Odds and Ends from your tired correspondant

First of all, a bit of birthday follow up.  My son wanted a birthday tiara to wear  during his celebration. Living as we do, up stairs from a .99 store, fulfilling that request was easy.

 

I finished decorating the cake.

One thing I have always been fairly strict about as a mom is not buying sugar heavy breakfast cereals.  I am always willing to buy a box of the junky cereal of their choice for their birthday. My youngest is born on March 17. He usually requests Lucky Charms.  He may have actually reached the point where he finds them gross. The box was done by breakfast on the 18th. My son’s friends ate the cereal with their cake.

 

I’m also further along on the journey towards Passover.

One batch of meat is done.

Here it is sliced and frozen and ready to warm up for the second night of seder.  This is the reduction of pan juices that I will serve over the meat.

 

This is what is currently cooking in my oven, the meat for the first night in a ground coffee and spice rub and the bones for the seder plate.

One cake I had baked , an apple cardamom almond cake broke as I took it out of the pan. I tossed it in a rectangular pan baked the   sloppy mess until it had a crust and then frosted the whole thing with Israeli spreadable chocolate. I cut it into squares and stuck it in the freezer. It tastes sort of like banana bread.  On the positive side it does not taste like a Passover cake.  On the negative side, it was way too much work to end up tasting like banana bread. I don’t have photos. I’m too angry at the stupid cake to capture it’s image.

 

This dessert was low in terms of work and high in terms of taste and impact. the are date and cocoa bonbons. it’s dates and almonds whipped up in the food processor with cocoa and figs and some spices. I rolled  the bon-bons in a mix of Passover confectioners sugar (potato starch whipped up with sugar in the processor) and  unflavored coconut.

I will serve these along with meringues.  I like such a high color contrast dessert plate.

 

The chocolate torte came out perfect ( and tall).  My older son and I did a field trip to our local butcher. They were selling a similar but smaller flourless chocolate nut torte for $34.95.

 

My youngest made matza balls for the first time. He realized that they are actually really easy to make.

I made another potato kugel.

 

The cooking has been interspersed with laundry and phone calls trying to figure out the next stage of care for my mother. My boys have been helping with everything, except for the eldercare.  Actually they have been helping by being really, really nice to me and by washing and drying  the endless parade of dirty dishes and pots.

 

There is more to do but less than there was yesterday.