Easter...?

Let me start talking about Easter by saying that today is the second day of Passover and we live in Israel.

I was browsing through the New York Time’s Style Section (which is one of my favorites, after world news) and came across the abundance of Easter Recipes and it hit me – this is EASTER! We have been so focused on Passover – it’s odd days off of work and lack of bread - that I’d forgotten it was Easter! (Last night we even made a Jewish, “Passover kosher” dinner from our Israeli cookbook that was delicious and oh so rich!..but that is beside the point.)

So thinking about my memories of Easter dinner I started looking for “honey baked ham recipes! I’ll pair that with cheesy potatoes, oven-hot rolls and maybe we’ll try the NYT’s hot crossed buns for dessert. Oh! And Easter Eggs! We’ll do those tonight. Whewww, we’ll still have Easter!!”

And then it hits me: today is the second day of Passover and we live in Israel. What does this mean?
a.) Not only will I not find honey baked ham…I won’t find any ham..or bacon (which I dreamt about last night)..or any other pig products. So cross that one off the list.
b.) It is Passover…so as I said before – no bread. The grocery store isles really are covered with tarps. No Bread, no pasta, no cereal, no baby food or dog food – and no Easter rolls.
c.) Cheesy potatoes may be possible, but modified since I won’t find the exact ingredients we used at home.
d.) Easter Eggs – this one is sad. First, there are no "Easter Egg Dying Kits" in the stores here. Second, the NYTs mentions a dozen eggs are about $1.20 (and that is NYC!) – try $3 - $7.50 for a dozen eggs here. And Third, don’t tell anyone, but I’ve never boiled an egg before. This sounds like a relatively expensive experiment in natural egg coloring that will surely make us sick.

So we are back to the second day of Passover in Israel – trying to think of ways to make it more like Easter. Don’t tell Paul but I’ve already staked out a candy store and I’m working on the basket and lack of Easter grass, but he may still get an Easter basket!

You say Passover, I say Semana Santa

It is happening...At about 3 or 4pm tomorrow people will start saying "Shabot Shalom!", the stores will close, and that is the end of bread and milk for a week!!!

So the Israeli day starts at sunset the night before. The work week is Sunday through Thursday. Passover starts on Tuesday and lasts a week. This (in A-merrr-i-ken) means that at 3 or 4pm tomorrow businesses will close so everyone can be home from work by sunset. (No work on the Sabbath!) Businesses usually stay closed until Saturday at sunset. But with the holiday around the corner we've heard that most people take off Sunday and Monday while they're at it. (Monday would be a half-day anyway because you would have to leave work by 3pm to be home for sunset and the first day of Passover - remember, "Tuesday" starts Monday at sunset..~5pm). Are you following me? So then businesses are closed for Passover until Tuesday the 6th, but even that is a Moroccan holiday that is now celebrated here - so what the heck, lets throw in an extra day of vacation. This means at 3pm on Friday (the 26th) businesses will close and not open again until Tuesday the 6th.

Now, most of the Americans and Palestinians aren't Jewish so they (and hence our work community) continues to work through this whole shindig (with the exception of the first and last day). Not so bad - except the places we shop, for say groceries, are closed. AND...if that isn't enough, Passover means no wheat (I think, correct me someone!) so you have matza and NO BREAD!! (We stocked up today)

At breakfast this morning we made another not-so-fun but important discovery about Passover. Our milk is kosher (that isn't the sad part). It says (in English) that is kosher, but not "Passover Kosher".....? Oh!! okay...? The grocery stores supposedly put sheets over the non-kosher items during passover so we can't buy them....are they going to not sell us milk too? A whole week without bread and milk?!?! I'm excited to see how this works. Hopefully I'll get some pictures and post them later. Pictures of Passover, not us without bread and milk.

On another note - our first guest is coming!!! All the way from Spain! They have Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Spain so he too has a long vacation and gets to spend it with us! Yeahhh!!! Who is next? The guest room is ready!