We celebrate Passover and Easter, which means I’m in the kitchen a lot this weekend. I started making my first brisket for the first night of Passover (which is tonight) on Thursday–letting it slow cook for hours and hours until it cuts with a fork–and the second is already in the pot, getting ready for the second Seder, tomorrow night.
Family members will be showing up around 6:30 to have home made chicken soup (with tons of dill, just the way my husband likes it), gefilte fish (a required taste), chopped liver (LOVE), matzoh (of course), and then the main course: brisket (slow cooked on the stove top with chicken broth, carrots, onions, lots and lots of mushrooms, red wine and tomato paste), turkey (with gravy and cranberry sauce), white potatoes (peeled and baked in the oven with the brisket juice generously poured over them), sweet potatoes (cubed and generously seasoned with olive oil and sea salt), mixed vegetables (at least six different ones all sautéed together in olive oil), green salad, pickle relish, and then . . . after a much needed break . . . dessert (fruit salad, ice cream, flourless cakes, macaroons). Phew.
Then we do it all over again tomorrow night. But first, we color Easter eggs . . .
By Easter Sunday morning, when my two daughters (who will never ever, according to them. be too old) will search high and low for their Easter Baskets with Gunther the Wonder Dog right along with them in hot pursuit. Eventually we head out to a local church, then join friends for a special Easter Brunch, a tradition we’ve been enjoying for over six years. After brunch we’ll stroll in the “Easter Parade” along Fifth Avenue and enjoy the many fantastic Easter hats on display. In the afternoon we’ll either walk through Central Park, go to the Botanical Gardens or, if it’s nasty weather, stay home and play Scrabble, trying to use as many words connected to the Easter holiday as possible.
By Sunday night . . I will be ready for nothing more than putting my feet up with a nice glass of wine . . . thinking about how truly wonderful life can be.
Happy happy Holidays!!