Passover, Then Rain and More Rain
PASSOVER, GARDEN WORK, RAIN AND MORE RAIN
As write this, we are preparing for the Peach seder tonight. It will be a small one this year, which I don’t mind, as it’s less work. Over the years, I have prepped for seders here with as many as 16 people and at another person’s house, cooking for 25. I don’t think I could do that any longer. I woke this morning after a good night’s sleep, refreshed and raring to go. The day before was a day from hell. I couldn’t sleep at all the night before. The humidifier went dry and I was sore all over. When we start gardening, it uses muscles we haven’t used all winter and I was exhausted and sore. Without sleep, I was even more exhausted and even sorer. Then my computer went crazy. I had been working on it, stopped to take another load down to the laundry room and put it on. When I came back upstairs to my office, my monitor’s screen was totally changes. Most of my folders and files were gone and the remaining ones were all labeled Ji j2 J12 . I was able to get most of the J’s back but that did not include my book or most of the other files I use every day.
I called My Computer Works and a tech named Eli fixed everything. He said he couldn’t understand what had happened but he fixed it. it took him about two and a half hours, but everything was back and functional. All I lost was the beginning of something that was easily replaced.
After a good night’s sleep, I feel ever so much better and lively and ready to take on everything we have to do today. I had finished work on my Haggadah last week and Dale and I had managed to get it together on Monday in spite of several glitches – the xerox machine running out of ink, the huge stapler getting jammed, etc. I found the covers and the songs for everyone.
In spite of my weakness, Woody andi made charoset together. I don’t make standard Ashkenazi charoset because I cannot digest walnuts and they make me quite sick. I make a Sephardic charoset with almonds, apples, figs, dates, spices and kosher wine. I also hard boiled eight eggs. My first task this morning will be to take one of the peeled eggs and roast it over the open fire for the ritual seder plates. I cooked a lamb shank dish earlier this month and we froze the bone. I’ll look for it in the refrigerator freezer and thaw it for the seder plate. Wash the parsley. Tidy.
Woody will make his chicken soup with matzoh balls. He makes the lightest matzoh balls I’ve ever had. I’ve been to many seders that other people put on over the years. Neither of my previous husbands wanted a seder. I used to go to seders at my part-time commune in Cambridge since I couldn’t have one with Robert at home. I went to many others over the years until, with Woody, I began to conduct them and stared to write my own Haggadah. I wanted one that spoke to current forms of slavery and oppression and about changing things that need changing. I wanted one that engaged, challenged. Ever year I add new parts, take out old parts – always adhering to the proper order and touching all the traditional bases.
When Woody finishes the soup, I’ll make a Sephardic salad of fennel, cucumber and hard boiled egg with an olive oil lemon dressing. Later after I put together the seder plate and get together everything else we need, I’ll roast a smallish leg of lamb in a recipe from my grandmother Hannah –matzoh meal, egg, parsley, lemon, cinnamon. Chaim and Theresa are bringing gefilteh fish from, NYC and dry kosher wine; David and Bonnie are bringing a kosher dessert. We’re providing the traditional sweet kosher wine and all the ritual items.