How I'm getting ready for Pesach

Pesach is coming! I know, you don't need me to remind you, but I thought I'd share with you what I've done to get ready for Pesach.

1. I have made myself a semi-promise not to buy any more chametz products until after the chag. Of course, this is not a full-promise, because you never know when I will be craving some really junky chametz food and I might give in and buy it. This does happen sometimes when I'm sleep deprived...

2. I am trying to use up the Chametz in the house. I have realized, however, that there is NO way I will use up all the flour I have on  hand.
I guess it's either going to have to be sold to a non-Jew or given away...

3. I am reorganizing my kitchen (just had a ton of cabinets and shelving added to it) so there will be room for the Pesach stuff to stay there year round.

4. I'm dreaming of buying new counters, sinks, oven, and cooktop. Don't know if it will happen. I'm going to try.

5. I keep doing "research" - trying to come up with some more Pesach recipes that will keep my family happy! Especially the one who is not eating eggs. And the vegetarian. And the one not eating dairy who's allergic to almonds. Sounds like fun, right?

6. I am going shopping for new shoes. I have not bought new shoes in a VERY long time!

What are you up to these days?

Now that Purim is behind us...

Now that Purim is behind us, it is officially time to consider the impending arrival of doom, er, I mean Pesach.

Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy Pesach when I can manage to escape from my kitchen! And after all the cleaning, kashering, planning, and shopping is done too...
That actually leaves me very little time to enjoy the chag, but this year I'm hoping to do better.

So starting now, I'm doing a mostly pantry challenge month. I want to stay out of the supermarkets and not buy anything extra - just fresh produce and milk, if at all possible. That way, when the time comes to do that outrageously expensive Pesach shopping (Hello, shmurah matzah for 18 for the seder, anyone?! Gasp! What was I thinking inviting 12 guests for seder?!), I'll hopefully be able to more or less stick to budget.

And as far as the Pesach prep goes, I'm happy to say that we've pretty much enforced a no-food on the second floor rule since we moved into our home, so I'm not worried about Pesach cleaning upstairs (just regular cleaning, which is hard enough!), and the downstairs shouldn't be so bad once we have the kitchen cabinets finished, and then we'll have a place to actually unpack our Pesach dishes into! I was hoping to have new counters, but it doesn't seem to be in the cards for pre-pesach, so we'll just have to kasher what we have (yes, they are granite, but just not the kind I really want). I'm hoping to get away without staying up too many late nights or rubbing my knuckles raw, what are the chances?

And as it gets closer, I really hope to come up with some no-fuss menus that will let me enjoy the chag and stick to all of our various food restrictions and avoiding allergens (aah, pesach with an egg allergic child and a nut allergic me. what fun!)...

I'm planning to be the one at the shuk buying everything I can for 2 shekels/kg at closing time. And then we'll eat a lot of vegetables.

Who else is doing a pantry clean-out now? Let's share some menu ideas!
 

Pesach prep

My favorite things to do when I'm supposed to be cleaning for Pesach:

(In no particular order, I'm just procrastinating)


Have a cup of coffee and some fudge

Call an old friend

Do "research" for a blog post

Read a junky novel I checked out of the library

Arts and Crafts projects with my children

Bake some cookies

...

What's keeping you busy these days?

Menu for the week

My goal for this week is to shop for things I need for Pesach, and perhaps fill in a few fruits and veggies we're low on, and USE what is in the house!

Here's my supper plan for the week:

(Lunches will either be sandwiches or leftovers from previous meals - I'll be baking fresh bread Monday, I hope, since I still have flour hanging around!)

Sunday night: Spinach pancakes, Whole Wheat Spiral Pasta with tomato sauce and shredded cheese
Monday night: Shabbat Leftovers
Tuesday night: Tomato soup with rice, Red lentil sloppy sams on rolls, kohlrabi, carrot, and celery sticks
Wednesday night: Red lentil soup. Pizza, Salad with whatever veggies we have
Thursday night: Some sort of stew, Twice baked potatoes, and whatever veggies are left!

Shabbat this week is coming out of the freezer, except for a black bean cholent, and maybe a breakfast cake...

Here's to a successful Pesach-preparation week, both learning-wise and cleaning-wise. And even shopping-wise. I must start crossing items off my list!

Thank Goodness for Toaster Ovens

Toaster ovens. They have proven their worth to me time and time again.

We have shlepped them on road trips across the U.S., allowing us to have a hot meal in our hotel room (shh! I know, it was probably against the rules, but then again so is squeezing 6 pple into one hotel room) at the end of a day of traveling and sightseeing. Once, we made a road trip with only a cooler. Bagels and cream cheese got OLD fast. After that, we wizened up and broadened our road trip menus tremendously...

Then, we made Aliyah. No more 2 week road trips (where would you go, driving for 2 weeks in this tiny country?!)! But we got a toaster oven anyway. We bought one large enough to accomodate a lasagna pan. It has become my milchig oven. It heats up quickly, it has a convection bake feature, so it's pretty efficient at baking, and it sits in my kitchen (unfortunately my big oven is in my laundry room), making it THE MOST used small appliance in the kitchen.

Today, if not for the toaster oven, I probably would have just told the kids to have a junk party for supper! The kitchen is in the process of being kashered, so the oven can't be used. The stove can't be used. The fridge is nearly empty...

But I found a package of malawach still in the freezer, some fresh tomatoes, some olives in the fridge that needed to be finished, an open mango juice, and a container of yogurt.

Supper!


Malawach (Baked 2 at a time in the toaster oven)


Fresh Tomatoes


Black & Green Olives


Mango-Yogurt smoothies

Phew. Supper was saved by the toaster oven! Thank you, toaster oven!

I know, I said 2 at a time and there is only 1 malawach in there.

 It was a package of 7...

Cleaning

Have I ever mentioned that cleaning is not my strong point? I am not very good at it. It brings up tons of anxiety. (And memories of childhood fights with my sister-neat person - about the state of our shared room.)

I am one of those people who doesn't put stuff away. I believe in the value of having lots of things out at the same time. I believe it makes me a more creative person (and I've even read articles about this to back me up, but I have no time to search them out right now), when I can see a wide range of things and figure out new connections between them. I am always in the middle of at least 3 books at the same time, and I believe that muddling things up helps me understand them on a deeper level. Maybe I'm wrong, who knows?

Having all the spices out on the counter, and a bunch of bottles of oil and vinegar also, may make my kitchen counter a mess, but it makes me a more inventive cook. I tend to forget to use things that are stashed away. Like my food processor. I used to store it in a cabinet. I never pulled it out - I just gave up making potato kugel since it seemed like such a hassle to get it out. But now that it's on my counter, it gets used! (Ok, so my milchig crockpot hasn't gotten as much use as I had hoped, even though it's been sitting on the counter. I guess my "keep it in sight" plan works most of the time, but not ALL of the time...)

So, with Pesach coming up and all the clean up that it requires (especially in the kitchen) - this task is very difficult for me.

But have a look - I scrubbed my stovetop!

More Chametz!

Lunch... still have to eat lunch even while getting ready for Pesach!

So we're eating things from the freezer (malawach, bourekas, bagels) and the leftover soup. Now to get some fruits and veggies into everyone at some point today...

How are you doing with your Chametz cleanout? Pesach cleaning? Please share your tips here!

My tip of the day: when you don't feel like cleaning or organizing for Pesach, go outside and work in the yard. The fresh air is GREAT! (Or was I just procrastinating?)