Happy Four Glasses of Wine

Or Chag Sameach as they say in the old country, uh, I mean in Hebrew.

So why is this night different than all other nights? The kids and I are playing on the computer and I'm ready for my wine, don't see any difference so far.

Be honest, does my Seder table look a little too Easterish? Perhaps I should have snapped up the "Passover Bouquet" at Lucky's.

Free coloring Haggadah for anyone who can guess what is under the placemats.

I'm finally ready to start throwing dinner parties. I love my house and even performed a mad cleaning spree. I almost felt like I was a real live Seder host when my little group of 7 suddenly threatened to grow to almost 20. Wow, could I handle that, and more importantly, did I have enough chairs and wine glasses? Surprisingly I happen to have enough tables, and room to seat 20. 99 cent sturdy wine glasses from Cost Plus came to the rescue a it was becoming a BYOC event.
Here's the adult table, actually the parents table since the grandparents have get to sit with the kids.

Sadly, this did become like so many other nights when most of the guests canceled (due to their kids being sick, I'm keeping the paranoia at bay so far). I was purposely making this a very kid-friendly event (for my own kids, I'm sure the others can sit through a story about frogs and boils without whining), but forget that. No families next year (may we be in Israel :). But no worries, we're still on for Friday night, provided I sacrifice that lamb (shank) tonight. Now if only I can find my Seder plate, custom painted by yours truly. Not like I won't have plenty of other opportunities to use it.


Check out the puzzle I bribed the kids with when I dragged to Alef Bet, the only Jewish store in the entire Bay Area as far as I know.

It's a two-sided puzzle, here's the back. The only plagues they had was a $35 pyramid of plagues, so the dollar store came to the rescue with plastic frogs and stuffed cows.

Here's the menu, and I'll let you know how the food went down, so to speak.


Gefilte fish (I confess, I love this stuff)
Matzoh ball soup, using modified version of this recipe)
Feta and tomato salad (from friend)
Quinoa Fritters (from SJ Mercury food section)
Smoked turkey, courtesy of Grandpa
Matzoh stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Roasted Broccoli
Flourless chocolate cake (from friend)
Chocolate-Covered Caramelized Matzoh Crunch
Vanilla ice cream for my picky kids