The old thread is locked (it served well from 2020 to 2024) so time for a new one! The previous thread has links to even older threads - not sure how much more there is to say but it’s one of my holiday traditions so here we are.
This year I am excited about a couple of mail orders. One day a picture of Rakusen matzah showed up on my Facebook feed. It was always our favorite Passover matzah but is made in Yorkshire. We used to buy it at the kosher Jewels in Chicagoland but they didn’t have it the last few years and we haven’t been able to find here at all. And it wasn’t available online until - duh duh duh - now! There’s a kosher importer called ShopGalil that had it at a reasonable price so we now are fully stocked for the holiday. The boxes were discounted and the shipping wasn’t unreasonable. Luckily matzah doesn’t get stale!
The other online order is because we were reminiscing about the kind of Passover candy we used to buy at Hungarian Kosher in Skokie (which I gather is something different now). Again, we haven’t been able to find exactly what we want. So I started Googling online and discovered Oh!Nuts, which is all kosher and had an extensive Passover line of candy and other sweets. Plus free shipping for over $69 - no problem, I told husband! That delivery arrives tomorrow.
So now we are all stocked for matzah and sweet treats. And hopefully kosher Ralphs will get in Breakstone whipped butter, our favorite.
I will be going to my cousin’s house in MA for the first seder, and the day before Easter, my Israeli friends who are arriving on 4/14 will be making a seder with around 20 guests. When my parents entertained (frequently!), when extra guests arrived, they would bring down the bedboard under their mattress (just plywod with masking tape on the edges) ad put it on the dining room table to make it bigger. I am planning to use the folding table in the laundry room of my apartment building and borrow a bunch of folding chair to be able to seat the crowd.
What are your plans? Purchasing a fowl (aged chicken) for the matzoh ball soup? Hoarding eggs already? Do tell!
I’m trying to figure out what we will do. We have dour under three so I’m thinking this year will be small and improvised. I’m thinking we might do untraditional and have a Passover picnic meal. Reading children’s Passover books and having a simple meal with explanations of the Seder plate. Might attempt a short reenactment of a Passover play my kids used to Do with their cousins.
Have to think about the menu as one grandchild has some severe food allergies and nuts are a choking hazard.
We’re doing a tele-seder with son first night, our new tradition - the two of us here and him in Seattle. Second night we’re going to the community seder at the synagogue.
I will make chicken soup from scratch the day before - newest recipe involves one roast chicken from the grocery store along with some fresh chicken parts. The roast chicken is barely more expensive than the raw ones; just have to make sure it doesn’t include any non-Passover ingredients like vinegar. We used to use capons or stewing chickens but they just aren’t available any more.
Thanks to my Oh!Nuts seven layer cake, I can delay making sponge cake until a couple of days into the holiday. That will save a lot of time and dishes getting ready for the first night. We have a half leg of lamb ordered at the local upscale grocery but we can’t pick it up until the morning of the seder because their timing is all about Easter dinner and it won’t be ready sooner. That eliminates our overnight marinade recipes but we have plenty more.
Thanks to husband’s farmer friend’s neighborhood informal co-op, he should be able to help with eggs if the groceries are out.
I love “Oh Nuts!” (Even with nut allergies in the family, ironically.) We always stock up on chocolate-covered raisins. I also buy their Purim treats, and one year I got their kosher-parve Thanksgiving chocolate turkey for my sister. It came disturbingly with a little wooden mallet.
The whole family is getting together for the first time since probably 2018? I hope it goes ok
We’re doing book “Secret Eliyahu” for everyone over bar/bat-mitzvah age. Everyone got a randomized person to buy a book for. I got the presents for the younger kids.
@oldmom4896 that is some commitment for your parents to use their bed as a table. I’m imagining the exhaustion of cleaning up before you can even reassemble your bed to sleep. Folding table/chairs are a good idea.
Here to report that I ended up doing way more cooking than I thought I would. Allergic grandchild was out of town so that made menu planning easier. I ended up making brisket, roast chicken, potatoes, green salad along with charoset and hard boiled eggs. I bought the horse radish. I also microwaved cut up apples to make apples with cinnamon at the request of the three year old who rubbed the charoset off his tongue.
I’m exhausted!
Forgot I make macaroons too!
We went to our synagogue’s community seder last night which fine. It was led by the junior rabbi (no idea where the senior rabbi was). I was happy enough because I like junior better than senior but he was not well organized. He was finishing up with Chad Gadya when I realized he was saying his final goodbye - but hadn’t started the counting of the Omer. So I yelled out, “Count the Omer.” He heard, apologized to the remaining congregants (half had already left) and did so.
I was invited to my friends’ home for 1st and 2nd nights of Seder. I’m not Jewish but have been for many years so I know a thing or two. Her son was sick for the first night so it was just me, their daughter (who has many health issues) and them. Got there, dressed up, and they weren’t. “Oh, since it was just you…” I noticed they hadn’t covered the matzoh (There, I saved Seder too), noticed something else that was missing, and basically had to carry the whole thing. Leave it to the gentile.
Second night I get there (and everyone is dressed up) but the other guests are late. And late, and late. Can’t contact them but we go ahead with the longer version of the prayers, etc. and hope they weren’t in an accident or ill.
Why didn’t the other couple show? Well, they were invited for the 2nd Seder. My friend (who is very religious) had the DATES WRONG. She thought passover started on Friday and it really started on Sat. (as it said on my calendar but I know often calendars list the first full day and not the start on the night before, so I didn’t say anything, and if I had I would have been told I was wrong).
All that extra praying on Friday night for naught. Food was good.
Well, the whole point of two Seders is so that at least one is on the correct night! The other night is just a bonus anyway. One night early, one night late, that darn lunar calendar!
We had an end-of-Passover meal last night at my place with wonderful family and friends from near (upper Manhattan) and far (Philly, Pittsburgh, Lancaster PA, Givat Yeshiyahu Israel). A great time was had by all!
