It's That Time of Year Again...

I can never quite believe that we only have 4 weeks between Purim and Pesach. It just doesn't seem fair.

And yet here we are.

Time to start cleaning, prepping, teaching, shopping, worrying...and of course, singing the Pesach songs! I have also started trying to teach the Four Questions to my 2-year-old. I figure he might be able to get the first line down. Or maybe I'm being ambitious.

I never seem to have the time to really devote to the whole process either. There's always the Quilting Retreat and the Women's Seder and just...life in between.

But this year I have a plan. I'm going to...wait for it...take some time off from work in order to prep for Pesach.

Shocking, I know.

But I think this plan can work.

Since I'm not quite ready to commit to what I'm going to make or how I'm going to make it, I'm going to ease in by beginning the process of finding all the Pesach stuff (conveniently located in boxes in the basement marked Pesach) that I will need. I thought I'd begin a sporadic series here at Ima on and off the Bima and follow my Passover Preparations for the next couple of weeks. Join me!

Let's start with the cookbooks:

My favorite Passover cookbook is
Passover Lite by Gail Ashkenazi-Hankin

It's simple, creative, and interesting. My favorite recipe is Toasted Matzah Farfel on page 72. I make at least a double batch every year. Yum!

I also like Matzah Meals, A Passover Cookbook for Kids by Judy Tabs

Plus I have a lot of printouts from the internet and copies from cookbooks that aren't devoted only to Passover. I keep all this together in a folder in one of those Passover boxes I mentioned before.

Moosewood Celebrates has a great Matzo Casserole recipe.

The Gefilte Variations has an amazing recipe for Cinnamon Matzoh Brie with Toasted Pecans and Warm Vanilla Maple Syrup. Mm...

Is anyone else wondering where jewish-food.org went to? I have a ton of great recipes from them like Farfel and Cheese (a yummy casserole that tastes like mac and cheese), Cupcake Blintzes, and like forty varieties of Passover Muffins/Popovers. But where did this site go? Good thing I've printed out my favorites.

Allrecipes.com has a great set of Pesach recipes too. Like this Spinach Frittata...yum.

Oh, and as far as recipes go, if you're really convinced that you should make your own matzah, here's a recipe.

Coming up next in the series ...favorite Passover music!

Also...if you want some resources for leading a great Seder, check out this at Amazon.

And if you're interested...
A Mother in Israel will be hosting the next Kosher Cooking Carnival on April 7, so get cooking! Topics will include Pesach recipes, kashruth on Pesach, preparing for Pesach, Purim accomplishments and recipes for getting rid of hametz. And anything else relating to kosher cooking. You can submit your own posts here, as well as any other posts you would like to recommend. Check out the most recent one, KCC #28 over at Frumhouse. Special thanks to Batya, who organizes the whole thing.