וְכָל הַמַּרְבֶּה לְסַפֵּר בִּיצִיאַת מִצְרַיִם הֲרֵי זֶה מְשֻׁבָּח.

 Passover is all about using an ancient text, the Haggadah to connect to both long-ago history and to our own family history.

For me, Passover also has another ancient text.

This is my mother's notebook full of Passover recipes. When I was a kid the cover was intact. This notebook came out with the Passover dishes each year.

I looked through it the other day and I see that my mother started this collection of recipes in Halifax when she was newlywed. My mother learned very quickly that, unlike my mother's mother, the ladies of Halifax were excellent cooks. My mother asked these excellent cooks to share their recipes.

I never met Mrs. Pascal but I have intimate knowledge of her Passover sponge cake.

 There are recipes that don't think anyone makes anymore.

My father sometimes made chremslach but he always made them dairy and with sweet wine.

My mother made this wine cake year after year.

I do not. I think that this cake tastes vaguely like sweat socks. My mother adored this cake and loved the woman who gave her the recipe. If I am feeling very sentimental another year I may have the need to make this cake.

My mother often was told recipes during a phone conversation. My mother probably asked Mildred Jacobs for this recipe a couple of times.

The Tagamet paper came our way from Fred Cohen the pharmacist.  My mother kept the pads he gave her by the phone. Shopping lists, recipes, and notes from phone calls all were written on pads advertising various prescription drugs.

This chocolate cake came by way of Mildred's religious cousin who didn't eat ge-brochts, dampened matza during Passover. We ate ge-brochts, but we loved this no ge-brochts cake. I make it every year.

I made it yesterday but in a rectangular baking pan and not a tube pan. If you bake it in a rectangular baking pan this cake is brownies.

Here are Mrs. Katz's matza balls. Before my mother got this recipe my mother's matza balls were disappointing.

After my mother began to use this recipe her matza balls were consistently excellent.

After my mother died I inherited this now falling apart blue machberet. My mother is no longer alive. None of the fine cooks who appear in this machberet is alive.  This tattered collection of recipes is part of my retelling of the Passover story.

מִצְוָה עָלֵינוּ לְסַפֵּר בִּיצִיאַת מִצְרָיִם. וְכָל הַמַּרְבֶּה לְסַפֵּר בִּיצִיאַת מִצְרַיִם הֲרֵי זֶה מְשֻׁבָּח.

 It is a commandment upon us to tell the story of the exodus from Egypt. And anyone who adds [and spends extra time] in telling the story of the exodus from Egypt, behold he is praiseworthy.