It’s Pesach Time!

Last night was our annual Passover seder, and as usual, it was incredibly fun and full of amazing family, friends, and of course, food! I wrote briefly about our Passover seder last year, and looking back, I really didn’t do that great of a job explaining exactly what the holiday entails! That’s why I waited until this morning, after sleeping off my glasses of wine, to write this and share the fun.

Passover is the holiday that is a remembrance of the Jews exodus from Egypt to escape their enslavement. Think The Ten Commandments
… or you can read the whole story here.
My preparations began two nights ago by making charoset, a sweet apple dish made of apples, nuts, cinnamon, and traditionally, red wine. Since I don’t like the red wine that’s usually used, my family started making our charoset with orange juice! Traditionally, the mixture is ground up into a paste, but I like leaving it in a more “course” form.

There’s no science to the recipe, just mix it until it tastes right! This year’s mixture was 4 Fuji apples, 4 granny smith apples, 8 oz. chopped walnuts, about a cup of orange juice, a big handful of dried apricots chopped, and about 2 Tbsp. cinnamon.

I also made approximately 4 pounds of roasted brussels sprouts. Any idea what 4 pounds of brussels sprouts looks like?

Cut in half and drizzled with olive oil, salt and cracked pepper

Then roasted for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees

We arrived at my mom’s with these dishes in hand, as well as one of Adam’s favorite Passover traditions: Manischewitz concord grape wine. It’s pretty much grape juice with a kick

Stella was waiting for us with a festive new haircut

The house was full of flowers, as usual

And my mom had the table set for 18!

The centerpiece of the table was the Seder plate, full of the traditional elements

Clockwise from the top: The red mixture is horseradish or “bitter herbs” that represent the bitterness of slavery in Egypt; salt water represents the tears shed by the Jews during their slavery (and in some stories it represents the water of the Red Sea); parsley (or other greens) represent springtime and rebirth; charoset represents the mortar used between the bricks of the buildings the Jews were enslaved to build; hard-boiled egg also means rebirth; the shankbone (or in our family’s case, a dog biscuit) represents the sacrifice. The orange is a modern representation of women in Judaism, and the peep? Well, that’s just our family’s odd little tradition.

There’s also matzah, which signifies that the Jews were unable to allow their bread to rise when they were set free from Egypt. It’s eaten multiple times during the seder, and throughout the week.

Once with the bitter herbs

And once with the bitter herbs and the charoset (my favorite!)

We read through the traditional pre-meal service (not without loads of laughing and family jokes), and once dinner was served, we began with gefilte fish made by Aunt Dori (a ground fish dish served traditionally on Passover) as well as cement…a family secret recipe.

Gefilte fish

With cement

We continued the meal with one of my very favorites: chicken matzah ball soup! My mom makes the best…

There were fresh steamed asparagus, a lovely fennel, grapefruit, avocado and arugula salad, brisket, spinach and artichoke dip… it was a feast!

My portion, plus more brisket

Then came dessert… which couldn’t be enjoyed until we all searched for “the hidden”, a piece of matzah that gets hidden somewhere in the house during the meal. I was lucky enough to find it! My mom got us adorable vintage postcards as prizes. Then we got to eat! Aunt Dori made her famous amazing flourless chocolate cake

My sister made what she called “Passover apple goodness”

And she also made a sponge cake, a traditional Passover dessert made with matzah meal and egg whites.

My dessert portion, with coffee of course!

Last came another family tradition which we started last year: the “Passover wish”. My mom and stepdad have these “wish papers” which, when lit, burn bright and then fly into the air!

We got home super late, stuffed to the gills and exhausted, but as usual, it was a wonderful night! Appropriately enough, I woke up this morning to 60 degree temperatures and sun… so maybe Spring is really here!

Tagged as: dessert, family, holiday, passover, red meat, vegetables