Making Pesach a little Less Stressful

When Purim ends every year the reality that Pesach is on the way sets in. When I was first married this was beyond challenging, it was mildly trerrifying. The cleaning, turning over the kitchen, cooking and prepairing for three days of Yom Tovim, feeding my children food they wouldn’t say was gross . . .  It was and is a lot. It took years to get things to a system and I would like to share this with all of you.  

I was blessed early on to have a very wise Rebbetzin who took me under her wing and shared her ‘tricks’ and knowledge. The first thing is to have house rules that will make Pesach cleaning easier from the start. From the time my children were little the basic rule was “NO FOOD in any bedroom - ever”. Food was eaten in the kitchen, at the dining room table and on occasion in the living room. This became harder to enforce when they were teenagers but in general this meant that their bedrooms needed a good cleaning but did not need to be turned completely upside down. Another concept my Rebbetzin shared was that SHMUTZ is not chemetz. If I wanted Pesach cleaning to be Spring cleaning that was my choice but I did not need to add that stress to my workload if I didn't have to. Once you find a system that works for you, stick to it then you can turn your focus to food.

Most of us do not have Pesach kitchens so we need to turn over our kitchens with enough tme to prepare the foods we will need but not so ahead of time that we turn 8 days into two and a half weeks. I firmly believe in the KISS philosophy - Keep It Simple Stupid. Each year the Pesach pots, pans, cutting boards, knives, dishes, etc are packed up and stored in a designated place. EVERY box or bin is labeled with the contents and the year it was packed. Don’t make yourself a mental mess because you don’t have a Pesadich blender or a Pesadich immersion blender. Plan ahead; make a list of what all of your dream Pesach equipment would be. Keep it with your Pesach items and pull it out immediately after Purim. Buy one item a year based on need and affordability. These appliances and gadgets get used only for Pesach so buy quality they will last forever. Be logical, if you make a ton of kugels for Pesach buy a good food processor with a kugel blade. If you make all of your own juices, invest in a juicer for Pesach. If you can keep things like these PARVE.  Only you know what kitchen appliances make your cooking easier so get hte things you will use often first and then have a list of small appliances that would make things easier in the future. One item I believe that you should buy of the highest quality you can manage are knives. A good sharp knife will alwys make cooking go faster and getting cut with a dull blade is the worst. Store them with knife guards to keep the blades sharp and take care of them and you won’t have to repce them.

When planning menus this is not the time to be adding new recipes you have never made before. It is the time to stick to traditions and foods you know your family loves and only eats on Pesach. All of our minhagim may be different but we will all be facing 8 days (or more) without any chomitz. Each year I write down my menu for each meal, Sedarim as well as any other meal I will be hosting or serving during chol hamoed. The recipes that work and are hits are the ones I will keep from year to year. After 30 years my Pesach menus may be predictable but there is less stress. 

First Seder: 

Take note the meals for my sedarim are simple and do not have so many courses as I have found people are not up for eating a huge meal in the middle of the night.

Foods for the Seder plate and participants:

Matzah

	Chrain

	Charoset

	Bitter herbs

	Shank bone

	Roasted egg

	Karpas ( we use raw onion or potato but you use what your minhag says)

Salt water at each place setting

Hard Boiled Eggs

Simple poached fish or Pesach gefilte fish (sometimes i skip altogether)

Special Pesach salads:

	Kohlrabi slaw

	Cucumber salad

	Beet salad

	(I make these salads in bulk and serve with every meal)

Spiral Meat loaf & Mashed Potatoes

Almond cookies &/ Poached fruit

First Day Lunch:

Matzah

Chrain

Charoset

Egg Salad

Fish Salad made from last nights left over fish

Green Salad with homemade lemon vinegrette

Pesach Cottage Pie or 

Ratatouille (zucchini, eggplant, tomato, bell peppers and onions baked). Canbe served hot or cold

Pesach Ice pops - pureed fruit frozen in disposable ice pop bags

Almond cookies & fresh Fruit

Second Seder:

Matzah

Foods for the Seder plate and participants:

Chrain

Charoset

Bitter herbs

Shank bone

Roasted egg

Karpas ( we use raw onion or potato but you use what your minhag says)

Salt water at each place setting

Hard Boiled Eggs

Special Pesach salads:

Kohlrabi slaw

Cucumber salad

Beet salad

Boiled Chicken Pot - large soup pot with assorted veggies cut up, onions, potato, zucchini, tomato (really any veggie that can be peeled), salt, topped with chicken leg quarters and just enough water to cover veggies. Hbring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer immediately after candle lighting. Allow to simmer through the seder until it is time for the meal. Can be served with or without the broth.

Almond Cookies & Fruit

To be continued in the next post . . .