it is 8:00 p.m. in the holy city of safed. Shabbat just ended. it was a long day. the kids ate all of the pesach cakes and got super hyper. I passed out after lunch, way after the adults went down for their naps. the kids tried as best as they could to wake me up after I fell asleep. I could somehow hear myself snoring. I don't remember seeing the granddaughter so hyper. she seemed possessed. it was the pesach cakes.
I lost my voice yelling at them. the poor paying guests downstairs! I am being picked up soon to babysit after the kids are showered and put to bed. the parents want to go and see a movie. when did my life become so pliable? when did i lose the ability to just say no?
I didn't blog before the actual holiday yesterday, because I was so tired and couldn't use my fingers. I got out of bed at 8:00 a.m. to start the cooking. I hadn't slept a wink the night before. I did my traditional check for chometz at 10:30 p.m. and then found bread in my bed at 11:30 p.m. I went slightly mad and did another mopping of the master bedroom floor at midnight. this time I used only water and a lot of bleach. I also mopped the floor of the computer room and the main bathroom.
at 12:30 I lied down. I started hallucinating. I was wet and exhausted. I didn't have the strength to get up and put the duvet cover on the comforter. I grabbed a light weight blanket and tried desperately to fall asleep. I kept seeing flashes of violent images so I kept my eyes open. I tried snuggling with the dog for warmth. I didn't hear my son's friend come in at 1:15 a.m. so I convinced myself that they had crashed on the road. I lied awake for hours wanting to see if the young man was indeed, alive in the guest room but I couldn't move.
I thought about my plan of attack for cooking and making the seder. I hadn't seen my pesach cutting board and worried about not being able to function without it. I laid in bed for hours worrying about that cutting board. I couldn't get out of bed to check the pesach closet for it. I was trapped in my mind. my body couldn't move. I didn't dare look up and see the clock. I know I laid in bed for hours. I was freezing. somehow, I had managed to put on flannel pajama bottoms and winter socks.
I must have eventually passed out. I jumped out of bed and greeted my young guest. I don't know how I functioned at all. my guest didn't want breakfast so I started to work. I had him schlepp down my pesach burners and electric platter. I didn't dare climb on a chair in that state. I think my first task was to make salt water. believe it or not one may not do this on Shabbat, itself. I was so afraid that I might forget to do it. I poured half a glass with salt and the young man said it was too much salt so I diluted it. as soon as I attached the gas burners, I boiled a pot of eggs. I started with 9 eggs.
I decided to make a pot of chicken soup. I had defrosted a whole chicken. I also had defrosted a whole package of chicken necks. I kept on wavering about making another chicken dish, too and took out some chicken bottoms. I interchanged chicken parts and ended up using the carcass, wings, necks, and chicken breasts to make the soup. most people here like the dark meat. I saved most of the chicken bottoms for another meal. I did throw in a thigh and a couple of legs for good measure. most of the crowd wanted clear soup. the task was to make the soup tasty without using turmeric, parsley, dill or cilantro. I threw in about 4-5 carrots, two sweet potatoes, a peeled tomato, 2 parsnips, 2 onions, a package of peeled celery, salt and many whole peppercorns. after a while, I added the juice of a lemon and a piece of ginger root.
I next, did the meat cholent. I sautéed 2 onions and added peppercorns and the slab of meat to the pot. I had already peeled a lot of potatoes and added some peeled sweet potatoes to the mix. I cooked it for a while and then added some red rose wine for good measure. when the potatoes were cooked I took it off the stove top. the meat was not tender at all. I figured that sitting on the electric platter all night would remedy that. it was indeed, soft as butter by lunch. I decided to then tackle the chopped liver. that was easy. I fried two onions, added the already koshered liver and 3 hard boiled eggs and put them in my mini processor. voila! I had velvety smooth pate. I added a few drops of red rose wine for good measure. it was out of this world delicious.
I enlisted the young man to crack two bags of nuts for me. he listened to music while he worked. I started swaying to the beat of the hip young music. I was actually having a good time. then the intense exhaustion set in. the young man went off with my son and I was alone. I desperately needed to lie down for a while. I decided to make the charoset. I peeled 8 apples and two pears , a piece of ginger root and a box of dates. yes, I peel the skin off the dates for pesach. the machine made strange noises and didn't chop it so well. I kept on taking out the semi chopped mixture and putting it back in. I couldn't figure out what was happening. I finally discovered that I had forgotten to remove the pits from the dates when I threw them into the machine. I managed to find all of the pits and made a very successful and most delicious charoset. I added some rose wine for good measure.
I was falling off of my feet but I decided to make the shepherd's pie. I put up several potatoes to make the 'mash', as they say on "my kitchen rules" in new Zealand. I sautéed the chopped beef with 2 onions in a lot of palm oil and added a bit of ginger root and a few pepper corns. I added some rose wine to make a bit of sauce. I resisted the urge to add some potato starch to thicken it. it was a huge success. I looked palm oil up on the internet. according to what I read, palm oil isn't necessarily unhealthy. the production of it, they say is responsible for wiping out the rainforests and leaving certain species homeless.
an hour before candle lighting, I fried up a few tilapia fillets. I coated them in potato starch, egg and a bit of oil. I squeezed lemon on top. they were tasty but nothing to write home about. I remembered that I had a jar of gefilte fish in the closet. my friend loves it. I made my own primitive horseradish sauce. I simply ground a beet and a piece of horseradish root and added a squeeze of lemon and a little sugar. it couldn't compare to the store-bought kind, it had no kick. the horseradish was flat. oh well, I tried anyway. my son went crazy for the gefilte fish. it was like he remembered his Ashkenazi roots. oh by the way, my Sephardi grandson had his first taste of lox today. he loved it like a true Ashkenazi.
I quickly made a cucumber salad, which remained untouched and a grated beet and carrot slaw which was almost untouched. so the salads were not a winner. I also poached some pears in rose wine and orange juice and honey. I managed to spill all of the sauce in the fridge. I had no little containers because the kids used them all making slime. no one was interested in them anyway. I served the cholent for lunch and it was yummy. I had plenty of left over hard cooked eggs to make an egg salad. I had bought prepared mayonnaise. I don't care, I didn't eat it.
the seder was a blast. the wine was amazing. the children were gorgeous and well behaved. we read the hagaddah, and sang and laughed and raced through it at rapid pace. we ate with gusto and sang the remaining songs. we were finished by 11:00 p.m. everyone was satiated. everyone went to sleep and I waited for the kids to go to sleep. we camped out on the floor on mattresses. I slept between each kid. all was well by midnight.
I woke up at 8:00 a.m. with the kids and made hot drinks. we had lunch at around 11:30 a.m. and everyone went to take naps at 2:00 p.m. the kids were hyper and wild, I passed out and woke up to mayhem. at 5:00 p.m. we had a light meal. everyone went home and I was relieved of babysitting. I don't know if I am in the dog house about not wanting to watch the kids tonight. oh well.......
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