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Ugh, that sucks. Did she realize what she forgot?
People do things like that to me at school ALL THE TIME.

She said...

"OOOH... well we can't cancel the plans, you know how hard it is to get reservations at The Palm?" (Insert guilt trip here, of all the work she did to make the phone call and get reservations and all the suffering of her bad arm and my dads in a wheel chair so it had to be an handicapped restaurant.) anyrate, she declared that the family seder would just be on the second night, and for the first night I could come to the restaurant or be left to my own devices.

Update : My friend wants to host pesach at her house, because she's never experienced a seder. However, she is an athiest, as is her husband. So she has no idea what is involved in the whole ritualistic feast.

Anyone know a good cookbook?

I know several good cookbooks, but I'm not sure your atheist friend CAN host a Passover seder.

1. The seder is a meal that celebrates what Hashem did for us to bring us out of slavery in Egypt; how does an atheist celebrate Hashem's actions?

2. Would your friend actually go to all the trouble to rid her home of chametz entirely, kasher her pots and pans, get new (probably plastic) plates and utensils, kasher her oven and stovetop?

3. Why not instead go, with your friends as well, to a community seder? There may be a small fee for going, because after all the food is expensive to buy and to prepare, but at least you'll know that it's kosher. Also, most communities make it a special point to make the seder very accessible and understandable for those who are new to sedarim. Your friends could get a very good idea of what sedarim are really like, from a community seder. Phone up your local synagogues, Chabad houses, and college campus Jewish Student Unions to see what may be going on in your community.

4. If your friends specifically want to HOST a seder, they don't need to look any further than Thanksgiving. "Seder" just means "order," and refers to any meal in which commonly-understood symbols are present and used (mostly food items -- think turkey) and specific things are said ("Let's all say what we're thankful for!") in order to recall a particular incident or time in history. Those who don't believe in Hashem may want to stick with something that they can fully support. Going through the motions will feel forced, for them, and not at all enjoyable.

The kosher grocers around my new neighborhood (the movers will be here in 17 more days!) will start to carry their kosher-for-Passover selections around the third week of March. When you start to see those on the shelves, ask for those instead of the non-Passover foods you'd normally request.

My friend tells me that kosher for Passover Coke is addictive. Is it really that different?

Of course we don't have it around here, but it would be interesting to have some.

I'm convinced white sugar is the most disgusting thing ever. They use bone char to make it look more appealing, in some cases.

Anyway, do they only sell it in the 2 liter? Does any other company make special KFP foods?

They charge more for it, but so many non-Jews like kosher l'Pesach Coke that there's never enough of it to go around when the Jews get around to shopping for Passover. You have to buy it RIGHT AWAY when you see it, or you won't get any at all.

Coke doesn't use bone char in their sugar. Bone char is sometimes used to whiten sugar, but since Coke is brown anyway, they don't bother to whiten the sugar first. You can also get unwhitened Sugar In The Raw, or any brown sugar, and it works just as well. I like Domino's Brownulated sugar, which looks and tastes like brown sugar, but pours like white. Much more convenient.