YOU ARE THE QUEEN IN THE KITCHEN THE PESACH KITCHEN 3 DAY COOKING GUIDE LIFE IS GOOD ! TABLE OF CONTENTS GETTING IT TOGETHER page: 2…… Introduction, the serious stuff 4…… The Notebook, let’s get practical 5…… Sample Menus, & the fun begins 6…… Equipment, we are only as good as our help 7…… The Pesach Pantry Basics, the fun continues 8…… Build the Refrigerator Pantry, are we having fun yet? READY?, APRON?, ACTION! 9…… Day One 10…. Day Two 11…. Day Three 12…. Eggs & Potatoes, Potatoes and Eggs 13…. Recipes: Handy Substitutions for your Pesach Pantry 14…. Recipes: Salad Dressings PUT YOUR REFRIGERATOR PANTRY TO WORK 15…. Recipes: Provencal Fish Salad Tunisian Salad Cobb Salad Caesar Salad Greek Salad Planned Over Chicken Salad 16…. Recipes: Chopped Salad Toss Ups 17…. Recipe: In Praise of the Braise 17…. Recipe: Passover Cholent—no beans about it 18…. Recipe links from Cooking for the King and TheKosherChannel.com 19…. THE END You are welcome to reprint or share any part or the whole of this document. Any errors are completely my responsibility. Please contact me with any questions, suggestions or corrections at [email protected]. Link to: “How to Clean for Pesach, Stress-less and Gadol-approved.” !1 INTRODUCTION: Please read carefully—and re-read as needed. In these pre-Pesach weeks we spend a lot of time learning and doing all that is required of us to ensure a kosher Pesach for those in our orbit of friends and family. This is also the opportune time to deeply focus on how this awesome process can help us move to places of freedom within, places we have yearned for. What is Pesach Really About? Pesach is about getting back to the basics. When we clean out closets and drawers we’re identifying and throwing away the resentment, pain and frustration that block us from seeing our world with clarity. We scrub windows, walls and floors. We’re polishing our neshamos back to their purest state. We sit as kings and queens at the Seder; we internalize the basic purpose of our lives as Jews. What is true in the pre-Pesach & Seder experience is true in our kitchen as well. After all, the most basic food in the world might just be matzah: flour, water, 18 minutes and you’re done. Wouldn’t it be nice if it were that simple for all of our Pesach cooking? But it is not… in fact, cooking takes so much time, money and planning (so much; but never too much. Hashem knows exactly what we need) to bring our homes into the z’man, the time, of Pesach. And in spite of the tempting aisles of so-called convenience pesadik products jamming grocery store shelves, my success in Pesach cooking has been when I keep it simple. The Secret is in the Seder The centerpiece of Passover is our Seder. This is a clue for how we can approach the monumental tasks in the weeks before the holiday—and still arrive at the Seder table in eager anticipation and proud of our efforts; each of us, with our crown intact. Seder means “order”, a progression of events. In other words, seder means there is a plan. The Seder tells us things are not random. The King of the universe has a plan, and it is always for our good. We also must have a plan. A plan is the best tool for simplifying a process. You are about to read my Queen in the Kitchen 3 Day Pesach Cooking Plan. It works for me, and countless women who implemented it in the past three years have told me how liberating their Pesach was. I hope you will find it beneficial and that it will help get your own plan going. Plan to Plan First, you’ll need to make your menus. This is the fun part. Read through the 3 Day Cooking Plan pages 9-11, and incorporate what works for you. Use your tried and true menus, peruse favorite Pesach cookbooks, and get inspired by ideas on websites like TheKosherChannel.com and cooking magazines. AND keep it simple. If you have one or two family favorites that are a potchke…reconsider. If that is not an option, eat the big frog first (that saying has more meaning this time of year). So plan to make it, but only if you have plenty of time and can freeze it. Crucial advice. It’s important to keep in mind that, “Man plans and G-d….has another plan.” So we start by inviting Hashem into our kitchens. Stand there and ask Him out loud for His help and guidance, strength and patience. I promise, with this as your first step, regardless of the inevitable unexpected missteps and mishaps, everything will work out. After all, you are a Jewish woman cooking so that some of the most important mitzvos of the year can be observed and enjoyed. As hard as it is, this is a