El Passover
It's that time of year again, we're spending part of Passover in El Paso. Drew's family seder is no longer held first or second night because we have too many cousins whose in-laws are more invested in Passover than our family is. So they go to them for the traditional seder nights, while our family seder is always scheduled on a Saturday to make travel and cooking easy.
It actually is fairly easy to keep Passover here as long as you follow Sephardic rules. Green chile cheese tamales? Kosher [1]. Corn tortillas? Kosher. Rice & beans? No problem. So I eat a lot of Mexican food while I'm here, and that makes me happy anyway. Last night's dinner was State Line beef barbecue, and when you've got ribs and sauce and coleslaw who misses the bread? I broke Passover the first day we were here -- Charcoaler hamburgers are a moral imperative for Drew and I. They taste of nostalgia and barbecue sauce, and the onion rings are divine. I did pack a box of matzah and some cheese, and that's what I had for lunch yesterday. This morning we're going to Village Inn for eggs and hashbrowns. Yum.
Yesterday I cooked from 10 am to 10 pm with a break for a late afternoon nap and dinner. My goal was to make 3 cakes and 2 batches of soup during the day. Unfortunately we had a supermarket snafu and the brisket didn't go in the oven until almost 1 pm. It was supposed to go in around 8 am. By lunchtime we'd had so many people going to the grocery store that Uncle Marc suggested we just hold seder in the Albertson's parking lot to save time! I managed to get the chocolate sweet potato cake in the oven before the brisket, and then made the soups during the afternoon. I also helped Lindsey make the chopped liver, I supervised the charoset making, and I peeled a dozen hardboiled eggs. After dinner I went back to Marc & Pam's to make the Passover sponge cake, a poppyseed torte (gluten free from the NY Times a few years ago), and to supervise the vegetarian chopped liver. Drew made the batter for the matzah balls while the cakes baked. We were finally done by 10 pm.
Someone asked me why I was working so hard yesterday. It's so I get to go to services this morning. The chapel at Temple Mount Sinai is drop dead gorgeous, and they have an amazing young rabbi who awed me last time we were here. So I was willing to cook until I dropped in order to have some time off this morning! I'm a little peeved that I forgot my tallis case or even a kippah, but oh well. As Sharon would say "We're Reform. No big deal".
El Paso itself is not a beautiful city, but it tugs on my heartstrings. If I look to the southwest I can see the early morning sunlight bathing the mountains in golden light. The mountains here are a beautiful, stark constant. In February we went on a meditative walk/hike with folks from Mt Sinai. We riffed on the morning blessings and mine was Blessed are you... who has returned me to your mountains. They've always done it for me. And they're a symbol of the early years of my relationship with Drew, when a $99 Southwest ticket would get us off campus and back here. I would wake up at 5:30 and wander into the den to watch the sun rise over the arroyo and Mt Christo Rey. Beautiful.
[1] For certain definitions of kosher. Mine being the most important. :)
It actually is fairly easy to keep Passover here as long as you follow Sephardic rules. Green chile cheese tamales? Kosher [1]. Corn tortillas? Kosher. Rice & beans? No problem. So I eat a lot of Mexican food while I'm here, and that makes me happy anyway. Last night's dinner was State Line beef barbecue, and when you've got ribs and sauce and coleslaw who misses the bread? I broke Passover the first day we were here -- Charcoaler hamburgers are a moral imperative for Drew and I. They taste of nostalgia and barbecue sauce, and the onion rings are divine. I did pack a box of matzah and some cheese, and that's what I had for lunch yesterday. This morning we're going to Village Inn for eggs and hashbrowns. Yum.
Yesterday I cooked from 10 am to 10 pm with a break for a late afternoon nap and dinner. My goal was to make 3 cakes and 2 batches of soup during the day. Unfortunately we had a supermarket snafu and the brisket didn't go in the oven until almost 1 pm. It was supposed to go in around 8 am. By lunchtime we'd had so many people going to the grocery store that Uncle Marc suggested we just hold seder in the Albertson's parking lot to save time! I managed to get the chocolate sweet potato cake in the oven before the brisket, and then made the soups during the afternoon. I also helped Lindsey make the chopped liver, I supervised the charoset making, and I peeled a dozen hardboiled eggs. After dinner I went back to Marc & Pam's to make the Passover sponge cake, a poppyseed torte (gluten free from the NY Times a few years ago), and to supervise the vegetarian chopped liver. Drew made the batter for the matzah balls while the cakes baked. We were finally done by 10 pm.
Someone asked me why I was working so hard yesterday. It's so I get to go to services this morning. The chapel at Temple Mount Sinai is drop dead gorgeous, and they have an amazing young rabbi who awed me last time we were here. So I was willing to cook until I dropped in order to have some time off this morning! I'm a little peeved that I forgot my tallis case or even a kippah, but oh well. As Sharon would say "We're Reform. No big deal".
El Paso itself is not a beautiful city, but it tugs on my heartstrings. If I look to the southwest I can see the early morning sunlight bathing the mountains in golden light. The mountains here are a beautiful, stark constant. In February we went on a meditative walk/hike with folks from Mt Sinai. We riffed on the morning blessings and mine was Blessed are you... who has returned me to your mountains. They've always done it for me. And they're a symbol of the early years of my relationship with Drew, when a $99 Southwest ticket would get us off campus and back here. I would wake up at 5:30 and wander into the den to watch the sun rise over the arroyo and Mt Christo Rey. Beautiful.
[1] For certain definitions of kosher. Mine being the most important. :)