A Shiksa's 1st Passover

Okay technically it's not my first. Last year we celebrated Passover with some good friends who are religious and I was able to experience a real Passover. Even if it wasn't a first night. See Passover lasts 7-8 days depending on the website you look at. Yes it's true I just googled "How long does Passover last?" I'm not proud, I don't claim I actually know anything at all.

 Jason telling us the history.

Anyway, I do want our daughter even if we are not a religious family to have good solid family traditions. Growing up we always had traditions despite our religiousness. We celebrated all the holidays with the exception of the Jewish ones and I guess the Catholic ones because we don't put ash on our head or anything... I guess you can say we were uncomplicated folk. So part of giving our daughter traditions is to teach her about the Jewish holidays. I'm not sure how we're going to do this but we'll do it by trial and error. There's a whole lot going on in September that is highly confusing and symbolic, one step at a time!

 Veggie Kugel (Left) Tzimmes (right)

So what is a Shiksa's Passover if there is not a religious aspect to it? Well it's food, good conversation and the story of the travel through Egypt by the Jews as told by Papa in a very animated way. (I'm hoping to make dolls to represent everyone and then we can act it out! Wouldn't that be fun. But then Papa said I had to make dolls for each of the plagues, including the frogs... not sure about that. Although I was looking at a windup frog yesterday and thought hey! Maybe we could fill the table with windup toys. Or not.) I started cooking on Tuesday. The menu was:

• Lamb
• Veggie Kugel
• Haroset
• Tzimmes
• Asparagus
• Gifelte Fish
• Matzoh
• Matzoh Ball Soup
• Macaroons
• Wine
• Decaf Coffee

We decided to celebrate Passover just one of the nights and picked Wednesday since that is our regular dinner club night. Our friend Nigel joined us as always. It was quite fitting because Nigel is originally from New Zealand, and complains that we American's just do not know how to do Lamb. He said it was very good, which of course it was, but apparently kiwi's like their Lamb overdone, and I just cannot do that to anything. 

I did make a sedar plate, but nothing was really done with it. (Oh yes, that's really a picture of our sedar plate. Not it's not, it's from Wikipedia. Thank you Wiki!) A sedar plate contains:

• Bitter herbs (Parsely soaked in salt water)
• Horseradish
• Roasted Egg (boiled egg works)
• Haroset
• Lamb bone (we didn't do this part because we're entirely to cheap to go buy another lamb to get the bone and we just don't have east coast butchers.) 

Tesla found the Afikomen. The Afikomen is a piece of Matzoh that has been hidden. (See how I dumb that down? So simple.) In Tesla's case I showed it to her, had her chase me around the room and then placed it on the floor behind her wedge pillow... Then said "Tesla get the Afikomen!" I can't believe she found it! She's a genius I tell you!!! She loved the Matzoh, it turns into quite a mush when mixed together with all the other foods. She's a great eater though and had everything except the fish. The fact that I served fish in my home is a miracle. The fact that it's still in a jar in my fridge is because I love my husband very much.

Let me know if you would like any recipes. Everything came out fantastically with the exception of the Haroset. Jason said he's had it much more soaked in wine and my recipe only called for 4 tablespoons. Perhaps the apples were to big in relation to the wine. Not sure.

Yes she's just wearing a diaper. She's taken to crying for no reason and once I remove her clothes she's fine. She must be my daughter!

Follow the links if you're interested in more information about Passover. We had a fun night and will continue our tradition.

Encyclopedia of Sewing

Oh my goodness. The anticipation. I wish I could just go buy it but for those of you who can, follow the link below. The NEW:

Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts: Basic Techniques for Sewing, Applique, Embroidery, Quilting, Dyeing, and Printing, plus 150 Inspired Projects from A to Z (Hardcover)

 

 

 I know so exciting. I am hoping that Jason takes this very big hint and gets it for my birthday. If you order it now from Amazon it's almost $15.00 off. Totally worth it!! I have the first Encyclopedia that she put out and it's just to die for! 

 

I LOVE YOU MARTHA!!!

Weekend Away in Port Townsend

 As some of you know, Jason and I went away for the weekend, to Port Townsend. We dropped Tesla off at Grandma's house at about 9:00 am and got up to Edmonds to catch the ferry to Port Townsend a little late and ended up having to wait for the next one at 10:45. Not to bad. I remember waiting in line for the ferry when I was little and it seemed like it took HOURS! I'm sure I'm exaggerating but during the summer it can take quite a long time.

We stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast by the name of the Blue Gull Inn. The owners John and Renee were lovely. The B&B was decorated beautifully. Our room the Angel Room was very comfortable, and had a private bath with a jacuzzi tub. Oh yeah. I had a nice long hot soak in there and finished a book finally too! The breakfast was amazing. They served a Pecan French Toast, with slices of ham, and deviled eggs. I don't eat mayo or mustard but Jason tells me that the eggs were delicious. 