responsibility to embrace with love and joy. You are Hashem’s partner, cooking for the King. With this frame of mind, your Seder will be transformed. We might even be sharing the korban Pesach this year, together in Yerushalayim. May it be so. !2 OVERVIEW: PLAN & PREPARE FOR THE 3 DAYS OF COOKING- PAGES 4-8 Invite friends, family, and include those without family or friends observing the holiday Make your menus Purchase equipment, non-perishables and meat Turn the kitchen ~-~ With the 3Day Pesach Cooking Plan we create the building blocks of delicious meals you’ll use throughout the week of Pesach. Anyone in your household will be able go to The Refrigerator Pantry and see in an instant, the delicious entrees, side dishes, salad & snack makings that you have prepared, stored and labeled. You’ll feel freer because the meals are planned, the components ready to go to work. B’seder! ______________________________________________________________ DAY ONE, PAGE 9 Make & freeze all the meat dishes and desserts Shop for produce DAY TWO, PAGE 10 Roast &/or grill vegetables Make salad dressings, soy sauce, and teriyaki sauce substitutions Make Salmon Cakes and soups for the freezer Wash and check fresh herbs DAY THREE, PAGE 11 Fresh veggie prep Make hard boiled eggs Roast nuts Squeeze & zest lemons and oranges Be sure to give yourself a treat every day of Passover preparations: a walk, a bath, a nap, chocolate or maybe a quick trip to the mall—or Maui… !3 THE NOTEBOOK After you’ve read through this plan and incorporated the ideas, get a notebook, nice and big. Brand new, or retrieve that raggedy, beat up treasure with all your notes from previous years. Open a page, get ready, GO! Make your menus. Make them simple. Make them smart. Write where to find the recipe, or the name of the person bringing, by each menu item. Print this page and overwrite the grey if you like. Apr19 -1st Seder Apr20-YT Day1 Apr20-2nd Seder #ppl #ppl #ppl Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Fish Fish Fish Soup Soup Soup Meat Meat Meat Potato Potato Potato Vegetable Vegetable Vegetable Vegetable Vegetable Vegetable Dessert Dessert Dessert Apr21-YT Day 2 Apr26- YT Shvi Apr27- YT Day 7 #ppl Shel #ppl #ppl Dips and Salads Dips and Salads #ppl Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Fish Fish Dips and Salads Soup Soup Fish Meat Meat Soup Potato Potato Meat Vegetable Vegetable Potato Vegetable Vegetable Vegetable Dessert Dessert Vegetable Dessert Apr27- Leil Apr 28Last Day/ Shabbos Pesach Shabbat- #ppl Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Dips and Salads Fish Fish Meat Soup Potato Meat Vegetable Potato Vegetable Vegetable Dessert Vegetable Dessert !4 My SAMPLE MENUS Seder #l8 ppl YT day or night #14 ppl Hard Boiled Eggs-Kim Guacamole-Elise Shabbos Day #12 ppl Chopped Salad 1&2 (p16) Israeli Salad (p16) Chopped Sal #6&7 (p16) Gefilte Fish -Kim Chopped Salad 3 (p16) Carrot Salad (tkc) Matzah Ball Soup-Mom Brown Sugar Salmon Babaganoush (tkc) Top of the Round Roast (cftk-RH47)-Elise Salmon Patties (tkc) (cftk-RH, 66) Cabbage Soup (cftk-RH, Chicken Cutlets (tkc) Whipped Butternut 40) Pesach Cholent (p17) Squash and Sweet Potato London Broil-(tkc) Roasted Potato & Carrots (tkc) Southern Turkey & gravy (tkc) Roasted Medley (tkc) (cftk-CH,96) Tossed Salad-Sue Choc. Cake- Sheva (tkc) Sweet Potato Fries (tkc) Brownies-Linda (tkc) Pear and Pom Fruit Salad Quinoa Salad-Miriam (tkc) Fruit Salad-Linda (tkc) (cftk-RH,107 ) Chocolate Bark-Ruby (tkc) Fruit And for Chol Hamoed… Brunch/Lunch Dinners Breakfasts 1_cobb salad (p15) 1_Hamburgers & oven 1_matzoh brei 2_Cauliflower latkes (cftk- fries (cftk-CH64) 2_salami & eggs CH118) & salad 2_Matzah Pizza and 3_yogurts, fruit, matzah 3_Chicken Salad (p15) Greek Salad (p15) and butter! 4_Salmon Patties (tkc) 3_Ceaser Salad with 4_cheese toast matzah and Salads (p16) planned over chicken 5_Anything’s Possible cutlets (p15) Soup (cftk-CH,48) 4_Cabbage Soup 6_Quajados Eggplant or loaded with planned Spinach Souffle (cftk-CH, over brisket (cftk-RH40) 77/78) 5_QIK Favorite Salmon (cftk-CH.60) & SNACKS of course potato chips bowls of fresh fruit nuts cut up veggies and Ranch Dressing Recipe (p14) KEY: tkc=theKosherChannel.com (links on page 18) cftk-RH=Cooking for the King, Rosh Hashanah Edition cftk-CH= Cooking for the King, Chanukah Edition p #-numbers, example: “(p16)” refer to pages in this booklet !5 EQUIPMENT THE QUEEN IN THE KITCHEN ESSENTIALS: We use equipment for Pesach for less than two weeks of each year, so it may seem frivolous to invest much money in it.