sarah in nyc

 THIS was the view from my window the other night. Truly the pillar of flame and cloud. But more realistically I have been getting myself ready for Passover. The main dishes are done but the side dishes and the desserts all need to be made. One of my favorite desserts of late has been  an Italian clementine tart  that I discovered on an Italian You tube channel. Below are two different iterations of the tart.(The recipe is in the link) The tart is delicious and is made with tons of nuts. Unfortunately, some of my guests each night are very nut allergic. I was trying to figure out how to recreate this without nuts. I wondered if it was possible to make a pie crust out of quinoa, and in fact, it is. I found a few recipes that weren't OK for Passover but I found one that was made with flax seeds and Quinoa. I don't have flax seeds but I do have chia seeds. I cooked up some quinoa and added some chia seeds. I added pie crust friendly flavorings to the grains and allowed them ...

 I am glad that all of you are on the other side of this screen and not here in my dining room with me right now. My husband and i did our big Passover shop at Bingo yesterday. we aren't switching the house over until Sunday. My dining room table is stacked with cartons and boxes of dry Passover goods and my fridge and freezer are simply bursting at the seams. It isn't pretty. I want to share some of the great things we found at bingo yesterday, and I am not even including the kosher brisket at 6.99/lb. One of the tasks one often needs to do is to kasher items that one uses during the rest of the year so they are useable for Passover.  I will kasher my parents' sterling flatware and serving pieces. It is lovely to use my parents things on Passover. To kasher metal you need to plunge it into boiling water. At some point during a lull in the cooking I will set a parge pot of water up to boil and then lower silverware  or kiddush cups.in a strainer to the rapidly boiling ...

 I hope that all of you had lovely Sedarim, we certainly did. It was wonderful to celebrate along with our nearest and dearest. As I prepared for the holiday I really missed being able to turn to my two cooking buddies Miriam and Shawna. I always loved consulting with each of them as I planned and cooked meals for Passover. Sadly, neither is still in the land of the living.  I especially feel the loss of my friends before the holidays--because now I have to cook without them. I kept thinking about Shawna as I decorated Mrs. Pascal's sponge cake. I topped the cake, (which was the tallest cake I have ever baked-- either of the Passover or the regular variety) with a tart lemon custard. We had a batch of beautiful but sour strawberries in the fridge and I sliced them up to top the cake. I kept thinking about Shawna and how she would approach making this cake lovely for the table.As I sliced and placed the berries I had a conversation with Shawna in my head. She probably would hav...

 The very first Passover that was celebrated in Egypt the night before the Jews were liberated is known in Rabbinic literature as Pesach Mitzrayim/ Passover in Egypt. That first Passover was celebrated in two tenses as it were, in the present and also anticipating the future to the redemption of the next day and the future retelling of the story. Every Passover since then is celebrated in three tenses--- in the past remembering that very first Passover, in the present-- the Passover we are currently celebrating and also our future redemption. Remembering Passover of the past isn't just remembering the first Egypt Passover. It is also remembering Passovers from both our personal and our historical past.   I had classmates whose father was a concentration camp survivor. He used to put on his striped concentration camp uniform as he began retelling the story of the exodus from Egypt.  My father, who was SO particular about how Hebrew was pronounced used to chant one of ...