>>Whats your eating plan for the next week before Pesach? Just curious. I enjoy reading about your Pesach preparations. <<

I was planning to share about this, because I think keeping everyone fed on time in an appropriate manner adds a lot to general happiness!  Seriously, there absolutely must be a plan for meals.  And the plan can’t be not having food in the house and hoping the kids won’t complain too much.  That’s just not going to work!  I can’t stress the need for a plan enough – it doesn’t have to be complicated.  Just take a few minutes to think about the 3 – 6 meals that you’re not going to easily be able to cook in your kitchen the way you usually do and how you can handle it in a way that you will be able to stay relaxed.

In my experience, the biggest issue is what to feed everyone for the two days that the kitchen is being done.  Before that, they can eat regular food.  After that, you can cook Pesach foods.  During the time you’re cleaning the kitchen, you don’t want to have to be cooking chometz when you’re in the middle of kashering everything. And the kids still have to eat, right?

So here’s what I did.  At the beginning of the week, I made a few chometz dishes in aluminum pans, and put them in the fridge.  Those could be easily reheated in the oven, and then served directly from the pan.  Today we’re in between things – after all of these years, I haven’t figured out how to avoid that, since you have to wait 24 hours after using the sink before kashering it (I guess I could start washing dishes in the laundry sink 24 hours before I kasher the rest of the kitchen so the sink could be done at the same time, but that presents it’s own inconveniences….).  Tonight we’ll finish everything – kashering the sink, oven, and stove.  But until then, we’re kind of in the middle of things, and it’s an awkward position – I can’t yet cook everything in Pesach dishes, and I don’t want to take out chometz dishes to cook with. 

So for breakfast today, I pulled out the prepared pan of bread pudding for breakfast.  We served it in large chunks on napkins after heating it up, and had some bananas and kefir with it.  For  lunch, we had lasagna and vegetable juice – but everyone got paper plates and utensils then :), and for dinner, we’re having these unhealthy instant entree things (hey, we can live wildly once a year, right? :))) that we were given a few days ago when someone was getting rid of all the chometz in their freezer – a combo of mini hot dogs, potato puffs, and a couple of other things, with some corn and tomato salad.  Those will also just need to be eaten warmed up.  Oh, and the kids had spelt soup croutons and cream of wheat for a snack mid day.  That’s just about the last of the chometz, I think.  For myself and the others in my family who don’t eat flour, I roasted a turkey at the beginning of the week for dinner meals through the end of the week.  And since dh prefers when I do this, I’ll probably make some kitniyos for the time leading up to Pesach (like a pot of rice), that will be prepared in an electric cooker on the patio table, and served there as well (on paper plates, and washing the cooker in the laundry sink in the basement). 

After dinner when the littles are in bed, I’ll kasher everything.  Tomorrow morning, I’ll be able to use Pesach dishes and pots, and everyone will have a regular kosher l’Pesach breakfast.  I need to do my veggie shopping, too, because I’m very low.  I’ll start making a menu plan for the next few days sometime later today or tonight, and I’ll share that when I have it done. 

>>I had to laugh at the price of the price of the 5 pounds of machine matza…here there was a store selling it for $19.99!! Crazy! B”H we were able to get it much cheaper than that.<<

It really was crazy how cheap it was (and it’s even more crazy that anyone thinks they can charge $20 for that!!) – I think it was only for one week.  Now it’s up by a dollar.:)  Someone who works for a grocery told me that his boss sent someone to this large supermarket to stock up on it at that price to resell to his customers – the price was lower than he could buy it wholesale!  But they were sold out – he was told someone right before him had purchased 50 cases, so this grocery owner clearly wasn’t the only one jumping on the bargain!

Avivah

This morning, my kids asked me how I was planning to break up the kitchen cleaning.  Until just a couple of days ago, I was going to clean today, do my monthly shopping out of state tomorrow, and finish up the kitchen the next day.  But a couple of days ago, I decided it doesn’t make sense to do a big trip for shopping, since the items I need for Pesach don’t justify the drive and the time.  I’ll pay more locally for what I want, but it evens out.  So I figured we’d start today (Tuesday) and finish up tomorrow, after my visit with the midwife. 

We’ve so far had a pretty mellow pace as far as Pesach cleaning, and until dinner, it looked like the biggest accomplishment for today would be how much chametz we ate up in the course of the day.  After dinner, ds15 planted the blackberry bushes, and ds10 dug up a hosta plant that I wanted to move to somewhere else.  (The hosta plant job was my inspiration – I was trying to think of something he could do outside that he’d enjoy so I could offer to do some dishes in exchange for his work – he was feeling overwhelmed by dishes, but it’s his job for these two weeks, and not wanting to do it isn’t a reason that I excuse them from their chores.  I wanted to give him a legitimate way to earn a trade.)  

