Notes for next Passover

To buy: oil (definitely olive, possibly vegetable too), shelf-stable fish, interesting jarred olives, jam if I want jam, fruit juice. Also painter's tape, cups, soup bowls, and foil trays.

Do not need: vinegar unless serious amounts of pickles will be made.

Trader Joe's paper bags worked surprisingly well as piecemeal coverage for the counter tops. Still to think about someday: cut-to-fit solid counter covers.

Check last year's lists for an almost-accurate list of what I put away (no more fish or mandarin oranges, slightly different tomato-based products, one less pint of lemon-lime chutney (which turned out very intense, but a little more salty than I like (which is fine when on chicken thinly enough, at least :-))).

Reminder that making a large batch of soup with bones in it is better before last days, so it can be dealt with and the pot clean by the day after chag ends.

This year was weird: I hosted no meals, which is why I still have about two pounds of matza left (from a five-pound package). However, buying a whole turkey and cutting it up for a variety of dishes worked pretty well, despite the shorter-than-rest-of-year fleishg knife, and having no large platter.

If I actually manage to get the kitchen set up for Passover early next year, consider getting kitniyot for the pre-chag time.

Where I won't be this summer

( Burning Man ticket fiasco )

( Firefly )

And while I think the little scissors could be cute in a period playbill, it looks out of place on LJ as part of an icon.

A few things

I bought a few of those solar garden lights that have become so popular recently. I put them in a few of the deeper pots on the porch, and waited until evening. They totally change the place, making the porch closer to an outdoor fairy room. I think I'll get some more of them. And to go with that, a bit more care setting up the porch this year, so it will be a more appealing, useful space. Goals: grow some edible plants, have an attractive space (ideally set up such that future years will be easier to set up), make a solar oven of some sort (and experiment with what I can make in it), and host more porch meals.

Speaking of the season, yesterday I saw a huge bee buzzing around my porch. I have no idea what it found appealing up there, since all I have is some leaves (though this morning I noticed that one pot of chives has buds already), and the season is offering so much more than usual for this time, with tulips, magnolias, even lilacs starting already.

Very cool Hebrew typographic translations. I found the Al Jezeera, Elaf, and Zaytoon ones unreadable in Hebrew, but then, I'm not fluent. All of them impress me with their visual faithfulness to the original. In fact, the Pokemon ones was a bit disturbing, in that the two are so obviously related that I first found my eye sliding over the Hebrew without reading it, then trying to read the Japanese (which I can't do).

From a contract "The Work has not been heretofore published or exploited in any form anywhere in the universe;" Which of course made me think of contract law on Mars, or the issues of publishing while on a space ark between more settled domains, and so on.

I procrastinated on doing the taxes this year (which was more about gathering the papers than doing the calculating, since the process is pretty familiar at this point), taking advantage of the extra day in MA because of Patriot's Day. I felt badly about it, since I didn't manage to do any of the other things on my list instead. Which is much of why I only managed to turn the kitchen over this morning. I still haven't managed to eat truly non-Passover food; breakfast was an odd salad: a little can of mandarin oranges, some spicy green olives and some salt-cured black olives, chives from the porch, some roasted turkey breast, a dash of curry powder, olive oil, rice vinegar, and some mayo. (Yes, this is not breakfast food for most people....)

Chametzified

I finally ate chametz today. First thing: a tiny tasting spoon of the bizarre flavor I saw at JP Lick's; I couldn't imagine what noodle kugel flavored ice cream would be like. It's nice, with cinnamon and nutmeg in addition to the noodles, which have a soft texture, not hard (which I could've imagined from refrigerated kugel). Not something I'd ever have made (nor the blackberry Manischewitz sorbet), but interesting. Oh, and I was interested to see they had three non-dairy hemp-based flavors (I didn't know hemp was useful for frozen desserts), as well as a row of Cheryl Ann's challot. And then I bought a caprese croissant (so nice to have something savory like that available) and headed out.

I had a second round of chametz at When Pigs Fly, trasting two new-to-me flavors: savory cranberry (with sage) and maple-walnut-banana. Both were yummy (unsurprisingly).

Ah, chametz: I hadn't missed you so much until I tasted you again.