Passover (or how i spent my weekend cooking)

Passover began last night. I’m very excited. It’s one of my favorite holidays, up there with Thanksgiving. I'm a big fan of holidays that revolve around eating delicious food, spending time with family, and no gift-giving/receiving. Granted, this delicious food during Passover is limited to the seders I attend since I will probably be living off of hard-boiled eggs, matzah, and haroset for the other 6 days…not that those aren’t delicious…I digress…I decided to spread the joy and cook a Passover meal for my housemates. There was only one issue: I’m a vegetarian and have been for a while. Having been a co-cook for my summer camp for two weeks surrounded by either vegetarians or people who have a serious love affair with meat, I understood that I should include some sort of meat dish in the meal or face the wrath of the carnivores. So I opted for the meat that I miss most as a vegetarian, which is also Passover appropriate: Brisket (a better option than my other favorite, bacon).

Getting the brisket was an ordeal in itself. I went grocery shopping with Sydney, who is also a vegetarian. So when it came to buying brisket we were CLEARLY THE BEST PEOPLE FOR THE JOB. I went into this situation with the same mindset as when I go to get my car fixed (which is often) - I need to sound like I know what I'm talking about and have confidence oozing out of my pores.

me: do you have brisket?

meat man: yes (proceeds to show us to the briskets)

meat man: how much do nee..

me: eighttotenpounds.

meat man: well the biggest we got is probably 4 or 5..

me: thatsgood.

meat man: ...pounds..you sure? here's a 6..

me: Yeahi'lltakethesix

meat man: personally, i'd go with this one with good marbling..

me: andamoreuniformcutyeahdefinitelyagree

mean man: ookayy...

Whatever. Clearly I am very knowledgeable when it comes to purchasing cuts of meat. The rest of the shopping went off without a hitch (though lugging around a 5 lb box of matzah without a cart did draw a few looks from the gentiles of the wisconsin st. giant). So with my newly purchased, soon-to-be-a-staple-of-my-kitchen cookbook, Sydney and I spent Saturday and Sunday cooking up a storm. It was complete with me squealing every second I had to touch the raw brisket and asking the carnivores to check it every 5 minutes.

All in all, we made brisket (duh), matzah ball soup (duhh), haroset, and an eggplant dish. We didn't have a true seder because itwassundayandnotyetpassover NOT because I couldn't get haggadahs... Not to mention I'll be going home next week to help my mom put on a seder..wouldn't want too many seders..wouldn't want too much of a good thing..no way. But there you have it- my seder meal. If you read all of this, I thank you. Next time I see you, perhaps I will reward you with a slice of the Passover Wine Cake I just made which may or may not have been successful. Also, thought I'd point out, not mentioned in the Haggadah is the 11th plague, also known as the mess created in my kitchen as a result of two days of cooking. Lethal.

Chag Pesach Sameach!