While they were outside, I was able to get a lot of the dishes out of the way, which was the main impediment to moving forward much in the kitchen – ds had things stacked on the counters waiting to be washed that were taking up space, and no one could really work around it.  Once that was cleaned, the counters could be cleaned, and we could start getting some real work done. But it was just dd12 and me, since dd14 was at her piano lesson and everyone else was working or playing outside, and it wasn’t for too long since it was starting to get dark when they all went out.

Once everyone was back inside, it was time for bed for the youngers, and then the olders wanted to stay up and prepare the kitchen.  They asked me if it would be okay if we covered the kitchen counters and totally turned it over tonight (except for the sink).  I agreed it would be okay with me.  (Ds15 did the fridge and freezer yesterday, so that was a big thing out of the way. And we can kasher the oven and stove tomorrow.)  So the oldest four (15, 14, 12, 10) are right now working in the kitchen together.  I’m giving periodic instructions, but that’s the extent of my active involvement for right now (don’t think that I don’t do anything but tell them what to do – I’m done plenty of other cleaning today!).  There’s something nice about listening to them being up late together, working on Pesach preparations.  They’re having a lot of fun joking around and laughing – there’s a strong feeling of fellowship and teamwork.  And have you ever noticed how when you start turning over the kitchen, that’s when you really start getting that Pesach feeling?

So the counters are now all covered, the cabinets have been lined and the Pesach dishes unpacked – this is where I get to enjoy the payoff for the years my kids worked alongside of me as I taught them how to prepare for Pesach.  Things can get done now without me needing to be involved in every detail.  Every year, they’ve been able to do more and more with less and less of my help.  Don’t think it happens automatically when your kids reach a certain age – it doesn’t!  I’m so appreciative that they can work on this while I work on other things (like researching fruit trees – the reason this suddenly became a thought is a topic for another day :)).

Avivah

I’ve been thinking that I should post about the cost of shmura matza and how we deal with it.  Shmura matza isn’t cheap, to say the least!  Last week I brought home our shmura matza for Pesach – I bought four pounds of hand matza ($17 lb) and 6 pounds of machine shmura ($7 lb) – that’s it.  We use only hand matza for the sedarim, and the machine shmura is for the other yom tov meals.  We don’t usually have many guests for the seder (usually not more than four), but we provide matza for everyone who comes who wants it, unless the person chooses to bring their own. 

Our family custom is that we eat gebrochts on Pesach (matza products that are moistened), but for many years, I never made any Pesach foods with matza meal.  I became very good at baking potato starch cakes and kugels (and in a Wonder Pot, no less!  For those who don’t know what a Wonder Pot is, it’s a special pot you can bake in when you don’t kasher your oven for Pesach.  Pesach baking is a cinch now that I use my oven!)  The reason I didn’t make all of those delicious matza meal recipes (like bagels/rolls, fritters, etc) was that at that time, our standard was to only use shmura matza for all of Pesach, and that included shmura matza meal.  And I absolutely wasn’t going to pay the price for it to use in baking when I could much less expensively make potato starch options. 

Contrary to what many people think, you don’t have to have matza, or matza meal products, available at breakfast, lunch, and dinner for every day of Pesach.  We all enjoy the shmura one week a year, but we don’t gorge ourselves on it.  We make plenty of other foods, and matza is just one small part of a yom tov meal (though one big part of the seder! :)).   Many of the foods for Pesach are exactly the same as what we eat all year round – cheeses, fish/chicken/meat, and lots of fruits and vegetables.  Oh, and potatoes. 🙂 

The cost of items like shmura matza is unavoidable (unless you don’t consider this a necessary expense), but how much you use is up to you.  There’s no need to buy a huge stack of hand shmura so the boxes stack five feet high (well, for most of us – I do have one friend who only uses hand shmura all week long, and uses it for every meal – so she gets thirty pounds).  Then, on to the rest of the food expenses.  Even though Pesach food shopping usually means replacing everything in the fridge, it doesn’t have to be intimidatingly expensive.  First of all, you should have been saving a lot on food the month before, as you ‘eat’ down the chometz and use up whatever you have on hand.  You can apply those funds you saved towards your Pesach food costs. 

If you do use the regular matzas on Pesach, they are super inexpensive.  Here I’m seeing them as loss leaders in the major supermarkets for 5 lb/2.99.  You can serve as much matza brei as you like at that price! 

What do we eat on Pesach that is really so expensive?  A potential stumbling block is proteins, since most of us tend to use a lot more of them on Pesach than during the year.  But this area doesn’t have to be a budget breaker.  I haven’t bought a roast for Pesach for quite a long time, but when I’ve done it, it has been only for one night of yom tov, and we have chicken the rest of the nights.  Minimizing the amounts of expensive meats you buy can help you use your available grocery dollars more effectively.   Ground meat is great for chol hamoed meals because it can be stretched so effectively.  There are plenty of cuts of chicken or turkey that are delicious and can be festively prepared.  Fresh fish is an affordable option in some parts of the country (not for me, though!).  Cottage cheese, hard cheeses, and eggs all round out meals during chol hamoed very effectively.  (Despite the expense of hard cheese, it can be stretched, similarly to ground meat, so that can be a reasonable option.) 

