Sunday, April 5, 2015
Apr. 5th, 2015 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bearshortyHappy Passover and Happy Easter to those who celebrate it!
On Friday, I cooked for the small Seder for just me and Bear. I made mazza ball chicken soup with organic super fancy chicken I got at the local kosher meat store, baked sweet potatoes with oregano, made chicken legs and eggs, and harosset for the Passover plate. Pretty basic but it took two hours. We were leaving for the whole weekend, so I didn't want to cook too much.
On Saturday we drove over to Queens to Marianna's place, for our annual Seder dinner. I started hosting a Seder for my friends in 2006, and then in 2008, when I moved back with my parents I got my friend Marianna to host it. She has a very big table. And it evolved into this traditional get together on the Saturday of Passover every year. Most of the time we gather in Queens but sometimes others volunteered to host. I am the organizer of it all: I break down and assign what we each have to bring for our cooking adventure. I also lead the actual ceremony with my illustrated Haggadah book. We cook all together while husbands hang out in the living room and, lately, are in charge of the kids.
We usually have around 7 to 9 adults and now 4 kids. Yeva and Marianna are my best friends from the first day of high school. Yeva and I met Janna in college, but she knew Marianna's cousin back in Kazakhstan. It's a small world. So we and our significant others get together. We are all Russian Jews but none of our husbands are. Marianna is married to Adama, a Muslim from Mali, and they have two kids: Galya, almost 4 and Idalia, or Ida for short, who is 8 months (two days younger than my daughter). Janna is married to Bert, an American Protestant, and they have a daughter Jo, short for Josephine, who is a 1.5 years old. I'm married to an American Catholic and we have a 8 months old. Yeva used to be married to a Jewish guy but that was before our Passover dinners and her Jewish boyfriend now had to work.
This is a tradition I cherish and I was so happy to do it another year. It was a little hectic with 4 little kids and Yeva, as usual, was two hours late. She was bringing the fish. We usually make chicken but she wanted something different. Janna and family had to leave at 6, and with the babies fussing we had to have a short version of the actual Seder. But the food was delicious and the point is in hanging out and cooking together and just enjoying the day. I also keep Passover and don't eat any flour for 8 days, so I get to have a giant delicious meal and kosher for Passover desert.
We stayed until 7:30, Tanya's bedtime because we were driving over to Long Island to Bear's parents right after. So we fed her (milk and avocado), changed her, put pajamas on and said goodbye. The drive was a little less than an hour and she feel asleep on the way there. But she had a long exciting day and she interacted with so many people and other babies and then she got to her grandparents' house, which she probably didn't remember and seen grandparents and cat. So getting her back to bed was a big, big challenge. I couldn't settle her until after 11; she cried so much from everything and probably being overtired. So last night was pretty tough for both of us. Of course, she woke up with a smile on her face ready to celebrate her first Easter with her grandparents.
She got an Easter basket with a sheep and lots of books, played a lot, went for a walk with her Papa while I graded (so much to grade), hung out at the big table for big Easter dinner, starred at her Uncle John a lot (it was so funny, probably because he and Bear look similar enough to get her confused. John is 10 years older than Bear. Carrie, Bear's sister, who is 8 years older, is in prison right now for her 5th DWI but that is a whole other story). She had a big day and was getting pretty tired and cranky by 6pm. But tonight was like night and day from yesterday in getting her to sleep. She fell asleep in the car, stayed asleep all the way back to our apartment, slightly roused when I finally got her out of the car seat and took her jacket off (after I unpacked) and went right back to sleep in her crib. Familiarity probably made her comfortable.
And now, after doing some late evening prep for my classes tomorrow - how not to plagiarize my intro to authors from the assignment sheet in their papers, for example, and ever popular - what makes a good thesis, - I'm going to bed to face an extremely busy week of paper grading.
On Friday, I cooked for the small Seder for just me and Bear. I made mazza ball chicken soup with organic super fancy chicken I got at the local kosher meat store, baked sweet potatoes with oregano, made chicken legs and eggs, and harosset for the Passover plate. Pretty basic but it took two hours. We were leaving for the whole weekend, so I didn't want to cook too much.
On Saturday we drove over to Queens to Marianna's place, for our annual Seder dinner. I started hosting a Seder for my friends in 2006, and then in 2008, when I moved back with my parents I got my friend Marianna to host it. She has a very big table. And it evolved into this traditional get together on the Saturday of Passover every year. Most of the time we gather in Queens but sometimes others volunteered to host. I am the organizer of it all: I break down and assign what we each have to bring for our cooking adventure. I also lead the actual ceremony with my illustrated Haggadah book. We cook all together while husbands hang out in the living room and, lately, are in charge of the kids.
We usually have around 7 to 9 adults and now 4 kids. Yeva and Marianna are my best friends from the first day of high school. Yeva and I met Janna in college, but she knew Marianna's cousin back in Kazakhstan. It's a small world. So we and our significant others get together. We are all Russian Jews but none of our husbands are. Marianna is married to Adama, a Muslim from Mali, and they have two kids: Galya, almost 4 and Idalia, or Ida for short, who is 8 months (two days younger than my daughter). Janna is married to Bert, an American Protestant, and they have a daughter Jo, short for Josephine, who is a 1.5 years old. I'm married to an American Catholic and we have a 8 months old. Yeva used to be married to a Jewish guy but that was before our Passover dinners and her Jewish boyfriend now had to work.
This is a tradition I cherish and I was so happy to do it another year. It was a little hectic with 4 little kids and Yeva, as usual, was two hours late. She was bringing the fish. We usually make chicken but she wanted something different. Janna and family had to leave at 6, and with the babies fussing we had to have a short version of the actual Seder. But the food was delicious and the point is in hanging out and cooking together and just enjoying the day. I also keep Passover and don't eat any flour for 8 days, so I get to have a giant delicious meal and kosher for Passover desert.
We stayed until 7:30, Tanya's bedtime because we were driving over to Long Island to Bear's parents right after. So we fed her (milk and avocado), changed her, put pajamas on and said goodbye. The drive was a little less than an hour and she feel asleep on the way there. But she had a long exciting day and she interacted with so many people and other babies and then she got to her grandparents' house, which she probably didn't remember and seen grandparents and cat. So getting her back to bed was a big, big challenge. I couldn't settle her until after 11; she cried so much from everything and probably being overtired. So last night was pretty tough for both of us. Of course, she woke up with a smile on her face ready to celebrate her first Easter with her grandparents.
She got an Easter basket with a sheep and lots of books, played a lot, went for a walk with her Papa while I graded (so much to grade), hung out at the big table for big Easter dinner, starred at her Uncle John a lot (it was so funny, probably because he and Bear look similar enough to get her confused. John is 10 years older than Bear. Carrie, Bear's sister, who is 8 years older, is in prison right now for her 5th DWI but that is a whole other story). She had a big day and was getting pretty tired and cranky by 6pm. But tonight was like night and day from yesterday in getting her to sleep. She fell asleep in the car, stayed asleep all the way back to our apartment, slightly roused when I finally got her out of the car seat and took her jacket off (after I unpacked) and went right back to sleep in her crib. Familiarity probably made her comfortable.
And now, after doing some late evening prep for my classes tomorrow - how not to plagiarize my intro to authors from the assignment sheet in their papers, for example, and ever popular - what makes a good thesis, - I'm going to bed to face an extremely busy week of paper grading.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-04-06 06:27 am (UTC)