Notes To Self Passover 2019 To Refer To Next Year……

All of my Passover pots and pans and kitchen items are now safely tucked away in their special large cabinet, and our kitchen is once again ready to receive leavened food items, though we are not in any big hurry as we happen to love matza, and still have quite a bit left to enjoy. That said, before Passover becomes a distant memory I thought I'd jot down some notes and advice to myself to refer to in years to come, and while this may or may not be relevant to you, at the least it might inspire you to do the same, whether for Passover or anytime you've completed a major feat and want to remember how to prepare for such an event next time! Keep on reading for all the nitty gritty details……

Things To Purchase/Replace For Next Year

• Large frying pan: the new one we bought is needed in our year round kitchen
• Very large soup pot: I forgot to wash it (it was hiding in the fridge full of soup) and had already packed the Passover cabinet to the gills, and then I realized that we've been needing a very large pot to make shabbos cholent when we have a house full of guests, so hello new very useful pot!
• Two plastic hand washing cups: I left them in Jerusalem with the plastic sink insert as we had way too many things to bring home
• Kitchen towels: look for these on sale year round
• A large Victornox knife: I basically used just one small sharp knife all of Passover, but could use one large sharp knife as well

Things We Added To Our Passover Kitchen This Year:

• An electric kettle
• A lovely washing cup
• Four large square plastic containers
• A "carrot pencil sharpener" you know to make carrot roses!

Things I forgot We Had For Passover:

• 2 glass jars for pickling veggies
• A blender

A New Tradition To Repeat:

• Make Moroccan robes for all the young guests. (We wear Moroccan robes for the seder but only have adult sized ones. This year we had a five year old guest, so I altered something that we had to fit him, and I called him The Prince of Pesach.)
• Cook almost all the meals and Moroccan salads for the whole week and freeze everything! (Except for the Moroccan fish and cholent, and some fresh salads.)
• Use walnuts where I might have used techina in Moroccan salads
• If a friend invites us just one week before Passover to come to Jerusalem and stay in his vacation apartment in exchange for hosting him for the Passover seder and a few other meals, do jump at the opportunity as it is a once in a lifetime offer! (For the first time ever I was forced to quickly cook as much food as possible, and freeze it a few days before the holiday, and then we packed up all that food together with a bunch of other items and headed to Jerusalem with plenty of time to prepare for the holiday there. We had only planned to be there for 5 or 6 nights, but ended up staying for 11, and it was amazing, truly.)
• Make a simple yet beautiful centerpiece with 3 tall and skinny glass vases filled with just a few stalks of flowers in each vase.

Something To Do Next Year:

• Use silver Moroccan shoe party favors to make napkin rings for Seder table. Ah yes, and the shoe refers to walking out of slavery!
• Use tape to label everyone's toothbrushes to avoid confusion when there is only one bathroom!

That is it for my little list, now I just have to remember to consult it next year!