The Elf Blog

Preparing for Passover

Passover begins in 2 weeks. If you celebrate, that means it's time to prepare!

If you are hosting seder, you need to invite your guests and make sure you have enough copies of the Haggadah you will use. You should start to think through the menu for the main meal.  As you have ideas for dishes that can be made without leaven, keep a list, since you'll probably need them all before the holiday is over.

The main thing to do is to start cleaning the house -- especially the cabinets.  Try to arrange menus that use the leaven you have in your house.  That could make the next two weeks a carb fest, but that's not such a bad thing!

Preparing for Passover

Passover begins on Saturday evening. That means that the next 36 hours are intense preparation time, since preparations should be complete before the sabbath begins.

Last week, I blogged about the cleaning necessary to make sure there's no leaven in the house.  With that done, the primary task for this week is preparing for the Seder.  Today is a good time for grocery shopping and for making broths that you may want to use -- such as a good chicken broth for matzoh ball soup.  Also, today is the day to make sure that your table linens and place settings are ready to go. You can also roast the egg for the seder plate.

Tomorrow, you can make anything that will keep well, like charoset (it actually gets better if the flovors have time to blend).  Since Passover begins just as sabbath ends, it may not be a bad idea to purchase desserts ahead of time.  For those who want a healthy option, fresh fruit is kosher for Passover -- and parve!