But even with the legitimate costs of proteins, spending should still be kept reasonable.  Most of the other Pesach food expenses aren’t high – my shopping will include a case of potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, eggs, bananas, oranges, and apples.  Together with smaller amounts of onions, squash, lettuce and tomatoes (and some other assorted produce), we’ll be able to make a large variety of salads, kugels, side dishes, and soups. 

I think the biggest part of what throws the Pesach food costs out of whack is the feeling that we need to buy all of those overpriced, less than tasty, chometz-substitutes or prepared foods.  I’ve always enjoyed the simple meals of Pesach – I haven’t felt we’re suffering because we can’t have bread or crackers, or even grains (which we usually use a lot of).  I almost feel that all of the chometz imitations serve to lessen the unique feeling of Pesach, but I’m sure those who use them have a different experience. 

But aside from the philosophy of using the chometz substitutes, stop and think: do you really need it? Yes, the stores are filled with them, but are they really going to enhance your chag?  If so, buy them!  We enjoy having macaroons for Pesach, and though I can (and have) made them myself, we feel it’s worth buying them to add to the Pesach spirit.  But twenty boxes of macaroons wouldn’t enhance our yom tov more than six boxes would, so I can get the same bang for my buck by buying six of them.   As far as the outrageously priced cake and kugel mixes, it hardly takes more time to mix up a cake from scratch than to add the eggs and oil to the mix – and it saves a huge amount of money!    

Avivah

Hooray!  Despite having a number of changes to our cleaning schedule the last couple of days, the top two floors of the house are almost done being cleaned for Pesach!  That means all of the bedrooms, the attic, linen closet, and kids’ bathroom.  All that is left is part of our room and bathroom, both of which I should be able to finish off within an hour tomorrow afternoon.  

Don’t think this was due to just my efforts – all of my kids are involved in cleaning, and that’s why we can go so quickly.  I see Pesach cleaning as a team effort, and it’s so much nicer like that for us all, since no one has to feel overwhelmed by how much they have to do.  My ds15 has finished his closet, and it looks great.  The boys still need to do a final sweep, but ds10 is having a sleepover tonight with a friend, so I’ll wait until his friend goes home tomorrow to ask him to finish that up.  My dd12, when she heard me mention that I was behind schedule, decided to surprise me and clean the baby’s room, linen closet, and bathroom (it’s her month to do the bathrooms, and she didn’t think it was a big deal to clean it more thoroughly for Pesach) while I was upstairs organizing the attic.  That was a very nice surprise!  And she enjoyed doing it. 

I got the major organizing of the attic out of the way, which isn’t exactly Pesach cleaning, but I don’t like knowing there are bags of clothing waiting to be sorted and packed away.  It’s like mental clutter, knowing that it’s there and needing to be done, and it takes up some of the space in the back of my brain.  So I’m glad to have it taken care of, and it looks much neater now.  Plus while I was at it, I pulled out some Shabbos robes, dresses, and outfits for the girls for Pesach. 

Next week my goal is to do the basement (Sun – storage room, Mon – laundry room, Tues – main area and bathroom).  The following week I’d like to do the main floor and turn over the kitchen (Sun – living room, Mon – dining room, Tues – kitchen, Wed – monthly shopping, Thurs. April 2 – finish kitchen and turn over). 

Then I’ll have the few days before Pesach for laundry, cooking, and last minute shopping.  There you have it, my simple Pesach cleaning schedule.  That’s my secret to sanity in preparing for Pesach and enjoying yom tov – plan ahead, don’t schedule too much at one time for anyone, work together, leave more time than you need to get everything done, and remember the goal that you’re working towards. 

Avivah

Until last night, I had a very straightforward plan for the day – start Pesach cleaning, which meant organizing the attic storage, and everyone getting started on their bedrooms.  When I make a cleaning schedule, I always make it very relaxed, so there’s never more than an hour or two at the maximum to clean each day (until the last couple of days when we do the kitchen).  I don’t schedule cleaning on Thursdays, and for the first couple of weeks, don’t schedule anything for Wednesdays, either.

It’s a good thing that I build in flexibility, because today, the very first day, I already need it!  After Shabbos, a few of my kids came home with announcements:  1) dd8 was invited to a birthday party today at 12:30;  2) dd12 heard about a one day clothing sale being held today that she wants to go to, first thing in the day;  3)  dd12 was told by the rebbetzin of our shul that there are free tickets available for me to take the older two girls to a play being shown tonight – there are some extra because patrons get a certain amount, but some of the patrons don’t need all of the tickets they have available – 8 pm, needing to leave by 7:25 pm;  4) dd14 told me that they have a vort (engagement party) to attend for the young lady who was directing their choir, 6 pm.

