Passover Review

While we're still observing Passover (until Tuesday night) by not eating chametz, the seders are done. We had two this year, the first with twelve of us and the second with six of us, and they were both great. Some of the food highlights were the quinoa flake matzoh balls made by my friend Julie, this charoset and this cake (with fresh whipped cream). Some of the non-food highlights were Ezra reading from the Haggadah for the first time, telling the Exodus story (the heart of the seder), talking about Miriam's cup, symbolizing the well of water that appeared in the desert wherever Miriam was, and, of course, the songs.

Passover Miscellaneous List

It's the season - seder stress is in the air. My mother, my mother-in-law and most of the other Jewish women I know have charoset/shankbone/brisket-on-the-brain. My kids, however, feel no stress (as it should be)--only pure excitement. I wish I'd shared their excitement when I was a girl--to me, seders were boring, fraught and irrelevant. I'm totally willing to take on the work and stress if it means my boys will have happy feelings about the seder.

Here is what's swirling around my mind right now, Passover-wise:

• I might get ambitious and make this cake for dessert, but if not, I have these delicious babies to fall back on.
• I'm trying gluten-free matzoh balls again (after a failed almond flour attempt on Rosh Hashanah). These have come highly recommended.
• I've been on the lookout for cute frog table decorations, but haven't found any. I was going to try to make some felted frogs, but I don't think that's going to happen this year. If you have found anything sweet/cute/non-cheesy, please let me know!
• One of my favorite children's Passover books is Nachshon, Who Was Afraid to Swim, which tells one of my favorite midrash stories. My boys, ages 5 and 8, love this one, too. 

Okay - time for me to make one more trip to the supermarket and then get down to cooking! Chag Pesach Sameach!

The Mighty Green

Kale; the wonder vegetable, the superfood, one of the few crops that will grow under in our raised beds near our (toxic!) Black Walnut tree. If only a few things are going to grow well near that massive tree, due to the toxins it sends out through it's roots and it's leaves, well, then, I'm glad kale is one of them.

Due to the abundance of kale we've had for months now, I've tried lots of kale recipes. Here are my favorites:

• The ubiquitous kale chip--a favorite with kids of all ages. How do I make mine? Wash and dry a big bunch of kale (more than you'd think - these shrink down alot). Drying the kale well is an important step. I tear the kale off each side of the leaf (composting the stem and thick middle rib), put all the kale strips in a bowl and thoroughly rub with a big glug of olive oil and lots of good salt. Heat oven to 350, put kale in a single layer on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper (to ease clean up) and bake for approximately 20-25 minutes, tossing the kale halfway through. I like to sprinkle it with lots of nutritional yeast right when I take it out of the oven. No matter how much I make it's usually gone in 5 minutes. Not that I'm complaining one bit about my boys shoveling kale in their mouths. 

• This kale salad with almonds and golden raisins is amazing.

• My friend, Andrea, has a great whole foods blog. Her kale salad was the first kale dish that I loved and my introduction to massaging kale.

So, get started, friends! Go buy some kale and plan on planting some in your garden this summer - your body, kids, friends (I had my neighbor picking my kale to make kale chips of her own after I gave her the recipe) and family will thank you!