What's Cookin' at Tam's this Pesach?

Passover in my apartment is quiet. It's just me, the cats crying for gefilte fish now and again, and some t.v. (though there's nothing on on the weekends). Although my home is quiet, my Passover has been filled with laughter, singing, prayer, mixed with phone calls back and forth to Washington and some tears even. I've spent most of the last 4 days at the shul, the rabbi's house, and the first seder with friends. Today, however, I decided to stay home, in my jammies, just relaxing, nursing this cough and doing nothing of real production (I have a lot of work I could/should be doing for the new teacher induction program that I'm in-but it's Shabbos so no work, right?). I was supposed to go to my nieces birthday party, but being sick, I opted out. This sort of stinks because it's one of the rare time when all four of both my brother's kids are together. Though, it's a birthday party which means the kids won't care if their Aunt Tamara is around. The most productive thing I've done is cook. During Pesach, most food is actually prepared. I don't have anything I can just pop in the micro or anything like that.

For breakfast I scrambled egg whites with a few chopped onions. I had a few bite sized frozen potato pancakes with apple sauce of course. This is one of the only frozen already prepared Pesach foods I bought. I simply spray a frying pan with olive oil (yes, kosher for Pesach spray olive oil!), drop a few in there, and voila! A great addition to breakfast! I also had a cup of orange juice (vitamin C is essential when sick), and a cup of Turkish coffee. One of the only ones I found at the kosher market. It's easy to make since my coffeemaker isn't for Passover. I put two cups of water in a pot, two spoonfuls of the coffee, a little sugar, stir and boil. When boiling, it's done. All I do then is add a little milk and the coffee is quite good.

I realized I might have a little more food than I need for Passover. I wanted variety so I bought a few random things, though, how much tuna, matzah, fruit, salad, etc, can one person eat? And so, I decided to make the gefilte fish balls since I'll need time to finish it. "What?" You might be wondering, "Gefilte balls?". (no not testicles people!) Yes, tis true. I bought a kosher for Pesach gefilte loaf. I can't deal with gellified out of the jar fish. Instead, I buy the ground gefilte frozen loaf. There are numerous ways in which to prepare a loaf. Usually I would bake it with some sort of sauce on top. A tomato paste with salsa (don't knock it till you try it) sauce with onions laying over the top is a good choice. However, for Pesach, my oven is not kosher. Therefore I can't bake it. I'm trying a different preparation. I defrosted the loaf overnight, made a dozen balls-o-gefilte, dropped them into a pot of boiling (that is actually too small but it's my only Pesach pot) onions, salt and pepper. Now the balls simmer for 90 minutes. After which they are placed in the fridge for a while to cool. And finally, with some of the tasty red beet horseradish, they are ready for consumption.

Anyone lonely and wanna come eat? I have plenty of food. We can have tomato soup to start. I made that yesterday. Next we can do salads. Broccoli/Cauliflower salad perhaps? Or avocado, eggwhite and onion salad? Fruit salad? Red cabbage salad? Next course we can have some fish balls (gee I love saying that). Afterwards we will enjoy some red snapper, roasted (in my kosher for Pesach toaster oven) red potatoes, and of course some matzah (plain, egg, or whole wheat, you choose). Hmm, I'll open that bottle of Baron Herzog. And then for dessert I'll bust out the matzah brittle that I started making a couple years ago. That's a big hit and goes great with Turkish coffee.

See you soon! I'm upstairs, in the back. Good luck with parking. :)