Getting ready for the last gasp of the holiday

Getting ready for the last Yom Tov bit of the holiday has provided me with some frustrations and some real pleasures.

First two bits of frustrations. 

Frustration bit number one

Eliana wanted white lightning bolts on the underside of her tallit.  I started out making two bad lightning bolts couching silver thread to the tallit with many rows of zig zagging. I have spent a couple pf hours picking out the stitching and not cursing.

This is a much improved lightning bolt. It's easier to construct. After the holiday I will make more of them. I think I have picked out every stitch of my failed attempts.

Frustration Two

We have been invited to dinner tomorrow night and lunch on Shabbat. I had planned to make a batch of meringues and an orange version of the cranberry chocolate tarts I had made for seder. In thinking about this dessert combination I had thought that I could be clever and put the egg yolks into the nut crust. The yolks and the whites could all be used up evenly with no waste.

For some inane reason I had trouble remembering which bowl got the whites and which the yolks so I ended up with a really eggy crust. The tangerines I had purchased to roast to top the tart were  not flavorful enough, not enough in terms of quantity and I had sort of burned them. So I ran some dried apricots and orange juice through the food processor and ended up with this

And now for two pleasure of the last couple of days. Both are food related and related to the wonders of the internet

Pleasure 1

When my sister came for Passover she brought a manila envelope in which my mother had collected recipes. Lots of the recipes were cut out of newspapers. Some were recipes for dishes my mother had eaten at my older sister's house. There were though a couple of real treasures. This was one.

This is the original of my mother's matza ball recipe. the recipe was written out by the ever elegant Marilyn Katz who looked in those days like a Jewish version of Mary Tyler Moore in her Laura Petrie years.The recipe came from her mother in law, Celia, or in the correct form in the early 1960's Mrs. Isadore Katz.

Yesterday I shared these images in Facebook and had a wonderful exchange with Marilyn's daughter who had no idea how essential this recipe is for my family. There is no Pesach without these kneidlach.

Pleasure 2

I know, it is the same tart that is a series of fixes for various fails. However, it is also the result with a conversation with a cousin. My cousin Nancy lives in Florida. She loved the idea of my cranberry tart, and decided to make a variation of it using not cranberries but a citrus fruit similar to kumquat. As we chatted back and forth about making this, I realized that her branch of the family and mine have not cooked together since 1922.Nancy pinpointed that to October of 1922 when her grandmother, my great Aunt died in childbirth.  I look forward to many other opportunities to cook virtually and actually with my cousin Nancy.

I love how my blog and Facebook have helped to span generations and and great distance so that friends and relatives can  cook together, and prepare for the holidays together even though they are far away from one another. 

Chag sameach!