Then this morning there’s another call – the engaged friend asked if the older two dds can come early to help set up for the vort. Can they be there at 1 pm?  Sure, no problem.  Then another call – the birthday party is being changed to 12.  Sure, no problem.  Can dds come and practice a dance for the friend who is getting engaged during the time the birthday party is going on?  Sure, no problem.   And then a friend calls me to tell me her dd19 just got engaged and the vort for her is tonight, from 5 – 8 pm.  Sure, I’ll be there.

Meanwhile, on the home front, I optimistically think I’ll start cleaning.  Since the toddlers are both awake, I decide to shift gears from cleaning a room where it will be hard to supervise them, and instead organize the bookshelves in the dining room – they get very messy since too many people in this family think that shoving something onto any shelf, whether it’s a double layer or placing it horizontally, is putting it away.  🙂  While I start, my 18 month old helps himself to some sliced challah from the bread drawer, and brings it to where I’m working and starts repeatedly putting his slices of bread (he took two) on the shelves I’m cleaning, which makes me smile because this is why you have to clean all those areas you think shouldn’t have had any chometz (leaven) on them.  Then I take a break to read a couple of books to the older toddler (he’s getting very good at choosing long ones), and then ds6 comes down to tell me that their closet is looking really nice.  So I go upstairs to check on progress on that front.

I told you dd15 wanted to rebuild his closet, right?  That’s what he’s been doing the last couple of days, ie, Friday and now today.  And ds6 and ds10 seem to be unable to do anything but sit on their beds for hours at a time and watch him.  Not exactly hard at work in there, but I figure they’re bonding, so why not?  🙂   Ds15 is really doing a great job – I can’t figure out how he made the tracks for the three sliding door panels for the top shelf of the closet, but he did and they work great.  I don’t know how he even thought of the concept, let alone made it work!  So that’s where his energies are focused now, and the boys’ room is a wreck.  Everything has been pulled out of the closet and dumped on the beds and floor – and until he finishes painting the closet (that’s what he’s in the middle of right now), there’s no way to clean anything in there.

Ds6 was right, the closet is looking good; ds15 has done the first coat of paint, and it’s looking very nice.  I admire it, and tell him that ds 18 months is on his way up the stairs after me to ‘admire’ the room too, and to be aware.  I leave the room, and less than two minutes later,  hear ds15 yell in frustration.  Little toddler has done what he’s best at, gotten into something. 🙂  He walked right over to the paint can, almost dumping the entire can over (fortunately, didn’t succeed because ds grabbed the can in time), but not before getting some on his pants and shirt (incidentally, a new one that is his nicest everyday outfit).   I go back in and mention to ds15 that I had just finished warning him ds18 months was on the way (he obviously wasn’t really paying attention), and ask ds10 to grab him before he spreads any of the paint on his clothes onto something else, which he does.  He also washes out the outfit, and though it’s not as good as new, it will still be useable.  I resign myself to nothing happening in that room but the closet for the rest of the day, especially since soon before that, ds15 made a phone date with his options mentor for 3 pm, which is less than an hour and a half away.  I told him that the room has to be finished by then, but even though he assured me everything will be done, I don’t believe it!

So – this is what my simple day turned into – older dds walked dd8 to her party at noon, and are staying for duration of party to prepare dance with friend.  Then they’ll go to help friend set up for vort.  Then they’ll walk home, stopping at clothing sale on the way.  Then they’ll eat a late lunch when they get home.  Since it’s not going to be long that they’ll be at home before I have to leave for vort, I’m going to drop any suggestions of Pesach cleaning for today and just focus on having dinner on the table on time.  They did straighten up their room somewhat earlier in the morning, so I’ll count that. 🙂    Dh gets home from work around 5 pm, so I’ll leave as soon as he gets here for the vort, so I can get there are the very beginning, so I can get back home in time to take the girls to their vort at 6 pm.

Then they’ll attend their vort, and I’ll pick them up and we’ll go directly to the play, so that we’ll arrive there in time.  When we get home from the play, it should be time for bed.  🙂  Meanwhile at home, at some point the closet will get finished, the clothes will get rehung, and everyone will have time for dinner before going to sleep.  That’s the idea, anyway.

Right now, I think I’ll try to get some veggies shredded to pop into the dehydrator, once I put the toddlers in for a nap, sort some laundry, maybe clean the tops of the bookshelves (didn’t finish all of the shelves, but they are significantly improved), and eat some lunch.  Not the day I planned, but a nice day for everyone, and productive in its own way!

Avivah