As I write this, it is the first night of Passover. Oh…the memories this brings me. One of the most beautiful aspects of Jewish life is the rich holiday traditions. If you’ve been around here a while, you know I lived a Jewish life for twenty-seven years. I actually started following Judaism when I was a single mom back in 1977 or so. I had a roommate who was Jewish. I had been on a quest to find the faith that spoke to me. At that time, it was Judaism. Then, when I met Hubby #2 and he was Jewish, we were peas and carrots.
As the wife of a prominent doctor in the community, our family was in the forefront of Jewish holidays and traditions. Our pictures often graced the local newspapers when the Jewish holidays rolled around. Our first year in our new home, we entertained about twelve people for Seder. By the time we stopped having it at home, we were upwards of forty people and I knew we’d outgrown our space.
The following year, we started gathering in the basement of the local Presbyterian Church. That was the year I realized I needed to relinquish some of the cooking to others because it was getting out of hand. It was only about a month after having a total hysterectomy and I cooked for about seventy-five people. I prepared turkey, brisket, potato kugel, matzo ball soup, and homemade gefilte fish. Each table had its own Seder Plate and there was a Haggadah at each place setting…sit down, with linens and real dishes. It was beautiful…and it about killed me.
I continued a Jewish life for several years after my divorce from Hubby #2 and eventually returned to the faith of my youth and became a Christian. It seems Passover falls the week we are at the beach, but one of these days, I’d love to cook some of these wonderful Passover dishes for my FixIt family here in West Virginia. I think they would love it!
Our drive to our typical overnight spot was fairly uneventful, save for the traffic backed up for the fire and a bad wreck. The fire was pretty impressive from a distance but we only got this one picture. I always have these pictures in my head of what I’d want to take and I forget when I ask Mr. FixIt to grab his camera, he can’t see what’s going on in my noggin. So we take what we can get and remember the rest! The accident was a rear-ender, but it resulted in three lanes of traffic being squeezed down to one during rush hour, so you can well imagine what that was like.
We stopped at a rest area and had lasagna that I heated up in my handy dandy Hot Logic Mini portable cooker. The one I bought plugs into a 120v outlet, but I also purchase the power converter so I can plug it into the 12v outlet in my truck. I baked a big pan of lasagna on Thursday and divided the leftovers into three portions. Yesterday morning, I put two of them in the cooler for later in the week and I popped one of them in the Hot Logic Mini and plugged it in when we left home. Around 4:00 in the afternoon, we carried the little package to a picnic table and had a nice, hot, home-cooked meal and avoided all that salt and junk at the drive thru. Win – Win! Click on the photos if you want to get one. They make great gifts for your traveling and camping friends. I use it plugged into the regular power outlet in my camper and it acts like a slow cooker without all the weight and cleanup.
Today…the beach!!!
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““These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. But you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.””
Leviticus 23:4-8 ESV