother, “This is not a school.” He admits that he may have been impatient but objects to the personalized campaign against him.

Whichever version is correct, Gross didn’t commit a crime. I’ve been ignored and treated badly by storekeepers and I’m not even autistic. It seems to me that learning that not everyone will go out of their way to be kind to people, whether or not they have special needs, is an important life lesson.

Hat tip: Commenter Keren
For another example of Israeli customer service see Benji’s post here.

Update: I don’t condone rude behavior. However, the mother was out of line in publicizing the storekeeper’s name because of one isolated incident. It’s not like the store has a policy that discriminates against autistic children. If she would have e-mailed the story without mentioning the name I would support her 100%.

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Tzniut fashions hit Tel Aviv?

I figure the dress in this picture would fit in well in Bnei Brak:

But the advertisement appeared on the front page of Haaretz‘s Gallery section.

The copy is over the top, but it seems that religious women aren’t the only ones having a hard time finding clothes. Anyway that outfit sure beats these.

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Cabbage shortage, excess RC

Religious junior and senior high schools start Sukkot vacation from Erev Yom Kippur. This year that means two extra days of vacation, today and Sunday. Sukkot vacation for the younger ones lasts ten days.

That means my 12- and 14-year-olds are busy cooking for Shabbat. The 14-year-old is baking “Chanukah Gelt Double Fudge Cake None Better,” from Marcy Goldman’s Jewish Holiday Cakes. It calls for flat soda. We happen to have two unopened bottles of RC from Pesach, but we’d have to make a lot of cake to use it up. (Please don’t tell anyone I allowed this.) We are making it in a flat pan, with no layers and no frosting. Frosting around here is only for birthdays.

My son A, 12, is making burgul (what Americans called bulgur wheat), potatoes, chicken with vegetables, mayonnaise, and potato kugel. Some family members object if unadulterated potatoes do not appear on the table. A said that he like the feel of raw chicken, bless him. I have challah and soup from Erev Yom Kippur. And the sukkah is being built by my husband and various helpers, slowly but surely.

My sister-in-law invited us for the first day of Sukkot. I offered to bring challah and stuffed cabbage but we can’t find cabbage and the stores are unlikely to be restocked on Sunday. That happens sometimes in a Jewish country. . .

My daughter and I just examined the RC supply. We found *four* bottles of the stuff, because I had bought a six-pack on sale. Until my daughter saw the bottles she didn’t realize what they were (bilingual vocabulary issue). She belongs to an “anti-Coke” club in school; I hope she won’t be expelled. She is also complaining that the RC is not really flat, but I think the recipe will come out fine. My teenage guests for Shabbat chol hamoed should be able to finish off the rest of the RC.

My mother z”l used to buy Coke on two occasions: For Pesach (along with chocolate), because she believed that people needed something sweet to make up for chametz deprivation; and for offering workers who came to the house. Now that I think about it, she kept a few bottles in the basement for that purpose. I guess she didn’t worry about it getting flat.

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A visit with Abbi, and the bug in the challah dough

What I’ve been up to this week:

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