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Passover's mostly fun for us. The first night we're usually invited to a long time friends of our family's house. I've known them for so long, through these get togethers. They invite a bunch of other people, and each person has to make something for it. Adds up to a lot of food! xd My mom usually makes popovers, which taste awesome. The only thing I hate about their seder is they never season their matzah ball soup. It's kind of bland, so everyone puts a ton of salt in. It's actually funny to watch people who haven't been there before take their first bite of it, and immediately grab the salt. xp After we eat, we all play games like Trivial Pursuit, Boggle, and more. Also, I'm ALWAYS the youngest, so I always have to do the 4 questions. I'm kind of sick of doing those every year. sweatdrop

For the second night we usually host one or another one of our friends hosts it. This year, our friend who has just converted to Judaism wants to host her first seder with us. She's so excited, it's great.

During the week, my mom and I make our own granola for Breakfasts using matzah farfel, honey, raisins, and nuts. We also sometimes make our own matzah toffee. Oh, so good! I love the passover noodles, even though they get soggy and nasty looking. We also usually buy Kichel, but our market isn't carrying it this year. And, yes through the holiday we eat Kosher. My dad since he's not Jewish, sometimes will eat like a giant sandwich in front of us and go mmmm! We just feel like shooting him after that, but instead we say we'll have to go sell him now. After a while we usually get sick of matzah and can't wait for it to end.

I love eating matzo with ketchup and mayonnaise ^_^

I eat lots of fruit, and honey, with my matzo.

My Passovers are dairy, in respect for all the vegetarians who like to come to Seder (and the lack of space for storing more than one category of dishes, meaning I can't have dairy, parve, and meat during the week).

Even years, we go to our family friends on the first night and are home for the second night. Odd years, we invite others to our seder on the first night, and second night we either stay in alone or go out. This year we're going to be at our family friends' table or at our rabbi's table for first night, which I think will be great fun, even though I usually prefer our own table because it's more fun to host, to me, than to be a guest.

This year I'm thinking I'll make:

Seder plate:
Maror/Bitter Herbs: Endive (Mizrachi/Sephardi don't use horseradish)
Beitzah: Egg
Shankbone: Beet (a traditional substitute)
Karpas: Parsley or cilantro (coriander leaf, to y'all Brits)
Chazeret: Celery
Charoset: Moroccan charoset balls
Orange: modern addition, acknowledging gays and lesbians within the Jewish community

Salads:
Israeli "kol bo" salad
Mushroom salad

Soups:
Matzah ball soup (vegetarian, yo)
Vegetarian borshch

Main dishes:
Pesach spanakopita (with matzah instead of fillo dough)
Potatoes au gratin
Baked salmon with creamy horseradish sauce

Desserts:
Fruit platter
Pesach flourless chocolate mini-cakes (the size of mini-muffins)
Pesach nutty blonde brownies
Pesach French vanilla ice cream

Of course, the amount of food I prepare depends on how many people say they're coming (plus about three, just in case unexpected guests also show up). If it turns out to just be me and my bashert, I'll do one salad, one soup, one main dish, and one dessert. Or I'll do two of each on the first day, and be able to save half of what's there for the second night. But if there turn out to be more than about six people, I'll just make extra-large portions of the food I've got planned. No need to plan thirty dishes, when five or six will do if they're family-sized!

But OY, the food bill.

No, no, no, sweetie, no. Passover is when the descendants of Israel left Mitzrayim (Egypt, but the translation is "Narrow Places") and changed from being avadim Par'oh (servants of Pharaoh, and I hope I spelled that correctly) to being avadim Hashem. It was an act of taking the fate they were born into and turning it inside out. They switched allegiances by voting with their feet. As a potential convert, this is definitely your holiday, too. You should certainly find a seder to attend if at all possible. Call up Chabad and ask them to help you locate a community seder or an open table in a welcoming family's home, where your questions will be answered -- the whole point of the seder is to ask questions and talk about the answers, so you'll be in very good company indeed.



This menu changes from year to year, but only a little. If I didn't make certain dishes, like Israeli salad and potatoes au gratin (with goat cheese, fresh grated parmesan, and really good cheddar from Ha'Olam company, rather than just cheddar and American), my bashert would get this look... like a little boy whose frogs all got away. wink

Alright Divash, you convinced me. I'll try and find a seder to attend and report back on the experience. And if I had a bashert who could cook, I might get kinda bummed if they were constantly trying new things. I'm a mediocre cook, I'm better with pastries.

Speaking of...good luck on that tort Tomo! It sounds amazing!

Legend has it that someone brought up the idea of lesbian Jews -- or depending on who tells the story, he may have said female rabbis, or gay Jews, but I happen to know the person who is the origin of this legend, and trust me, the discussion was about lesbian Jews -- at the seder table, and the father (a noted rabbi) poopooed the idea, saying "There will be lesbian Jews when there's an orange on the seder plate." So his daughter got up, went to the kitchen, and got an orange, which she plunked down onto the seder plate and sat back down without a word.



It'd cost at least $100 just to ship the food to the UK in good enough condition to eat! But if you should happen to come to Chicago ever on seder night, let me know. My table's always open.

So.... am I the only one who doesn't like matza plain? ^^;;;