Will you be my passover valentine?

Bring brong brong.  Those words mean nothing other than being a simple utterance of someone who has lost their mind.  12 hour work day, bing-GO.  Its ok, I guess I'll switch this crosstraining/weight lifting day with Friday's rest day.  However, tomorrow!!! I will be attending a track session with my coach and her running team.  I can't wait to see how they will kick my butt with professional coaching on speed work.

Right here, is the one thing that keeps me motivated in my office: Mr. Winkle.

 

Tee hee hee.  Isn't he so cute?  Also, kind of in love with Little Freak by Usher and Nicki Minaj.  And today I listened to the entire Coyote Kolb album, Massachusett while working on a report, and its holla dolla good. 

Anyway, let me get back to the title of my post, which was about my activities following my four mile run yesterday: A fake Seder put on by Baby Snake.  Seder is a ceremonial tradition among the Jewish culture that celebrates the first night of Passover.  Here is Lauren's rendition of Passover, correct me if I'm wrong, Baby Snake.  The Jews were oppressed for a long long time, then they were unoppressed thanks to Moses getting them the heck outta dodge, aka Egypt, after Pharoah tried to take everyone and their mother's baby first born son.  They traveled through the Red Sea, into FREEDOM.  Passover is a week long celebration of being a free man and woman.  The name "Passover" is from the Bible story in which God's tenth plague, death of a first born, was about to go down.  Instead, if they sacrificed a lamb and rubbed the blood on the door, the angel of death would pass over their homes.  Let my peopleee GOOOOO.

Although passover isn't until the day of the Boston Marathon (April 18th), Sara wanted to get her friends together before she headed home to celebrate the holiday with her family.  

Below, we have the traditional arrangement of symbolic foods on a Passover Seder Plate. Two types of bitter herbs,  Charoset (a mixture of nuts, cinammon, and apple), Karpas (another bitter herb, usually parsley), Zeroa (roasted lamb bone), Beitzah (egg representing sacrifice), and the the afikomen (matzo, unleavened bread). 

 

Yes, these egg matzos are kosher for passover.  Did you know that jewish people eat matzo during passover to symbolize the time when they needed to flee Egypt?  They didn't have enough time to wait for their bread to rise, so they took it in an unleavened form.  Hey, they needed to eat on their long journey.

Sara, aka Baby Snake, and Melissa mid-singsongsung.  Sara printed up silly songs about passover.  We sang them silly songs.

Here is a Kugel קוגל , which was made with artichoke hearts, leeks, and matzo.  Kugel is a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish dish, similar to a pie or casserole, using matzo as a base because you need to stick to the motto of no rising bread.  Hoollaa.

Next we have one of my favorite dishes from passover; Matzo ball soup.  Yum Yum Yum.  Sara told me that the recipe consisted of water, vegetables, a hollowed out chicken (bones and all), salt, and matzo balls! YUMMO!  She gave me extra to bring to school today and eat it I did.

Here is a traditional dish served at passover: Brisket with potatoes.  Sara fancied her recipe up by adding pineapples.  Most people find it delicious.  Actually, everyone does, except I hate energy dense meat, aka anything heading in the red meat direction.  I don't chide it because of its caloric prowess. I  really just don't like the taste of it.  Case in point, I used to chew my mom's home cooked steak until it was a fine paste.  After a solid ten minutes of chewing, I would excuse myself from the table so I could spit it into the cat's litter box.  Sneaky and smart!  I bet that story made you want to eat this Brisket.

Lastly, we have some sort of chocolate, almond concoction, similar to a macaroon.  No LEAVENED bread!  Got it!  This dessert was actually HAMAZING!  Since AMANDA is now an avid reader of my blog, maybe she can provide me with the recipe to post.  Eh, eh?  

OH...and here it is.  Thanks to Martha.

http://www.marthastewart.com/315545/chocolate-almond-macaroons

This was my attempt at being artsy, where it looks like Olivia is eating the food, but in all actuality, it is no where near her mouth....exceeepttt for the time I hit her in the tooth with the cookie in my attempt to make it look like she isn't close to it. Ahahah, fail!

A great night was had by all.  Especially when it was time to find the afikomen (matzo) that is usually hidden for children to find and win a prize.  Except we were all in our mid to upper twenties looking for a small piece of matzo that Nick hid in a ridiculous location i.e. on one of the blades of the kitchen fan.  The prize was a free pizza stick from Dunkin Donuts, or something similar to a pizza stick.  Well, it was actually just the coupon to take to DD.  Congrats to whoever ended up with it, as it was passed around many times before finding a lucky recipient.

Also, a big shout out to Sara and Tal for putting this Seder on.  Its good practice for when you have to actually host a bunch of your relatives for a real Seder.  Not that this wasn't real, but, ja'know what I mean.  Me lovies you!

Off to watch Real Housewives of Orange County on my computer!  I don't get cable and can't wait for the season to end to watch it, so I purchase each episode weekly.  Whatever! Its awesome!