Passover food for Tuesday night

[hilary1617]

Yum!

 

[Munchkin]

Maxwell House coffee is giving away free Haggahdahs at your local grocery store. At least they were at mine.

 

[JackieOnLine]

this is the most scholarly recipe thread on a weight loss surgery forum EVER!

*applause*

 

[DianaCox]

We cooked some more today - I decided to make a cream of endive soup, only because our Farm Co-op for some unknown reason sent us TWELVE endives. I reserved some of the endive leaves to replace the lettuce on the Seder plate (they make nice little scoops for the charoset!), and then realized that our vegetarian could not have any because the recipe called for chicken broth - or vegetable broth which I did not have. So - I went through the fridge and freezer and found all the sad and dying veggies, and made broth out of it - saggy carrots, frozen celery innards, a half onion that had seen better days, frozen leeks, a bag of chopped bok choy, an elephant ear garlic clove that I prepared for the Roast Beast that wasn't pretty because it had a bad spot I'd had to cut out, some of the excessive amount of purple spring onions also from the Co-op, the unused parsley after I cut the parsley heads for the Seder plate, and a big sprig of rosemary from the garden - and made a lovely veggie broth, which I then strained, and used to add to some more frozen leeks (from when the Farm Co-op sent 3 leeks in every box), chopped endive, which I had sauteed in butter and garlic, simmered until soft, then pureed and added a ridiculous amount of cream and some ground nutmeg.

It came out really well, if I do say so myself. I reserved some of the homemade veggie broth for the vegetarian so she can enjoy my dad's matzo balls in a veggie soup (mine is good, but an unacceptable substitute for real chicken soup. But I just had to have a cup of the cream of endive, cold. YUM!

Not sure I'd buy endive for this dish, but it was a lovely way to use up what I had, unintentionally.

 

[jpcello]

Happy Passover. I miss living in an area that acknowledges Passover (that's what I get for living in VA). I'm not an observant Jew but Passover was always my favorite food holiday. It also brings back so many memories because my birthday usually falls during Passover. When I was a kid, my grandmother used to make the awful cake with strawberries as my birthday cake

 

[DianaCox]

We will be celebrating my father's birthday (the 12th) and my son's girlfriend's birthday 13th) as well - with an orange spongecake from a bakery. (If my stepdaughter who lives in VA were here, we'd be celebrating her daughter's birthday too - it was yesterday.)

Is spongecake the awful cake?

 

[newanatomy]

We will be celebrating my father's birthday (the 12th) and my son's girlfriend's birthday 13th) as well - with an orange spongecake from a bakery. (If my stepdaughter who lives in VA were here, we'd be celebrating her daughter's birthday too - it was yesterday.)

Is spongecake the awful cake?

It is my youngest son's birthday today, too. He is 20.

 

[hilary1617]

Chag Sameach! Wishing everyone a wonderful Pesach!

 

[JackieOnLine]

I like spongecake but I suppose it varies....Happy Passover!

 

[DianaCox]

Whew - I'm glad that's over, although it was a lovely meal. We ended up with 15 adults and 2 babies. What a lot of work, but what fun to use the kitchen we (that's the royal we) built, to make and serve an involved meal for friends and family.

I bought new Haggadahs at Bed, Bath & Beyond, which were pretty good - it was easy to skip stuff that added "extras" that nobody had time or patience for. But - as with many other Haggadahs - it gave short shrift to the story behind the plagues and in particular the explanation of the Plague of the Firstborn, including the sacrifice of the lambs and the marking on the doorpost and lintels of the homes of the Israelites, which explains the whole point of why the holiday is called Passover.

So when we were in BB&B, I saw these silly things, which tickled me so much I bought them.
http://www.amazon.com/Rite-Lite-Judaic-Passover-Finger-Puppets/dp/B001QFBJTE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397501628&sr=8-1&keywords=ten plagues finger puppets

And then I found some explanations on the internet for each of the plagues, and I printed them out, and cut the pieces of paper with each explanation to the smallest size, folded them up and stuffed each explanation into the corresponding finger puppet and laid them under 10 people's plates. When we got to the plagues part, I stopped my father's reading of the Haggadah, and told people to look under their plates, and then each person read the description of how their plague happened and how Pharaoh hardened his heart and reneged on his agreements with Moses to let the Israelites go each time - while pretending the puppet on their finger was doing the talking. People seemed to enjoy that twist to the tradition.

There was no roast beast left over. Lots of veggies, and lots of soup. And charoset out the wazoo. I will probably cook it up in some fashion after I am sick of eating it plain. I made people take the sponge cakes away - they were delicious - but I don't need that in my house.

I am drinking a glass of wine (the good stuff, not the Manischewitz) while I un-lax. Charles will be washing dishes for a few days. I'm sure I'll have some more soup before the night is over too.

One of our guests was Larra - it was lovely having her come all the way from her house (I'm guessing about 35 miles) to join us.

And my would-be step-brother and his wife showed up and stayed this time.

 

[newanatomy]

Sounds wonderful Diana, I am sure you're an amazing host.

 

[DianaCox]

I'm not that good at it - which is why I try hard to do as much work in advance, with as many sous chefs as possible.

I probably shoulda gone with fancy paper plates though - Charles won't be finished with the dishes for a while. Oh well, that's what the "good" dishes are for, right?

 

[JackieOnLine]

I don't believe you - sounds like you are an excellent hostess.

 

[Larra]

It was a wonderful Seder! The finger puppet plagues were a highlight. Diana's father did a great job leading the Seder, the company was fun, and the food was terrific. I can't believe how many hours Diana fussed over all that food!
I met some wonderful people in Diana and Charles's extended family, and had a great time. Thanks again for inviting me!