A few things I learned this Passover

1. It is possible to prepare a seder for ten by myself and have the meal cooked, table set, and kitchen more or less clean when the guests arrive.  I somehow channeled my Aunt Ellen in Jersey, whose kitchen is spotless when her 40 guests sit down to the Pesach meal.  I was almost looking for things to do.  (Thanks also to Marissa's invaluable set-up help.)  So I started shopping last week and spent every free minute over the course of 48 hours preparing, but it spared me crazy last minute rushing around.  Awesome sense of accomplishment.  And much easier cleanup. 

2. Nate n' Al makes the best gefitle fish and horseradish in town. Not much of a surprise there.

3. Jonathan Adler plates are perfect kitsch tableware for serving kitschy Jewish food.  My fish platter met its functional destiny with those glistening oblong rounds of aforementioned g.f. on it.

4. It can be fun cooking -- and ahem, perhaps even improving upon -- the better part of a food magazine menu, using almost all ingredients from local farmers' markets.  Thanks, Evan and Bon Appétit!  (Pic from the mag spread, but my results looked similar.)

5. Peter and Cook's Illustrated are right: you can't overcook pot roast.

6. I make too many desserts.  But we need variety.  No harm in having homemade macaroons, brownies, and walnut-almond cake, right?

7. Having nice cookware and tabletop, all of which I use, rocks.

Happy Passover!

Comments

[marissa]

it was a beautiful seder and I'm honored to have been a part of it. thanks again. the pot roast really was amazing. I'm sending the recipe to my mom.

[Yana]

I'll vouch for that walnut almond cake. Yum!