Passover Foods

A very quick update since things have been busy.

It's been Passover, so The Pedant and I have eaten lots of leftovers and made some of our own food. We've managed to eat really well.

Chicken Soup with Matzah Balls

TP made a really good soup. It had lots of veg and the matzah balls were nice and hard - not light and airy. Blech. He makes a mean soup.

Quinoa with Sweet Potatoes

Ala Mark Bittman that we've made before. A real winner. I want to make (and modify) it again after Passover the southwest version with avocados, cilantro and lime juice and add some corn for more guts.

Shakshuka

Actually, not a great success. Mostly because I forgot to ask TP to get tomato paste. I love shakshuka, mostly because it's really forgiving and is so tasty. (It's even better with warm pita and chumus...) However, it came out REALLY watery this time, which was my fault. Sad.

Matzah Lasagna

This was a real winner. We had lots of veg and store bought tomato sauce (mostly because we saw it in the Teet - last year we made our own) and lots of cheese. Also, only 3 boards of matzah so it was light on the matzah. It came out really well. We may replicate the recipe with lasagna noodles to make it after Passover with lots of veg again.

Parve Brownies

Mostly because the store was out of good passover chocolates. Turns out, not horrible. Also tasted really great after a 10 mile (!!!!!) run.

Bisli

TP found kosher for passover bisli. It has been utterly amazing.

Although I'm ready for pizza tomorrow night.

Passover Snack

Last night, after coming home from work, I made a snack. A one-egg egg salad (a favorite of mine during Passover) wasn't quite enough (although with real mayo is AMAZING). So I poked around our kitchen looking for something. Except it's passover and the end of passover at that so we had very little. And problem was I wanted something sweet. Except I tend to not buy sweets because I eat them waaaaaay to quickly. So we decided not to buy the wonderful and amazing and delectable treats that come out over passover for the house, but had our fill at the seder and then when friends came over for dinner. But last night I so badly wanted a sweet.

The End Result: Matzah and Honey.
The Verdict: Perfect. (Would have been perfect-er with butter under the honey, but alas, same problem with butter as with sweets. Also goes for mayo. Somehow, half our jar is gone. But real mayo on matzah is a delightful nosh!) I will totally be eating this again at other holidays. Also, not sure why the Teet had Kosher for Passover honey but not the usually kosher for passover stuff, like, cheese or mayo. Oh well. New favorite store to buy kosher stuff had a lot! Cheeses, meats, fishes, etc.!! Normally I wouldn't buy Kosher for Passover honey because it's not like bees are eating leavened bread on the other 51 weeks of the year. I wanted to make sure they got their sale. Same reason I bought Kosher for Passover milk. Because really it soooo doesn't matter. For these people it does (regardless, I want a warming drawer one day - looks awesome!)

Passover

I am one of the few people I know who doesn't mind passover and kosher for passover food. Sure, it's not the best thing ever and I'll take a serving of beans tossed in pasta with no hesitation right now, but in general, it's not so bad. I really enjoyed The Pedant's soup and matzah balls and made a matzah lasagna last night. It was actually fairly tasty. First, I made a fresh tomato sauce from about 5 Roma tomatoes. I chopped up some garlic and sauteed it in EVOO. Then I added the chopped tomatoes, some pepper and parve chicken soup mix for flavor and let it cook until it was kind of a soupy pomadoro. Next, I sauteed an onion in EVOO, added some chopped portobello mushroom and flavored it with salt and pepper. Since the pan was too small, I cleaned it out and sauteed a lot of baby spinach with salt. To finish it off, I threw in some balsamic to give it a punch. Then I ufgafished* the matzah, layered and added in mozzarella cheese. Sadly, the Parmesan cheese was moldy. But, it turned out to be really good! (I bet it'll be fantastic with real lasagna noodles!)

*To Wet the Matzah. I couldn't find a link to it, but my mother used the word and I'm sure it exists. Plus, it's super funny to say. Try it. Haha

Soup Success!

Everyone liked the soup. Which is good. I need a bigger pot, though, as after I retrieved the cheesecloth bundle containing the chicken, the soup was more a chicken/parsnip/carrot/celery stew than an actual soup.

There were also whole wheat matzah balls in the soup. They taste just as good as any matzah balls, although nobody lets me make matzah balls with grebenes anymore. They are tastier.