From Passover to Easter

So, we sedered. Monday at our home, Tuesday at Anny's. I find that Maxwell House Hagaddah sexist, old fashioned, dry, and lifeless.

We had wonderful homemade macaroons that I will get the recipe for. They were amazing!
Menus -
Monday - 1st night
Haroset
Deviled Eggs
Chicken Soup with Matzoh balls
Token gefilte fish with lots of really amazing horseradish
Turkey
Mashed potatoes and gravy (yes, leaven)
Sauteed green beans
Merengues
Macaroons
Fresh strawberries

Tuesday Night - 2nd night
Haroset
Hard boiled eggs in salt water
Lots of gefilte fish
Chicken Soup with Matzoh balls
Leg of lamb
Asparagus
Beet and Fennel Salad (yum! A meal highlight!)
Boiled new potatoes
Macaroons
Chocolate Covered Matzoh from Piron Chocolateer

So now, on to the Easter ham feed - We'll have those deviled eggs again because they are universally loved. Liz makes them better than I do.
Ham and baked potatoes
Mixed green salad
Maybe I'll work that beet and fennel salad out. This recipe looks promising!

Cook for two hours

Check out the Joy of Cooking's recipe for Gefilte Fish!! Cook for two hours. Yes, seriously!

I've finally found someone who like gefilte fish. My friend Ellen! She and her family are joining us for Seder. They are also a blended family. She says that she is Jewish, the kids are diluted, and her husband is deluded. Anyway. She likes gefilte fish, so I guess we'll be having it for seder. I like it with enough horseradish. My daughter tells me that I'll eat almost anything with enough horseradish

She's making coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate and the chicken soup with matzoh balls. Yum. I'm going to make merengues. So - Here's the recipe:

2 egg whites - beat slowly until stiff
add 2/3 cup sugar - 1 Tbs at a time
add a pinch of salt
1 t vanilla
1 C chopped pecans (optional at my house - not everyone is a pecan fan and this recipe came from a sister of my - Catholic - grandmother from Enid, Oklahoma
1 C chocolate chips

Preheat oven t 350º. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Drop cookies onto sheet. Place ain the oven and turn off the heat! Leave them in all night.
Do Not Open Oven! (Double underlined and two exclamation points from my grandmother!)

Almost Seder - time to look for the Haggadah

It's almost Seder again. I am trying to figure out what to do with this particular meal. As always I lean to turkey, but seder with just the five of us feels like a ton of bird and not that many eaters. I'd invite the neighbors, but they are all away for spring break. So that leaves me with a big pot of chicken soup.

Which brings me to chicken soup. Again, my mother-in-law gave me the great soup hint of putting a sweet potato in the soup pot. This improves the color and flavor, especially if you are souping a chicken that doesn't bring a lot to the pot. And remember - cook for two hours!

Chicken soup -

Into the pot goes -
1 Whole chicken - skin, bones - the whole meghilla (that's Purim I know - but hey)
2 ribs of celery, cleaned and chopped as small as you would like.
2 whole carrots - ditto
1 peeled sweet potato - cut it in half if you want to fish it out
1 large or two small onions - peeled and diced.
Salt
Cover with water.
Cook for two hours.

Cool and pull out the bones and anything you don't want in the bowls on the table. It's delish. Really.