Passover 1

School in the morning, then picked up a rental car and kicked it with the old lady for a few hours before bearing Passover traffic down to New Jersey Land. Go dowwwwn, NJ Turnpike, way down in Monmouth county....tell the traffic, let my rental gooooo!

BREAKFAST: 8am, 2 street donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM TASTING: 11am, 4 tastes of wine, 7 kinds of cheese, hunk of bread, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, spoonful of homemade icecream, snippet of homemade chocochip cookie dough, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, another hunk o' cookie dough, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Too good for words. Must save some for cookies this Sunday for the HVM.

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, slice of "Brooklyn Style Pizza", .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
We got to the seder in deep dark NJ a little early despite bad traffic (because I'm crazy like that), so me and B just road down to the local mall and found a slice joint, which had an odd Passover menu. We skipped that and had slices, which billed it self as 'brick oven' -- it was not -- and "a taste of Brooklyn" -- it really was not.

SEDER: 6:30-9:30pm, shot of slivovitz, gefilte fish, meat balls, matzoh ball soup, chicken, spinach kugel, matzo farfel, salad, matzoh w/ maror and horse radish, water, diet sprite, chocolate covered coconut macaroon, chocolate covered matzoh, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I would have eaten more if it wasn't for that slice. The farfel went down a storm -- people just don't eat shmaltz anymore, and that dish is nothing if not a delivery system for chicken fat -- it's hard to make it bad if you use the real stuff. It was really nice to be with people who had strong fond memories of my parents (and my aunts and uncles who also have passed). Food wasn't bad, some of it was clearly store bought, some of it could have been tweaked, but that doesn't matter, it had a lot of soul and a lot of love in everything from the food, to the presentation to the service to the desert. No complaints here. But next year I want to tackle this seder's central traditional app, a Viennese meatball in a sweet tomato sauce which can be kicked up several notches with just a few adjustments....