Sunday, March 14, 2010

Tips for getting ready for the biggest, most annoying Jewish holiday of the year. That would be Pesach/Passover.

If you actually thought you were going to get that here you obviously are not a long-time reader.

I mean, seriously.

But there is a method to my Pesach-Prep madness. (And it is madness, trust me). A couple of weeks before the actual holiday (like yesterday, in this year's case) I figure out when the kitchen is going to be changed over from Chametz to Passover. I then work backwards. I'd give you the details, but to be honest, it's really not that effective.

One excellent thing that got us started this year: Isaac saw a vacuum cleaner on sale and bought it. When he came home, he immediatedly took it out of the box and spent hours vacuuming behind beds and sofas. Which is why I encourage him now to buy any home appliance he wants to.

I am clever enough to write a list every year at the end of the holiday of things I do and don't need to buy for the next year's holiday. (Gila, who inspired this post actually keeps all her lists and has a kind of time capsule of all her previous Passovers). I don't have lists for previous years, but the list contains things like, "Buy another pan for dairy" and "Don't need another turkey baster, you already have three". One memorable year, I think it was after 9/11 and I thought the world's end was imminent (I still do, actually), I titled the list "Pesach, 2003. If we make it till then."

Back to the list, delivered to you exactly as I wrote it last year:

Pesach 2010, Be'ezrat Hashem (G-d willing--I see I'm still not taking chances)

Need: 1 sharp knife for dairy
1 measuring cup
a milk pitcher
(our milk comes in bags, not containers)
ONLY 1 potatoe starch
2 bags of ground nuts
3 containers of oil
DO NOT BUY COLD CUTS. NOONE EATS THEM.
3-4 bags of matzoh meal.


WE DON'T NEED

glasses
(uhm, yeah, we do. We broke all our chametz glasses early this year and had to take the Pesach ones down).
wine glasses. You buy them every freaking year.
sucra-lite yellow poison packets for coffee.
cake meal
alumininum to cover sink.


I helpfully added this to myself:

Baila, don't be such a dumba** next year and read the list BEFORE you shop.

And on the side, an addition from Orli:

Don't forget to buy Orli lots and lot of clothes for Pesach.

Which reminds me how much I hate taking my girls shopping.

What's on your list?

(If you really need some Passover tips, you'd do better, here).






Yachdus is hosting Haveil Havalim here.

9 comments:

Leora said...

Love these lists. I finally printed mine. But I've successfully ignored actually reading it.

"DO NOT BUY COLD CUTS. NOONE EATS THEM." Yeah, the all caps helps.
:-)

mother in israel said...

Darn, you made me take mine out.It's bad. I need dishes??? Oy.

Leah Goodman said...

yeah - discovered that no one eats cold cuts a few years ago - no mustard, yucky ketchup, and no bread, makes cold cuts blah...
the only thing you can do with them is cut them into salad.

I might still buy a salami for my husband and daughter as they're going camping, and i don't know what my husband will do for protein. Daughter won't eat gefilte fish, might eat tuna, husband won't take equipment to fry/boil eggs. So unless he asks someone to pick up cottage cheese/yogurt for her in town pretty much daily, she's going to be a hungry hungry hippo.

Gila Rose said...

"It's the most expensive time of the YE-E-E-E-A-A-A-A-A-R!!!"

Anonymous said...

I had bags of leftover unopened Pesach nonperishables from last year, and I never got around to putting them in storage. A few weeks ago I caught my 8 year old opening a box of (machine) shmura matza. Why? "It tastes better than regular matza." (he's right). But still.

One year we had a flood in our basement right after Pesach, and we lost some potato starch and matza farfel. *sniff*

Mrs. S. said...

I also keep all my lists from previous years.

And no cold cuts?! What?! I'm pretty sure you're not yotzai Pesach if you don't have a picnic with deli and matzah sandwiches one day of chol hamoed...
:-)

Batya said...

I hope that my husband remembers not to buy margarine nor ketshup. We don't need those things. We can live without margarine, especially the horrid, sold mess of no kitniyot. Last year's was thrown out uneaten. And we don't need ketsup, since there's no noodles on Passover.

Leah Goodman said...

You eat noodles with ketchup? Really? And admit to it?

We would use ketchup for eating oven-made french fries but it's too expensive and not taste enough, so we're doing without.

I think oil (olive or hazelnut) can be substituted in for margarine in most cases.. and where it can't be, we'll go milchig and use butter.

Minnesota Mamaleh said...

love the lists and absolutely adore the "time capsule-ish" quality of them. i *so* remember sucra-lite and had to laugh at your "love" for it and can i just say, ADORABLE note from your daughter! thanks for the nice read. it's nice to see a lighthearted approach when many (oh-so-very-many)are stressed to the absolute max right now!