It was the first day of Chol Hamoed. I was sitting on a bench, watching my kids practicing their golf swing and contemplating everything that had transpired. I did not know what the date was anymore – I could barely make out what day it was. Pesach was like being on a roundabout and it was spinning rather fast.
I have since compiled notes on this year’s Pesach experience in the hopes that I will be able to reference them the next time I need to.
The Seder nights: At my in-laws’ house, the seder is always beautiful. The first night is always punctual as we try to eat the afikomen by chatzos. It finished at a reasonable hour – for a seder. The second night, there were many more participants and it was extremely late. I could barely keep my eyes open. It was about 3:30AM by the time we got home and we hadn’t even stayed until they finished all the singing. If I can send myself advice for next time, it would be to make our own seder at home for the second night.
What I learned from the entire Pesach-making experience: Don’t try to do it again on my ownwithout cleaning help. It is especially important to have help the week before Pesach when the kitchen needs to be changed over!
At least I can relax at the thought that next time will be easier. We already have the pots and pans, oven and other small appliances nicely packed away in storage. Hopefully that will ease the difficulty of ‘limbo week’ like this first year where the kitchen was finally changed over, but the pots still needed toivelling; the pots were toivelled, but we didn’t yet buy the food processor; something was always holding something back…
Next time should also be cheaper now that we already laid out the initial expense of purchasing the basics.
We ended up buying pots and pans, flatware for fleishigs, mugs for hot drinks, a hot water urn, more mixing bowls than originally anticipated, a stainless steel becher, a matza cover, sharp knives for pareve and dairy (we never found the blue knife I thought we had), table clothes, dish towels, sink inserts, a new EZ filter, new stove knobs, a broom, a dustpan, a countertop oven, a mixer and a food processor.
We saved money (and my sanity) by using disposable plates and cups (I really appreciated having less to wash up) and plastic cutlery for breakfasts and lunches. We also saved where we least expected it. As mentioned previously, we used a gift card obtained by our credit card points for purchasing much of our kitchen basics. We made the order online. The next morning, I happened to check back on the store’s website and discovered that one of the pots sets was now on sale! I called up customer service after realizing that three of the items on my invoice were now less expensive. It was a modest amount, something like $30 difference, which I was calling about, but I wanted a price adjustment. Well, to my amazement, not only did I get an adjustment, the customer service representative refunded the ENTIRE cost of those three items! These were not cheap items. (One was the counter-top oven!) Wow.
All in all, the experience of making Pesach leaves me with a much greater appreciation for moving into our parents’ place for the holiday. (BTW, I get first dibs on going to my parents’ house for next year.)
Things I do not need to buy the next time I make Pesach:
1-Potato starch. (I have almost 3 full containers left out of the 4 I bought. Hey, it was on sale for cheap!)
2- Less plastic cutlery (no need for soup spoons. Buy a much smaller pack of knives.)
3-Sticky contact paper. (It is such a pain to change and also to lay down neatly on shelves.)
What else I learned: Do not switch on the Shabbos button on the hot water urn for Yom Tov. (The water was already cold by the first day of Yom Tov morning.)
What we’ll need to buy:
- New plastic boards and heavy foil for covering the counter tops (DH made the kids a clubhouse out of the used plastic board).
- Dishes if we’re going to be home for a seder meal.
- Glasses or goblets? (Same reason as dishes.)
To remember: My milchig pots set is all pareve expect for the frying pan and spatula. I cooked the gefilte fish in the big pot and the eggs in the middle-sized pot.
Food notes: My husband ended up bringing home 5 lbs. of matza. Add that to my 2 lbs. and we had just a little too much. We left 2 lbs. at my in-laws’ when we were eating there. Of the remaining boxes, we opened up 3 lbs. The last 2 lb. box was never even opened.
We had lots of grapefruits and the kids loved them. We went through almost the entire case of grape juice. Next time we have to buy more orange juice because we ran out in the middle and had to buy more.
DH made two very large jars of chrain, one of which we left at his parents’. It tasted just like store-bought!
We went through much of the case of eggs that DH brought home.
We used ¼ of a sack of potatoes (we gave away half the sack.)
I did not need baking powder. I was unable to make some yummy-looking cookie and cupcake recipes from magazines due to too many missing ingredients (next time check the recipe BEFORE shopping!)
I made five cakes; one sponge and four chocolate. My daughter lived on the chocolate cake.
My husband made two batches of his heavenly Rosemarie cookies. (I wish I wasn’t allergic to Rosemarie. Oh well, more for him!)
For the last days of yom tov, I made a potato kugel that no one touched. (I made it very lateErev Yom Tov. It should have been prepared earlier and would have been gone like the kugel I made Erev Pesach that was a major hit, but I had to sit in the pediatrician’s waiting room all morning because my daughter caught strep. At least DH helped me cook when I got back. He made a beet salad and a cucumber salad. I think he thought he was making it for a larger family because we still have lots leftover! He also helped with the chicken, fish and soup.
More food notes:
No one really touched the apple compote except for me. Next time, make less.
The vegetable soup was not a hit. (Why can’t I get my kids to like vegetable soup?)
The boys LOVED the Pesach egg noodles DH made for the chicken soup.
These were the Chol Hamoed suppers that everyone enjoyed:
-Oven-baked salmon with mashed potatoes and cucumber salad.
-Meat broiled with onions and spiced-baked potatoes.
-Chicken cutlets fried with potato starch and eggs with mashed potatoes garnished with scallions.
The trips we went on this year:
Monday: Practice golf and Floyd Bennet’s Field for kite flying
Tuesday: 18th Avenue Park, not as exciting as the Washington, DC or Williamsburg, VA trips some of my s-i-l’s invited us on, but we needed to stay local so we could be home for an important call. (As Murphy’s Law would have it, the call never came.)
Wednesday: Manhattan to the Museum of Natural History and Central Park.
Now that this project has been completed, I can report that I am so happy to have been able to stay home for Pesach this year! I learned a lot. Next time it can only get easier.
L’Shana Habbah b’Yerushalayim!
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