With Passover rapidly approaching, I invite you all to join my family and me in a trip down memory lane. This will be my first Passover as a married woman as well as my first ever Passover where I will not be celebrating the first night's seder with my immediate family. Subsequently, I will not have access to the food I love so dearly every Passover. My favorite Passover staples are my mother's sweet charoset, her fluffy matzah balls the size of my fist that float her soup, and her homemade chrane that I put on top of everything! My father and I could eat my mother's horseradish by the spoonful!
Because I'll be missing some of my beloved favorite Passover treats this year, I am dedicating myself to truly doing it up for my husband. I want him to be able to experience the flavors and the memories that I cherish so dearly. In order to do that, I had to have a long drawn out conversation over the telephone with my mother in which she had to verbally tell me all of her knowledge and tricks as it relates to preparing these Passover dishes. In tradition with Jewish cooking, her recipes are generations-old and have verbally been passed down from mother to daughter. My mother, and her mother, and her mother's mother, never seemed to want to write down their recipes! Rather, they showed their daughters how to painstakingly hand grind the horse radish, render the schmaltz, and cook up the golden chicken broth. This leads me to another memory I have of watching my mother prepare the treats for every Passover Seder I can remember. As she pulls out her Cuisinart to begin making the Charoset, she loudly announces to me "Now come over and watch me do this so you can remember how to do it when I'm dead and gone!" My reply is always "Mom, I'm never going to remember exactly how you do this, why don't you write it down while you're still around?" It is an annual back and forth that we share. Strangely enough, I've watched her prepare the Charoset so many times that I do indeed remember how to do it! Thankfully though, she is still around to coach me on how to prepare it correctly. As a result of her annual Charoset demonstrations, I intend to make the delicious Charoset for my husband this year. Mind you, she has called me a few times just to remind me to be sure to hold off on the walnuts and use pecans instead. You see, walnuts did not grow in Bay City, Texas where my mother grew up, and the pecans are what makes her charoset special.
After spending what seemed like an hour on the telephone with my mother obtaining all of her knowledge as it relates to Passover recipes, I got the idea to approach my uncle and cousins from my mother's side of the family to find out their fondest Passover recipes and memories. You see, I grew up very differently than my mother's family. We did not keep a kosher household, our seders were (relatively) short, and there is hardly a Passover I can remember when my entire family "kept Pesach" for the duration of the holiday. However, in Bay City, Texas, where my mother's family practically made up the entire Jewish population, Passovers were quite different. From what I hear, they were epic! My great grandfather Papa Joe was the patriarch of the family, with three sons who all married and had children. The family was thick as thieves, and their Passover meals were not to be taken lightly. A special set of Passover dishes was used, one set for milk, and one set for meat. Heaven forbid the hired help would accidentally set a piece of brisket on the plate meant for dairy my Great Grandfather Papa Joe would have a fit the size of Texas (or so I hear). All the wives would spend hours cooking up special meals for their husbands and children to make sure they were full and content.
Since this is my first Passover as a married woman, I felt it was important to reach out to my extended family to learn about the ways they celebrate Passover with their families today. I also found it equally as important to find out which recipes they carried out of Bay City, Texas and have been serving ever since!
The next few posts will be dedicated to the wonderful memories that poured into my inbox after my request to my family. It is my hope that through these entries you may see a few of your family's memories in mine. It is also my hope that maybe, just maybe, of these Passover recipes will inspire you to create your own Passover memories this year.
Because I'll be missing some of my beloved favorite Passover treats this year, I am dedicating myself to truly doing it up for my husband. I want him to be able to experience the flavors and the memories that I cherish so dearly. In order to do that, I had to have a long drawn out conversation over the telephone with my mother in which she had to verbally tell me all of her knowledge and tricks as it relates to preparing these Passover dishes. In tradition with Jewish cooking, her recipes are generations-old and have verbally been passed down from mother to daughter. My mother, and her mother, and her mother's mother, never seemed to want to write down their recipes! Rather, they showed their daughters how to painstakingly hand grind the horse radish, render the schmaltz, and cook up the golden chicken broth. This leads me to another memory I have of watching my mother prepare the treats for every Passover Seder I can remember. As she pulls out her Cuisinart to begin making the Charoset, she loudly announces to me "Now come over and watch me do this so you can remember how to do it when I'm dead and gone!" My reply is always "Mom, I'm never going to remember exactly how you do this, why don't you write it down while you're still around?" It is an annual back and forth that we share. Strangely enough, I've watched her prepare the Charoset so many times that I do indeed remember how to do it! Thankfully though, she is still around to coach me on how to prepare it correctly. As a result of her annual Charoset demonstrations, I intend to make the delicious Charoset for my husband this year. Mind you, she has called me a few times just to remind me to be sure to hold off on the walnuts and use pecans instead. You see, walnuts did not grow in Bay City, Texas where my mother grew up, and the pecans are what makes her charoset special.
After spending what seemed like an hour on the telephone with my mother obtaining all of her knowledge as it relates to Passover recipes, I got the idea to approach my uncle and cousins from my mother's side of the family to find out their fondest Passover recipes and memories. You see, I grew up very differently than my mother's family. We did not keep a kosher household, our seders were (relatively) short, and there is hardly a Passover I can remember when my entire family "kept Pesach" for the duration of the holiday. However, in Bay City, Texas, where my mother's family practically made up the entire Jewish population, Passovers were quite different. From what I hear, they were epic! My great grandfather Papa Joe was the patriarch of the family, with three sons who all married and had children. The family was thick as thieves, and their Passover meals were not to be taken lightly. A special set of Passover dishes was used, one set for milk, and one set for meat. Heaven forbid the hired help would accidentally set a piece of brisket on the plate meant for dairy my Great Grandfather Papa Joe would have a fit the size of Texas (or so I hear). All the wives would spend hours cooking up special meals for their husbands and children to make sure they were full and content.
Since this is my first Passover as a married woman, I felt it was important to reach out to my extended family to learn about the ways they celebrate Passover with their families today. I also found it equally as important to find out which recipes they carried out of Bay City, Texas and have been serving ever since!
The next few posts will be dedicated to the wonderful memories that poured into my inbox after my request to my family. It is my hope that through these entries you may see a few of your family's memories in mine. It is also my hope that maybe, just maybe, of these Passover recipes will inspire you to create your own Passover memories this year.
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