A lack of bread and the joy of your own bed - or I got home JUST in time for Passover

Chag Semach! If you celebrate, I hope you had a wonderful first night seder and have a good Passover holiday. I'm super grateful to my aunt and uncle and cousins for squeezing me in last minute last night, I had possibly the best homemade passover desert I've ever tasted last night and I NEED to get that recipe from my aunt! With the Hawaii trip I WAS NOT PREPARED for Passover at all. but I am HOME SWEET HOME and back to my own bed. Oh my glorious bed. I love my bed, my bed and I are in a very serious relationship with each other. As much as I love traveling, I do so hate cheating on my bed and love the joy of sleeping in my own bed that first night back. Hawaii was fabulous, I overcame so fears, saw a lot of beauty, ate a lot of good food, and will make a post about the trip soon, but the first few nights and days of Passover are always a flurry.

I actually really like Passover. I used to have a "ugh, Passover" feeling when I was a kid but still really looked forward to it and I only have fond memories of all the seders I've had in my life, surrounded by my family and family friends and eating wonderful food. It's different here, and that's not a bad thing, but I'm not at the house I grew up in, eating the foods I grew up eating, and doing the traditions I grew up surrounded by and there's something about that that makes me appreciate it all the more. Which is why next year, I'm having my mom fly out to LA to help me throw my own Passover seder in the apartment. I took it for granted when I was actually at home and I want to start having these traditions on hand, learning how to do it in my own home, so that when I can have kids I can pass that on.

I am going to a second night family seder at the temple tonight, which... I mean, is good, but I don't know anyone there and am a 20-something with no children, so we shall see. There was an adult only second night seder as well but it was more expensive and I wasn't feeling it.

And in surprising news to myself and anyone else for the last few years, I'm keeping kosher for Pesach this year. I keep the Sphardic traditions now, even though I was raised Ashkenazic. Here's a handy thing I just made:

Please note that all families tend to vary in their observance and that you should always check with your host. Here's a really good layman's explanation of the two types in more detail at theshiksa.com.

I remember berating at people about corn syrup a lot when I was a kid during Passover. Passover was awesome because you could by kosher for Pesach soda that was made with actual sugar. Now I live in LA and all the Mexican soda is made with cane sugar which is awesome and regularly available all year and I'm not supposed to drink soda anyways, so all that is moot. I do not keep regular kosher during the year or during Pesach. The post I linked to above also had a good write up one what kosher for Passover means versus regular year around keeping kosher. I was raised reform and we never kept kosher and now I'm not really a religious person (despite the context of this post). My family sort of fell half way between Ashkenazic and Sphardic as far as keeping kosher for Passover when I was a kid and by the time I was a teenager I had fully embraced the Sphardic tradition in this aspect. It's less restricting and I have a problem with the reasons kinyot were added to the no go list in the first place.

 Also, I WILL HUNT DOWN SOME KOSHER FOR PASSOVER KISHKA, IT WILL BE MINE! This is LA, it's gotta be somewhere.

I feel like this week is also a good way to transition into eating less carbs in general. I have slowly been transitioning into getting healthier and I have an extreme carb dependence and a family with lots of cases of diabetes on both sides. Granted, while not partaking in my cold oatmeal concoctions this week as per the past few months (greek yogurt, milk, oats and as many different combos of mixings as you can conjure, I will post links at a later date, doesn't seem fitting this week) but also cut down all the extraneous low glycemic index carbs that I am extremely addicted to. I'm not going low carb again, but just making better choices.

Words of the week (are they words? THEY ARE NOW!):
Jewery - anything and everything Jewish related, "we were discussing jewery"
Kosherized - to be made Kosher
Espressed - How you turn coffee into espresso. This is from when I was a kid and the passover song became this: "Espressed so hard they could not grind, let my coffee goooooooo! G down coffeeeee, waaaaaayyyy down in COFFEE LAND" *sung loudly in varying pitches with lots of intonation* I never did understand espresso okay, but we had a machine and it made lots of noise and I sang this song with my brother a lot.

And why yes, I get Go Down Moses stuck in my head for the entire holiday every year, yes I do. And start singing it at random times, yup.