{"id":292,"date":"2008-05-04T23:37:25","date_gmt":"2008-05-05T06:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/?p=292"},"modified":"2008-09-23T15:48:15","modified_gmt":"2008-09-23T22:48:15","slug":"passover-seder-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/2008\/05\/04\/passover-seder-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Passover Seder 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve hosted a Passover seder at my home every year for the last 20 or so (except for the year my mother died the night before Passover 1996 and the following year, the first with Michael, when Michael and I both had the flu).\u00a0 Each one has a different mix of people, cultures, familiarity with the holiday, and food, as well as being held in any of several homes where I have lived, in two different states.<\/p>\n

This year, a first-night seder on April 19, 2008, wasn’t the most stressful, but it was the weirdest.\u00a0 All the food came out well but, otherwise, everything that could have gone wrong did.<\/p>\n

I always find dietary and other restrictions to be a challenge (in a fun competitive sense) and I pride myself on creating a safe space for all of my guests, with food they can eat (perhaps not everything, but a decent meal).\u00a0 But this year pushed me to the brink.<\/p>\n

We had our own restrictions: no meat, nothing that Miriam is allergic to (she can get sick from crumbs and I want her to have a few days a year with other people where she can eat anything she wants), no chemical products on the guests, etc, but they’re seamless for us.\u00a0 And we can still have a full seder.<\/p>\n

\"The
\n(In foreground: matzoh plate next to my seat; in background: the main table with Miriam (brown dress), her Aunties Connie and Jan (holding babies), 3 other friends, and Grandma Julie standing at right.\u00a0 The note on the door to our bedroom warns people not to open it, since that’s where the kitties spent the evening.)<\/p>\n

This year, due to medical issues with guests, we had to leave the doors and windows wide open but couldn’t turn on the heat, we couldn’t light our candles (beeswax even), we couldn’t take photographs (except when the reactive guest left the room, so my food and other photos are lacking), we had two guests who invited themselves at the last minute (and one arrived scented and had to scramble to change clothes and wash-up), dinner was completely out of order and late, we had 4 (yes, four) cancellations the day of the seder, there were 2 guests who simply didn’t show up (medical emergency and they had a bad email address for me), oh and we nearly killed one guest (her fish allergy, which we always managed to accomodate in the past by being careful, was far worse that day, and we did more last minute cooking than usual, which made for more fumes)<\/p>\n

Add to that the fact that I dropped a few of the usual rituals and customs to save time, but then ended up with even more gone due to the above restrictions.\u00a0 We didn’t start with eating hardboiled eggs like we have in most years, due to Miriam’s allergy.\u00a0 Two years in a row now I’ve had the idea of using whole walnuts instead, but then I can’t find any.\u00a0 We skipped the handwashing and didn’t sing a single song.\u00a0 And the post meal sections got lost entirely.\u00a0 No Elijah’s cup, which I’m still upset over.\u00a0 We only did the hunt for the affikomen.\u00a0 It felt more like a dinner party than a seder.<\/p>\n

Oy.<\/p>\n

We were supposed to have 20 guests (including 5 children) but, with all the additions and subtractions, we ended up with 16 (including 4 children).\u00a0 Three were new to our seder (2 had never been to any seder).<\/p>\n

We had two tables.\u00a0 The main one is our regular dining room table.\u00a0 Michael always sits there, at the end furthest from the kitchen.\u00a0 Then we move a buffet and desk back to add another table.\u00a0 I always sit at this one, in the chair nearest the kitchen (behind the wood doors to the right).<\/p>\n

\"The
\n(Main table to left has Grandma Julie (white shirt) and 2 friends; secondary table has my cousin Sara next to Miriam (visiting from the other table) and 3 friends)<\/p>\n

Ritual Foods:<\/h2>\n

Oat flour matzoh<\/a>
\nHorseradish<\/a>
\nParsley
\nWine
\nGrape juice
\nCharoset
\n<\/a>Salt water
\nRoasted beet (an ancient alternative to a roasted lamb shank)
\nRoasted egg
\n<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

(Seder Plate: Parsley, horseradish root, roasted egg, roasted beet, salt water, charoset)<\/p>\n

Dinner Menu:<\/h2>\n

Beet borscht<\/a>
\nGefilte fish<\/a>
\nMushroom and olive compote<\/a>
\nBaked yams
\nPan seared roasted halibut with rosemary
\nDrinks: Wine (red & white), grape juice, water, seltzer, lemon slices
\nDessert: Macadamia Nut Torte<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Connie
\n(Connie offers a toast)<\/p>\n

\"Sara
\n(Sara gets Miriam some yams, as a friend looks on)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve hosted a Passover seder at my home every year for the last 20 or so (except for the year my mother died the night before Passover 1996 and the following year, the first with Michael, when Michael and I both had the flu).\u00a0 Each one has a different mix of people, cultures, familiarity with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,26,93,66,18,4],"tags":[7,6,8,83,11,85,61,51,77,113,34,33,59],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-food","category-judaism","category-meals","category-passover","category-holidays","tag-dairy-free","tag-egg-free","tag-gluten-free","tag-jewish-food","tag-lowcarb","tag-mcs","tag-petaluma","tag-photos-family","tag-photos-food","tag-photos-friends","tag-raw","tag-seafood","tag-sonoma-county"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}