Erev Pesach, part 1

[magid]

Last night, I managed to get more done than the previous nights, but less than an ideal amount. Of course, this meant more to do this morning, but the cleaning did get done.

• fridge cleaned, shelves lined
  
• oven and stovetop kashered
  
• counters, table, one cabinet's shelves lined (not nearly as nicely as last year, when Tigerbright helped my one-handed self)
  
• sink kashered and lined
  
• microwave kashered
  
• car cleaned out
  
• everything not for Pesach put away or given away or thrown out

And I did the bedikah (search for chametz) last night, and nullified anything else.

It ended up being Chinese food for dinner last night: the deli closed a minute or two before I arrived. Ah, well. I started rereading Prodigal Summer, and find myself thinking of all the people I know who would like it. This fortune cookie finally had something worth reading: "Excitement and intrigue follow you closely wherever you go!" Something to look forward to, I suppose.

More grocery shopping this morning (not quite done, but the bulk of it is, at least), retrieved my Pesach kitchen stuff, and started cooking. There are four trays of veggies roasting, and eight artichokes have been cooked, in two batches; I'd not really thought about how I don't have any big pots for Pesach before the seder started expanding...

So, in case I want to supplement what I have next year, here's what I already have.

• a mid-sized blue pareve pot with lid, non-stick
  
• a milchig frying pan
  
• two cutting boards, a small solid plastic one and a flexible one
  
• a good sharp chef's knife
  
• scrubbies in milchig, fleishig, and pareve
  
• 4 potholders
  
• 2 seder plates
  
• a matza plate
  
• an Elijah's cup, with matching saucer
  
• a bottle opener
  
• a fleishig serving spoon
  
• a biggish blue glass pareve serving/mixing bowl
  
• a one-cup plastic pareve measuring cup
  
• a milchig spatula
  
• three pareve serving spoons
  
• a (pareve) vegetable peeler
  
• a can opener
  
• ooh, and I just realized I have an unused sautee pan, too. Not that it's really large enough to deal with all the veggies I'd like to sautee at once, though.

Plus all the 9 x 13 pans I could want, and lots of paper goods of all sorts.
Oh, and I just bought two more clear plastic bowls to serve stuff in, too.
So, the debate for next year: big soup pot or not? I suppose it partly depends on if I end up doing a seder again; I wish the mid-size pot were large enough to assure me enough soup for all (whoever is going to be there at that point, anyway. *sigh*).

• charoset
  
• hard-boiled eggs
  
• quinoa-almond pilaf
  
• chicken and veggies (must get chicken first)
  
• Brussels sprouts
  
• apple dessert?
  
• roasted cauliflower
  
• eggplant, red pepper, onions, mushrooms: either sautee, or, if really not enough room in the pot, end up roasting these, too (or bake, covered? perhaps with some balsamic vinegar and herbs?)
  
• salad prep (debate: green salad with cuke and grape tomatoes, or green salad with mango, or spinach salad with mandarin oranges?)
  

Comments

[bitty.livejournal.com]

before the seder started expanding...


*guilty look*

[magid.livejournal.com]

You're not the only one. :-)

[bitty.livejournal.com]

new word problem: the Expanding Seder.
or would that be more of a physics question?
is it expanding at a faster or slower rate than the universe?

[gingicat]

Re the countertops: must have been beginner's luck. :)

Re the big pot: it won't necessarily take up extra space in your cabinet, as you can put all your other pots in it. If you can't let the milchig pots touch it, you can just wrap them in a plastic bag.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Beginner's luck or not, my kitchen looked pretty last year :-).

The big pot wouldn't be in my cabinets, actually. I use only one cabinet on Pesach, for some food; the cooking things stay out (it's easier than moving lots of dishes around, and I'm not sure where I'd move them *to*, anyway). The other pots have handles, which precludes storing them inside something else, but I have plenty of storage room, so that's not a factor, as long as it's not too wide (the width of the opening to the storage area being the limiting factor).

I guess it's just a question of whether it's really useful to invest in a pot I use 9 days out of the year. Until now, it hasn't been, since I went out to seders, and just didn't have soup if there were going to be a lot of people at some other meal.

(Oh, and when I store the stuff away, I tend to put pareve with pareve, milchig with milchig, just as a memory aid; there was one year I got out some plastic serving implements and wasn't sure what "flavor" they were, so I chucked them....)