Pesach: The Abridged Version

Well, soon Pesach will be just a distant memory. If it isn't already. Yaakov has been celebrating Lag B'Omer for a few days now. And I know you are all still wondering - how did aliyahbyaccident celebrate Pesach?

Well, it's like the pictures. In America, I used to buy prints fairly often, and of course I would buy tons. Because the picture of Yaakov holding the lulav is cute, and so is the picture of him holding the lulav AND etrog. Here, I have found it very difficult to buy prints, so I end up buying them once or twice a year. And when you only buy pictures every six months, suddenly you realize that, really, the one picture of all the kids with a lulav is all you need. (Not that you're not adorable Yaakov, with the arba minim or without.)

It's the same with blogging. Now that so much time has gone by since Pesach, I realize I don't need to bore you with every excruciating detail of every day. But I don't want to leave you hanging. So I present to you:

ABA's Pesach in 100 200 Words or Less (Not Including the Title)

Shabbat Hagadol with extended Samson family in Ashkelon hotel. Family nice, but food Pesach. :P

Erev Pesach - Nadav scared of Bubby and Zaidy, so did prep with baby glued to my arms. Found and burned chametz. Goodbye chametz.

Seder – kids sang, very cute, had good time, everyone ate, drank and pointed (except when not supposed to.)

Wednesday – went to beach, big “happening” near beach. Lots of traffic – bad, but empty beach – good! First of many lunches of chips, veggies and ice cream. Left car lights on, dead battery, whoops. Steak and French fries for dinner. Mmmm.

Thursday – climbed Masada. Well, to cable cars. Climbed on ruins, Nadav played in dirt.

Friday – rained a little, went to Appalonia anyway. More ruin climbing and nice views. No one wants Pesach rolls anymore.

Shabbat – Yaakov turned 5 (English). “But we forgot to give out the invitations!” Birthday/birthday party confusion.

Sunday – Mini Israel. Climbed Masada again. Returned home for more cooking/cleaning.

Final – had matzah party as chag ebbed away. Then I sat on couch as Donny un-Pesached the house.

Tuesday – food shopping, bank, park Canada. Nadav played in dirt. Macaroni and cheese for dinner. Mmmmmm.

More Pesach Thoughts

As much fun as it is to have to rid your house of matzah (and the fun quotient is indeed very, very low, pretty negligible, in fact), I am grateful that we do not have to rid the house of matzah before ROY (rest of year) begins.

Butt Cheerios are a pretty hardy and resilient species, but nothing clings to the clothes like matzah crumbs. There are crumbs residing in every inch (i.e. centimeter) of this apartment, despite the multiple sweepings and floor washings that occurred every day of Pesach. Every time I changed Nadav and unleashed an avalanche of teeny tiny matzah bits, I said a little "thank you" to God that He left it up to me this time to decide if I want to clean out every little crumb with a toothpick. (I do not, by the way.)


Although this switchover to ROY was confusing to some of the younger members of our household. Yaakov was aghast this morning that we drank the orange juice which stated very clearly that it was "kosher for Pesach."

Hello! We're down here, under all the matzah!

Oh Loyal Readers, we at aliyahbyaccident have not abandoned you. We are just buried under the crunchy stuff. And eggs. LOTS of eggs. And intense Family Fun.

We hope to extricate ourselves soon, and regale you with the exhilarating tales of charoset, dead car batteries, Momz and DADZ, defying the rain, and more.

For now, I will leave you with just one thought.

I am not one of those people who's all like, Living in Israel is perfect! America is a terrible place to live!

I mean, I like a lot of things about America. Those baby carrots. Chex. Free banking. And English.

But I am so very, very, very happy for only one day of chag. Very very happy. Especially for only one seder. Very very very happy. Kind of makes up for having to do the Ashkenazi Kitniot Squint. And even though less chag means less time to squeeze in all of our Favorite Pesach Treats, it's a compromise I'm willing to make.

Anyway, now we are going to try and stick one last Family Fun Outing in between the final cooking and chag prep. Enjoy your last day(s)!

Donny's Pesach Granola

Many (well, 2) of you asked for the recipe for Donny's Pesach granola cereal. This recipe comes from his grandmother on his mother's side.

Enjoy!


Pesach Granola Cereal

10-12 apples, grated
3 pounds (packages) of matzah – some whole wheat, some regular
¾ cup oil (hazelnut adds a nice flavor)
300-500 grams shredded coconut (if you use fresh, you need less because flavor is stronger. But then you need a hammer and an ice pick. And lots of time.)
2-3 tsp cinnamon
2-3 cups honey

Crush the matzah into small pieces. Mix in apples, coconut, oil and cinnamon.

Add honey in layers. First, spread a layer of matzah mixture on the bottom of a pan. Drizzle honey on top – don’t mix it in. Keep adding layers of matzah and honey. Bake at 180. It takes a few hours to cook completely. During the cooking process, “baste” the cereal – gently toss the cereal every 15-20 minutes as it cooks. This allows it to cook evenly.

Enjoy with milk! Dried cranberries are good also (add them when you eat, not during the cooking.)

Be warned: Making this before Pesach is very difficult because the children enjoy helping, but then you have to tell them they can’t eat any yet. Oof!

Those Crazy Sorta Pesach Days

Well I did my pre-Pesach produce/dairy shopping at Rami Levi. I will be convalescing at home for the next week. Visitors are welcome, especially if they bring food.

Just kidding, of course! Who has time to convalesce when the contents of your kitchen cabinets are residing on your table, and you're trying to keep the chametz away from the matzah, the matzah away from the chametz, and Nadav away from everything?

Right now we are in Pesach limbo. The fridge has been cleaned, but there's still leftover non-Pesach food in there. The table is most definitely still chametz, but the kids come home and spread their beautiful Pesach projects on top of it. The toy boxes are cleaned, but Nadav crawls around with Cheerios stuck to his butt. There's Pesach food on the fridge, but don't put it on the counter!

And so it goes.

Alright, it is time to boil and burn our kitchen. See you on the other side.

91!

We now have NINETY ONE readers! Wah hoo!

Celebration happening NOW, at our place. Come on by - all the barley and croutons you can eat!

(Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day has got NOTHING on ABA's Free Cupful 'O Barley Day...)

Clothes Shopping: An Update

Well, folks, I know you are wondering how my sponge dress is coming along. And I am happy to report that I have halted production on my new invention. Because today, Loyal Readers (all 89 of you), I found clothing! That's right!

I went to this store called Discreet. I had passed it a few times before but assumed it sold, well, discreet things. You know, little tiny items made mostly out of lace and bits of string. So I never went in. But today I saw that it's actually a clothing store.

And, thanks to the wonderful world of blogging, especially the advice of Commenter Abbi, I went into armed with two bits of knowledge:

1. Get the ladies to help you

2. If you believe you can pull it off, you can (the look, not the clothing. The clothing itself, you have to be able to actually pull off.)

So I accepted help and the lady found me all sorts of wonderful clothing that I would have otherwise passed by, and much much much money later, I walked out with a bagful of clothing. I (somewhat) justified the expense by reminding myself that I am no longer five and do not grow out of my clothes every six months.

(Every February, Yaakov sports the "Oliver" look, because the pants I bought him in October are two inches above his ankle.)

I even bought a dress! The last time I wore a dress, it had a million tiny buttons down the back. And Donny had a lot more hair.

So this is very exciting news, plus we've regained our sponges for dish-cleaning purposes.