Friday, March 12, 2010 • The Jewish Press Magazine • Page M51
IreneKlass, Klass,Editor Editor Irene
The Person Behind The Chair... And Beyond By Ann Novick Yom Tov And The Well Spouse: Some Suggestions
A
Part I
s Pesach approaches and the PPP’s or Pre-Pesach Panic sets in, I often think of well spouses and how they manage during the holidays. We are all in a whirlwind of cleaning, cooking and making arrangements. We are excited about seeing the children and grandchildren who live far away and the joy we feel when the entire family comes together once again. But for well spouses, yom tov, with its additional demands on an already stressed life, can be very overwhelming. The added physical difficulties are obvious, at least to those who live it, if not to outsiders. The emotional problems, however tend to be more hidden and so we are sometime surprised how the yomim tovim, because they tend to highlight the changes that have happened in our life, bring us tremendous sadness. Preparing for the physical and anticipating the emotional needs can not only help reduce the stress but can make the holidays more enjoyable for everyone. One thought for caregivers is to seek a balance. Make time, even if it is just a few minutes, to care for yourself while preparing for yom tov and on the holiday itself. Make caring for yourself as much
a priority as caring for the ill person because your needs are as important as theirs and your visiting family. While this may be one of the most difficult suggestions to follow, if you can, it will enhance not just your yom tov but that of everyone around you as well. One way to accomplish this is to ask family and friends – in advance – to provide you with respite. Don’t assume your son-in-law will know to take your husband to shul with him and that his shul of choice is where your husband likes to daven and is accessible. Ask him to do this before he comes. If there are enough males visiting your table, each person can take a day, or even a davening and spend some quality time with your ill spouse/father/child. Making these arrangements ahead of time will keep the peace in your home and give you time to yourself. It is also one less thing you need to think about when your head is overloaded with so much else. Don’t try and do it all yourself. Ask each family unit (before yom tov) to prepare a specific dish or do a specific task, like set and clear the table. Most people will be more than willing once you ask,
You can contact me at annnovick@hotmail.com
Continued on p. M54
By Jamie Geller with Rivka Slatkin
Countdown To Passover: Establish A Passover Center, Shop And Clean
O
rder your meat now before the prices go up. That’s right, now is the time to get the best deals on Passover meat purchases. And the best part is that you don’t have to take delivery until closer to Passover. Organize and clean out your closets. You decide what the difference between spring cleaning and cleaning for Pesach is! If you can devote some time to streamlining what clothing fits and no longer fits, you will have a head start on the next step, which is to start shopping for yourself and the family to make sure you have new Passover outfits and shoes that fit. Start shopping for clothing sales now and create family clothing sizes charts before you shop to know what everyone needs.
Your first phase of cleaning begins in the living and storage areas – bedrooms, closets, guest rooms, closets, etc. Clean the upstairs rooms from back to front starting with the closets and storage centers in each bedroom, such as drawers and bureaus. This way you can be certain these areas are chometz free and they can potentially be used to store items as you clean other rooms in the house. If you have prepared for Passover before, look over your Pesach kitchen inventory and determine what kitchenware and cooking tools you need to buy or kosher for Passover. If this is your fi rst Passover, everything that you purchase now will go into your Passover kitchen inventory. Designate a separate place in your basement or kitchen cabi-
Jamie Geller is the spokesperson for Kosher.com and author of Quick&Kosher: Recipes from the Bride Who Knew Nothing (Feldheim). Residing in Monsey, NY, Jamie also blogs daily at blog.kosher.com and is currently working on her second cookbook. For more detailed plans on how to make Pesach Perfectly Organized, please visit www.Jewish-life-organized.com and take a look at the Yom Tov Perfectly Organized Collection, written by Rivka Slatkin, Professional Organizer.
Perspective
I
By Professor Sara Reguer
A Holiday Recipe
bake my own hamantaschen. I use my mother’s recipe which she got from her mother, I presume. It is very time consuming, but it is also a kind of women’s-history-through-food time. I make the dough, the apricot filling, and the prune filling, and my daughter rolls out the dough, cuts the circles [I put on the filling] and shapes the pastries. We talk and I tell stories of what I remember of my childhood, baking with my mother. I only have a couple of clear images of baking with my grandmother – but that that was chala. We sing Purim songs and I teach her the Yiddish ditty: “Heint is Purim Morgn is oys Gibt mir a groschen Und varf mir aroys” [Translation: Today is Purim, tomorrow it’s over, give me a penny [I never saw a groschen] and throw me out]. I had to say this when I went with my father to deliver shalakh monos to his friends and relatives all over New York City. The baking for Purim is part of women’s history. It is well known that in Yemen, the Jewish women had their own musical culture which may have developed around the food preparation, for in big families this was a group activity. My father told me that he had clear memories of his three older sisters working together in the kitchen, singing all of
the latest popular Yiddish songs which he had also learned and sang until his teacher admonished him that it was unbecoming of a yeshiva bochur to sing such things. All Jewish groups have specific foods for specific holidays. Minhag or custom has moved us in a variety of directions, depending on geographic location and availability of basic foods. Pesach is a main dividing line and a bone of contention for inter-communal marriages. Yes rice? No rice? Yes potatoes? No potatoes? Beans? Peas? Sweet wine? White wine? Date charoset? Apple/nuts charoset? Gefilte fish? Steamed fish? Knaidlach? Clear soup? And on and on. We express our traditions and our histories through the food we eat, especially on holidays and until recently, this was the bastion of women. Today, with so many women working outside the home, many women and men opt for take-out, frozen food and bakery hamantaschen. I am a holdout. I don’t enjoy the length of time it takes to bake them or to make the gefilte fish from scratch, but I feel part of a historical link in the chain of tradition as I work away. And what a difference in the final product! When I told my brother that I baked hamantaschen, I could hear the saliva forming in his mouth, thousands of miles away, as he said: “You used Mom’s recipe?” Oh yes!
nets to store all Passover wares. Designate a separate pantry on the main floor to store non-perishable Passover grocery items so you can start Passover shopping early. If you don’t have room to create a separate pantry for Passover food, start to move your chometz foods out of your newly-assigned Passover food area. It is best to do this step right after Purim, so, instead of putting all of the food you received over Purim back into the pantry, you put it aside. Keep some grocery bags lined up against your hallway or dining room wall so that everyone knows this food is not going back into the pantry because it is now reserved for Pesach non-perishables. Now is best time to order your matzohs. It is also worthwhile to find a list of kosher year-round brands so you are not limited to buying expensive Passover brands.
Veal Stew With Apricots And Prunes
Prep: 9 min Total: 1 hr, 19 min Yield: 6-8 servings
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons olive oil 2 onions, coarsely chopped or cut into wedges 1/4 cup tomato paste 2 to 3 pounds veal stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon coarse black pepper 16 baby carrots, halved, length-wise 3 cups water 3/4 cup dried apricots 3/4 cup dried prunes
Preparation:
1. Heat oil in 4-quart pot over medium heat. 2. Place onions in pot and sauté for 8-10 minutes or until just beginning to brown. Add tomato paste and stir continuously for 2-3 minutes. 3. Rinse veal and pat dry; season with salt and pepper. 4. Add veal to pot and brown for approximately 10 minutes. 5. Add carrots and water. 6. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 40 minutes. 7. Add apricots and prunes and continue to simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until veal is soft and sauce thickens.