When we got into town on Saturday we had lunch at Fin's Coastal Cuisine. The menu was a bit lacking, with a high amount of Seafood, and not a lot of choices for those of us, that just go to seafood restaurants because they love their husbands but wouldn't actually touch seafood with a ten foot poll.  That being said, my steak sandwich was delicious and the garlic fries were to die for. Jason had a salmon sandwich that he claims was excellent. (To each his own.)

After lunch we spent the time walking around and browsing in some of the stores. There is a wide variety of art available in Port Townsend, and most very affordable. We enjoyed the Gallery 9 which had a some really beautiful paintings, jewlery, carvings, and so much more. One of my favorite peices were these cloisonne pendants, by Linda Lundell. Absolutely stunning pieces and so much work goes into each one. I'm sure they are worth every penny. We just didn't have enough pennies for them, this time.

After our nice walk around town we checked in at the Inn and had a lovely nap. Ahh the things you can do, when Grandma is baby sitting. Then we headed up to Fort Worden to walk around.

While we were there we stopped in at ArtFest which is a 4 day creative artists retreat. It was fantastic, and I wish I could afford to do it sometime.  I love all the mixed media art, that they were showing. That is just up my alley. We then drop up to the point and had a nice walk on the beach, and the old forts. It was so pretty and was just what we needed to be hungry for dinner!

Dinner at the Public House was so good. I ordered the Maple Glazed Pork Chops, with a Gorgonzola topping  and Asparagus and Potatoes. The meat was perfectly cooked, the combination of the Maple and the Gorgonzola was perfection. I would highly recommend it. The restaurant was very family friendly, with paper table clothes and crayons. There was a little boy sitting across from us that was Tesla's age and was doing all the same things that Tesla does. It was so cute! Made us miss her and remember why we don't go out to eat with her anymore.


We got back to the Inn around 8, took baths, read and slept all night. We didn't even notice the windstorm that apparently woke others up. As Jason put it, the wind was a lot quieter than our 14 month old teething, beautiful daughter.

After breakfast on Sunday we walked around the town some more. We managed to find the jar opener I have been wanting. It's by Zyliss, it's called the Strongboy 2. We own the Strongboy 1, but right after we got it, it was discontinued in the US. You see that loop at the top of the jar opener, well know it's made with a flexible meshy material, but back then it was made with something that resembled sheet metal. At the same store, Jason also bought a beautiful pair of earrings for me, for our anniversary. I'm so fortunate to have such a great husband!

When we got back to my mom's later that afternoon Tesla ran to the door, okay window to greet us. It was so cool to have her so excited to see us. She had a great time with Grandma. They went to the park, the pool and colored. I think we'll definitely have to have a repeat, but perhaps a staycation next time!

Sears pictures from Grandma's Visit

We just received the pictures from Grandma's visit back from Sears. We had intended to just get Tesla and Grandma captured but just before we left, we decided to include Jason. So if you wonder, Anne, why aren't you in them, I can answer you there was just not enough time. I would have had to do my hair, and it's a complete disaster these days so it was either get everyone else ready and out the door or me alone. Next time maybe we'll get everyone.

This dress was given to Tesla from our friends Greg and Chris for Christmas. It's so cute. I love Chris's taste in clothes. We have another hand me down from her that is velour and looks like the bag Anne from Anne of Green Gables carried with her when she went to meet the Cuthberts for the first time. I love it!

The photographer could do nothing to make Tesla not smile. I swear as soon as she said smile she was on it. Grandma and Tesla look fantastic in this picture. I think she'll be really happy to receive it!

Lastly my handsome husband joins the mix. This is really a great photo of the three of them. Next time, we'll do Pop pop, Grandma, Tesla, Papa and I. I can just envision it now.


Now on to the complaint. Sears is very tricky about their photo department. They lure you in with a package that's just 7.99 then they say well each additional sheet is 19.99 unless you don't want to do the package in which case it's just 7.99 each sheet. We ended up spending 43.00, which is not bad overall but totally annoying. Lastly, and I know they do this to everyone because I saw them do it to two other people picking up their pictures. They say, oh the lab "accidently" printed out a few more sheets. You can buy all of them for 25.00 if you want. I'm glad I saw that they did this to everyone because I think it's just sleazy. They could say hey, we have more pictures if you want to buy them. But no, they say it was an accident, even though the sheets that were printed were completely different then what we ordered, and they changed the effects on them. They are not fooling anyone!!!

But for the price they did a nice job, and we will go there again.

Walking around...