Friday, April 2, 2010

Dayenu

Take a minute and take a deep breath. In... and... out. That was nice. Actually let's do it again, this time closing your eyes and unclenching your back teeth. Breath in through the nose... and... out through the nose. Awww, that is more like it. I have been going none stop for the past couple of weeks and I feel like I finally get a small breather. Not a big one because Monday I start working on the Mayday Race full force and I will also be working on my support raising for my internship. Oh, yeah and I will be working on Retreat stage design and next weekend I will be a judge at Fine Arts in Wichita, KS. Okay, return to deep methodical breaths, that all doesn't start back up until Monday.

Though my schedule this week has been hectic and there were definite moments when I asked myself "why did you do this to yourself?" and "what were you thinking?" I have still had a great time. I also learned some things this past week. Like whisking egg whites until they are stiff should be done with a mixer and should never ever be done by hand unless you have a personal masseuse to do damage control on your arm muscles the next day. Or that when you add half of your apples, half your walnuts, and almost all of your orange juice to a food processor it will turn into a smoothie rather than charoset. Or that when quadrupling your recipe, there are some spices you do not quadruple with the rest of your ingredients ie. cinnamon (that "charoset" was awful and beyond repair, thanks mom for making me a new batch while I ran around trying to get last minute things accomplished!) Another thing I learned is that you shouldn't take a 3 mile run (well technically 2 mile run and 1 mile walk) before an extremely busy day, you won't feel more energized and in fact your legs will want to give out, if you are really wanting to have 'you' time before a busy day... read a book. Last but not least I learned that I have some pretty amazing people as friends and family, who have my back.

So basically if you didn't know already, last night was my Passover Dinner that I held at my church. About 40 people attended or partook I guess would be the better word (50 signed up but evidently weren't able to come, which worked out just fine, we were able to eat without worrying of running out. ) Preparing for a Passover Dinner (I can't imagine preparing my home and becoming kosher) is a lot more extensive than I originally thought. I put together a menu for our food based off of several kosher food blogs. We served Orange Chipotle Chicken, a Mediterranean-ish salad, baked sweet potato, and green beans, along with all the symbolic elements. (Note: I didn't have the right lighting or anything, this is not meant to be food photography but rather a snap shot of what we served last night. It tasted much better than this picture would lead you to believe.)

---I took off the picture of the food we cooked because the picture had such terrible lighting. -----



I have also included a picture of Rabbi Feldman and his daughter Anna who lead us through the Passover.



I didn't serve a dessert at our Passover, originally I was going to make kosher Macaroons but I tried making some on Tuesday and it seemed like it would be too much work. I thought of making the Macaroons the day before but realized that the ones I had made didn't taste as good the next day. I don't think mine were as good as they could have been but were good for my first try ever. Then there was the idea of sherbet, though I just opted for not having a dessert to keep from all the hassle.



All in all the Passover Dinner was a success. The food was delicious (only because of the help of my mom and Connie of course), the fellowship was energetic and uplifting and most importantly the story was told and was a witness to our hearts and was very educational as well. This was a perfect "medium" to set our hearts and minds on The Paschal Lamb and His sacrifice. It was worth all of the crazy hectic preparations.

This evening I was able to relax and was able to join some friends at First Friday. It has been too cold to go out these past few months, so this was my first First Friday of the year. Aw, it was great getting back to all the galleries again. Oh and we ate at Town Topic, which was gloriously greasy as usual. I forgot my camera though which was annoying. I have included a photo I took last year at a First Friday outside of the Belger, where I always park my car.



Well I will probably let you go because it is getting late and I am tired.

1 comment:

jori said...

-Even your snapshots are good, and I'm glad you included them.
-I've always thought of parking at the Belger as secret, since it seems very few people know you can.
-Also, regarding the deep dish crust: that's probably a good idea, though I've only ever prebaked crusts when I want them more crusty... like with Mediterranean or Margherita pizzas. Also due to laziness, since even though it only probably adds a worthy five minutes to the total time, it makes me feel like it would take an extra two hours minimum.