Those of us recovering? re-emerging? from having celebrated Pesach (no noodles, no bread, no pretzels, no oatmeal, no breakfast cereal except for ones that should be outlawed, no rice if Ashkenazi, no beans if Ashkenazi, no corn chips if Ashkenazi, no peanut butter if Ashkenazi, no popcorn if Ashkenazi and lots of cooking and food and meals) may be experiencing difficulty in reconnecting with the planet. I think a good night sleep tonight for me will help do the trick. More importantly, my kids finally return to school tomorrow, though my eldest sighs it was too short a break.

Any Pesach recuperators having a hard time looking at a potato?

Some great links:

• SuperRaizy hosted Haveil Havalim. I so connected with her post on childhood Pesach preparations – sometimes holidays bring out difficult times for families.
• My heart goes out to Baila, who has flown to New York to visit her dad who is not well. So difficult to see a parent suffer.
  Update: according to A Mother in Israel, Baila’s father has died.
• Ilana-Davita recommends The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society and other books.
• Jew Wishes reviews Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes by Tamar Yellin. Having read Tamar Yellin’s book The Genizah at the House of Shepher, I’m sure this one is a worthwhile read, too.

I’m reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman. I finished Harriet Reisen’s Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. It left me with great admiration for Louisa May Alcott – she worked hard to support her family (never married – she supported parents and sisters), volunteered as a nurse in the Civil War, and in an era when women had few choices of livelihood, became rich and famous. She unfortunately became ill in her middle years and died at age 55 probably of complications from lupus.

Feel free to talk about whatever you like, as long as it’s not rude. (the people who comment on this blog make the world seem like remarkably polite folks – what a group of mensches, that is, good, polite folks).

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. mushrooms
• 1 large onion
• Olive oil
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• Sea salt
• Spices or dried herbs (I used dried thyme)

Suitable for Passover or any time of the year one wants a tasty, easy to make spread, this mushroom paté can be made in a short time. Chop then sauté the onion in olive oil. Add the mushroooms, chopped into pieces. Put the onions and mushrooms in the food processor, then add the salt and dried herbs. Turn on the food processor until the mixture is smooth. Add the walnuts – you can chop the nuts finely or in bigger chucks, as you prefer. Klara Levine, who gave me this recipe, suggested it should be the consistency of haroset.

Avdus L’Herus (Slavery to Freedom) Salad Revisited

Passover is a challenge even for vegetable salads – sometimes one cannot get a certain condiment with a Pesach hashgacha (approval) that adds flavor, so one gets creative. Last year I blogged about the Slavery to Freedom Salad. This year I became enamored of a macrobiotic dish of pickled radishes with umeboshi paste. Since I cannot get the umeboshi paste for Passover, I came up with this combination of the two salads:

Ingredients:

• 3 fresh beets – boiled and beet juice preserved
• 1 bag of red radishes, sliced
• 1 bunch chopped mint (or substitute parsley or cilantro)
• 3 navel oranges, cut into pieces
• 1 half chopped red onion

Cut the radishes into circles and cook them until slightly soft in the beet juice. Mix with oranges, chopped parsley and red onion. Serve at room temperature.

•    •    •

Beet Salad

Don’t know what to do with the cooked beets? Here is what I put together:

Peel the beets after boiling. Discard skins. Chop into circular pieces (and then cut in half again, if desired). Drizzle with olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Garnish with scallion and parsley. Sprinkle with fresh lemon juice.

I got two endearing comments last night on my sponge cake recipe (or Esther Robfogel’s z”l recipe) that I posted two years ago:

Esther G. Robfogel (1904-1997) was my mother. I ate her excellent sponge cakes on Pesach and throughout the year for many decades. I hope that my granddaughter, Esther F. Robfogel, will carry on the tradition.
- Nathan J. Robfogel

I’m Esther Robfogel’s daughter. Although I used to bake with my mom, baking was never my forte. As it happens, I was thinking about making mom’s cake this year. After reading your blog, I know I will. Thanks.
- Hanna

For more recipes, be sure to visit Phyllis’ aka Imabima’s latest posting of the Kosher Cooking Carnival, Rosh Chodesh Nisan edition.

Also see:

• Ilana-Davita: Kosher for Pesach Dishes – Meat and Fish
• Ilana-Davita: Kosher for Pesach Desserts
• Ilana-Davita: Kosher for Pesach Quick and Light
• Cooking Manager: Passover Recipes and Cooking Techniques
• Mrs. S: Cooking for Pesach in the J-Blogosphere
• On my blog: Recipes for Pesach

On a sad note, two men in Teaneck, New Jersey died walking home from shul at the end of Shabbat when a tree fell on them. I can’t imagine what Pesach is going to be like for those two mourning families.

What is your favorite part of the seder?

Here are some choices (or tell your own):

• Many of my family members love a good discussion. They like to bring up new ideas, relate it to what is going on in current events, tell a story of a great rabbi’s seder or a word of Torah they heard from their rabbi.
• On Mimi’s post interviewing three women about Pesach, two said the songs are their favorite part.
• Acting out parts of the seder story. My personal favorites are walking around the table with my daughter, pretending we are the Jews coming out of Egypt (Avadim Hayeenu – we were slaves). We also like tossing plastic frogs and cattle on the table as we recite the ten plagues.
• The food. Either eating matza, which you may have not eaten for a month, or eating the bitter herbs or the parsley and potato dipped in salt water or the korach sandwich (my favorite food ritual) or the ritual egg. Or whatever is served for dinner.

If you are not Jewish and/or you have never been to a seder, I wonder what you think of all this. What would be your favorite part? Feel free to comment.

Guest Recipe by Kira

The potato leek part is my older daughter’s favorite soup, and we make that quite often, and she prefers it without any milk or cream. Both kids love the novelty of having the green star in the middle, and they actually eat the spinach (swirling it with the soup to dilute the taste). I think the spinach purée alone makes a pretty tasty dairy-free “creamed spinach” side dish, but since I am the only one in the family who likes creamed spinach, I don’t make it unless I am making the soup.

If you don’t have a kosher for Passover cookie cutter, use a cup.

Potato Leek Soup

(makes 10 servings)

Ingredients
3 leeks
5 tbsp olive oil
2 pounds white potatoes, chopped
2 qts water
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup cream or milk (optional)

Cooking equipment
Cutting knife
Colander
Spatula
Measuring cup
Measuring spoon
Large pot
Cookie cutter or small plastic cup with the bottom cut off
Blender (stick blender works nicely)

To make the plain potato leek soup:
1. Discard tough part of green tops of leeks, then wash bottoms thoroughly
2. Cut leeks into thin slices and rinse in colander.
3. Cook in olive oil until leeks are soft – about 5 minutes.
4. Add potatoes and water and bring to a boil.
5. Lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
6. Puree with a blender.

Add salt and pepper to taste. For a creamier variation, add ½ cup of cream or milk

Spinach Purée

1. Blanch 1 lb of baby spinach (Put in small colander and submerge briefly into boiling water until barely cooked. Then transfer to bowl of ice water.)
2. Drain spinach.
3. Puree with ¼ of batch of potato leek soup.

Assemble final soup by placing the cookie cutter in the bottom of a soup bowl. Spoon spinach puree into the cookie cutter to desired depth. Pour potato leek soup around cookie cutter to the same depth. Then remove cookie cutter and repeat in another bowl.

For more kosher for Passover recipes, visit:

• Pesach Recipes – a list compiled in 2009 by Leora
• Kosher for Passover – Meat and Fish by Ilana-Davita