חג האביב

 Despite living here in New York since 1982, it never ceases to amaze me that when we celebrate  חג האביב, the spring festival of Passover it is actually springtime.

Thanks to my youngest who put in some time on Friday and to my daughter and son-in-law who did the big labor of switching the house with me, our house is now officially Kosher for Passover. I am grateful for my son -in law's excellent spacial skills because a great deal of the great switch-er-oo involved figuring out how to pack a great deal of stuff into small spaces.

Right after they left, my husband ran out to get more of the root vegetables we needed for the great soup-making. I had something less than 15 lbs of chicken bones and carrots, parsnips, onions a fat celery root and a turnip and set the soup to simmer away overnight.

I also put up eggs to boil so that they could sit in a beet brine and we could have beautiful beet eggs for our seder plates.

The soup simmered away and then I had the big job of straining and clarifying the soup. It is a massive job that takes a great deal of upper body strength.

(Mash all the vegetables with a potato masher and put them in a giant bowl. Strain and re strain all of the soup to catch bits of bones and vegetables that you may have missed. Then take all of the pureed vegetables and bones and put them in a tea towel. Squeeze the tea towel until all of the juices and flavors from the bones and mashed vegetables are returned to the soup. Discard the remaining sludge and keep going until all of the vegetables and bones are squeezed out and yield up all of their goodness to the soup pot.)

We now have three gallons of beautiful flavorful soup.

I have often said that I am terrible at math. I cooked chickens and can't tell you for the life of me if I made six or eight chickens.

They are flavored since you asked with Kosher for Passover (no sesame) za'atar and lemon with some thyme and black pepper and lemon.

I also made charoset, both with and without nuts.

Yesterday I sewed rather than baking, but I will post about THAT work another time.

Today I made pine nut cookies. I made marzipan after looking at this this recipe. I made less than the recipe called for using only a cup each of the confectioner's sugar and almond flour. I didn't have rosewater so chopped up some orange zest instead. In a food processor this is super easy.

I then made the cookies while looking at ( and not exactly following word for word) this recipe for pine nut cookies. These cookies are incredibly easy to make. I used a full teaspoon of dough in each cookie which was probably too much. Next time I would use a half teaspoon of dough.

These cookies are as good as the excellent pine nut cookies we used to get in Montillio's in Quincy. They aren't hard to make. The skill in making them is a half step harder than mud-pie making. The hardest thing about making them is that pine nuts are expensive. But they are a lovely thing to make for people you love.

My to-do list is still long but getting shorter.

Most years I virtually prepare for Passover with friends who are far away. One of my virtual cooking mates is Miriam. Our mothers met perhaps in college or perhaps when they were in high school. Miriam and I met when we were in elementary school. Miriam's mother came from a long line of excellent Hungarian cooks. My mother came from a long line of terrible cooks but she taught herself how to cook and bake.

Most years Miriam and I through the magic of Facebook encourage one another through the labors of Passover prep. This year Miriam is in the hospital because of a terrible accident. My rational self doesn't believe that keeping Miriam in my thoughts as I prepare for the holiday does any good at all. Most of me is pretty rational---but the part that isn't is going through this prep with a great deal of intentionality.

And if you have an idea of where my dairy Passover platters might be hiding, let me know.