Passover Ends with an Earth Day

Sunset today marks the end of another Passover. It was very nice that this year Passover coincided with the school's spring break. I only had to deal with packing school lunches for two days that were in line with Passover.It's not easy coming up with a palatable school lunch that is Passover friendly. Max today had the old peanut butter and matzoh sandwich and Rebecca opted for tomato soup on Monday.

So it is hard to live without regular bread and it's amazing how many things you have in your pantry that are off limits. However it is not all bread of affliction , we also get to have some amazing desserts like this chocolate tort. Ground almonds, butter, chocolate, eggs, sugar, and a smidgen of matzoh cake meal result in a delicious treat that gets topped with whipped cream.

 Meanwhile today was Earth Day. I normally pay little heed to this particular celebration, but this year NASA was having a Global Selfie Day. I decided the red boys could join in the fun. I printed out a sign and plopped them on a bench for their photo session. They honestly didn't care about the whole thing, but they did like being outside during some gorgeous spring weather.

I think they would rather be celebrating Earth Day in a proper dachshund fashion like this guy being featured on Dream Dachshund rescue's Facebook page. Another good picture can be found over here. Earth Day done as only how an earth dag can do it.

Happy Passover!

Today was the first day of Passover and tonight was our congregation's Second night Community Seder. It is a small congregation, but it has a solid can do attitude and we self cater this big event. We make the whole thing, from matzoh ball soup, to two kinds of meat, taters and so on in the synagogue's kitchen while various desserts brought in (I made a rather decadent dark chocolate torte that was inhaled).

So this was the sight that greeted me when I arrived. Salads were being set up in the area next to the main hall. When it was time to settle down for the meal a couple of people from each table would bring them in. I thought it was a beautiful sight and promptly dug out my camera. I think there were 90 salads made and all but three were eaten. As always it was a great meal and a wonderful service. A nice way to start passover.

Mid Pesach Lament

I miss bread, specifically toast.

Lemon Angel Pie

Lemon Angel Pie, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

This year for the community Seder I wanted to make a non-chocolate dessert. Passover friendly chocolate desserts are easy, for years I've brought my flour less chocolate tort. Chocolate is easy, but it has been done to death.

So I hauled out my go to cook book for Passover, Something Different for Passover by Zell Schulman, and started flipping through the dessert pages. About two thirds the way in the section I found a likely candidate, Lemon Angel Pie. I had all the ingredients on hand and it looked easy.

Normally I would link to the recipe, but the lone version (of the hundreds of variations out there on the web) I could find attributed to her was quite different from the one I used. So here it is:

Lemon Angel Pie

Crust
1/2 cup of egg whites (4 large eggs), room temperature
1 teaspoon of vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups sugar

Filling
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 tablespoons potato starch
Dash of salt
1 1/4 cups ice water
4 slightly beaten egg yolks
grated peel of 2 lemons
6 tablespoons lemon juice*
2 tablespoons of butter or margarine**

1. Preheat oven to 250 F. Grease a 9 inch pie plate.

2. With an electric mixer, beat egg whites at medium speed until they are frothy. Add vinegar and vanilla and turn mixer to high. When eggs begin to hold a soft peak or  whn you see lines from the beaters in the egg whites, begin to add the sugar, about 2 tablespoons at a time. Beat thoroughly after each addition. Continue until all the sugar has been added and the egg whites are very stiff and glossy.

3. Spread the meringue into the pie plate, building up the sides and leaving the center flattened for the filling. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on cake rack for 1 hour.

4. While the meringue is baking,*** make the filling. Combine sugar, potiao starch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Gradually add ice water. Stir in egg yolks, lemon peel, and lemon juice. Cook and stir over medium heat until bubbly. Boil only one minute- no longer!

5. Remove from heat and stir in butter.margerine. let cool 15 to 20 minutes.

6. Fill meringue shell, and garnish with toasted coconut or toasted almonds.****

* I didn't bother to measure, I just used all the juice from the two lemons.

**I used margerine since the Seder was a meat meal.

***It's better to make the filling as the meringue is cooling.

****I skipped the toppings.

The pie is delicious and was a huge hit. One gentleman thanked me for using real lemons. The only thing I might change is to cut back a bit on the sugar. The pis is very much worth making.

Six13 - Pesach Shop (2013 Passover Jam)

A bit of fun for Pesach.

Oof

I'm bushed. After two late nights of baking chocolate torts for two different Seders, I'm done.

Last night was Meryl's very first Seder in her home. It was a bit loud and a little chaotic, but the food was good and the company more so.

Tonight was my congregation's Community Seder. WE all had a good time and even had a soldier join us at our table. As always the food was great and the Rabbi kept the mood light.

So no big post today. I have a happy tummy and I plan on sleeping all that food and wine off.

Artist of the Week: Seder Plate

About to take the ball
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar

Since tonight marks the start of Passover we have a special Passover edition of Artist of the Week.

A couple of weeks ago Max and Rebecca got to make their own Seder plates at Hebrew school. Rebecca, as always, had a lovely creation. She drew a tulip, nicely centered on the plate, surrounded by cut out images of all the traditional items. Max, however really outdid himself, kind of like here in soccer where he is just about to take the ball. He is one of the smaller players (all right I'll admit it, the smallest on the team), but he is one of the toughest. He has no problem going up against the much bigger kids on the field. Rebecca creates beautiful things all the time, but sometimes Max steals the show.

Professor Owlwood
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar

Anyhoo, a few weeks ago Max brought his owl beanie baby, Professor Owlwood, with him to school. On that particular day the class was creating their own Seder plates. Max used his Owl as his inspiration.

His owl is absolutely dead on, here is a link to the beanie baby itself. Admittedly the actual Seder items are piled at the owl's feet, but they are there. We oohed and awed over his creation (Rebecca was definitely a bit put out, she's used to be the artist star of the family) and his first question was, "Will I be artist of the week?"

Why yes we will Max, yes you will.

Happy Passover.

Happy Passover!

It's been a wet and wild day here today, with clouds and rain all day long. But this didn't affect our Temple's community Seder, it was warm and welcoming inside.

The food, as always, was excellent with the added bonus this year of leftovers. We got to bring home half a roast turkey breast and candied yams. Meryl came along with us and she too got to bring home some of the bounty.

It's not the fanciest, the biggest and certainly not the wealthiest of congregations, but it is one of the nicest.

So Chag Sameach to all of you who celebrate Passover.

A Bag Full of Plagues

Today was the last day of Sunday school before Passover, there were Seders galore and all sorts of fun things going on.

Jake's grade and older had silly songs such as "There's No Seder Like Our Seder", "I've Been Cooking For This Seder" and my favorite: "Gilligan's Exodus" which featured this great line -a three hour meal. I could overhear them while I was reading in the library just down the hall.

Nate's group 3rd through 5th had their own Seder in another building so I don't know what was going on, but I'm sure it was fun.

The remaining lower grades had their own individual Seders in their respective classrooms. I brought in some caramel matzah crunch for Max and Rebecca's classroom and get to see the kids all dressed up in the robes they made last week. It was all very cute, but the best part was the bag they brought home.

bag o'plagues
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar

Each child was given a plain white paper gift bag and told to decorate it so it looks like matzah. Then the bags were filled with the ten plagues.

They have blood, frogs, lice/biting insects, wild animals in the form of a mask (Rebecca got a lion and Max got a bear), pestilence (in the form of a googly eyed cow), boils (bubble wrap), hail (super balls), locusts (I know they're butterflies, work with me people), darkness (created via sunglasses) and a wee plastic baby for death of the first born.

I love the bubble wrap for boils, I think that is such a cool solution. But I think my favorite is the cow. It is such a pathetic and awful looking thing. It's grossly over sized googly eyes really do make it look as though it is suffering from some horrible, eye popping disease. I've always like Mrs. L and the cow shows she has the sort of twisted sense of humor I love.

Curaçao Honeymoon

organ
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar

Over at Meryl's Soccer Dad posted about the oldest synagogues in the western hemisphere. Well it turns out that Larry and I visited the oldest, Mikvé Israel-Emanuel, while we were on our honeymoon in Curaçao.We were there in June of 1992 and it was absolutely gorgeous.

After a bit of digging I found a roll from our trip and I'll share a few of the pictures we took of the synagogue and the Jewish Cultural Museum. First up is a picture of the organ and some of the chandeliers inside the sanctuary.

It was beautiful inside the building. My pictures really don't do it justice, the dark mahogany wood, the bright sunlight streaming in and the white paint conspired to confound my film. But I did get a few good shots and if you click through the picture it will lead you to the picture set. I don't remember much, other than the building being very cool and airy inside.

Larry
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar

We then ventured forth through the courtyard connecting the museum to the synagogue. Larry is standing the gateway separating the two. Inside the museum were a few artifacts from the Jewish community of Curaçao.

I remember the museum was quite small and we had to go up a flight of stairs. Inside the first thing that caught your eye was the fully set Seder table safely contained by plexi-glass. Nearby was a display of scrolls and judging by the illumination on the bottom one, I think there was at least one megillah. Which is rather ironic. The two things I photographed are about the holiday we just had (Purim) and the one that we are preparing for (Passover).

At the very end of the picture set is the street entrance to the building. It is a rather plain door set in the wall outside the Synagogue. For whatever reason that is the only external picture I have. For a souvenir we picked up a couple of copies of the sisterhood's cookbook in the museum. I'm going to try out a few recipes and post the results at a later date.

Happy Passover

Rebecca
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Tonight is the first night of Passover and we would like to wish you all a happy Passover.

Today I'm meeting Meryl and her mother at the good IHOP for lunch. We'll enjoy our last meal with leavened goodness until next week.

Tonight's Seder will be a simple one, but tomorrow will be the big community one over at out temple. Rebecca has been eying our Passover supplies for the past week., in particular the candy food slices. She is excited over tonight, as well she should be.