Passover

I don't know exactly how it happened but our seder took a turn towards the silly this year. In years past, we have always had thoughtful, insightful discussions at our seder table. Not this year. It probably had something to do with the plague props I brought home from school. Even when the girls were young we didn't use plague props! Why this year? I don't know!

I just did!

My new salt and pepper shakers set the tone..........This has nothing to do with the silliness, just a great picture!

Poor Ms. A! She asked me when she would stop being the youngest at the table?! I told her as soon as she has children she can stop saying the 4 questions !!!!! (4 questions info here and here) LOL!! In actuality we all helped her. She has been the youngest for 23 years now!

As I said, I brought home all of my plague props from school. Here are Mrs. S. and Mr. FancyPants trying to keep up with us! They had finger puppets and were racing to get them on their fingers as fast as we read!
In order to use all of my plague props we had to read them twice! Here are all of the other props. Ms. A and C2 were in charge of the second set of props. I didn't have the patience to get the photos in proper order.....

blood...

frogs....

locust....(LOVE this ENORMOUS prop!)


hail..... (falling from the sky in this shot!)

on the ground here.....

cattle disease............

C2 is demo-ing my fancy schmacy cow that collapses toy!

Pharaoh and Moses with one of the wild beasts.......


It just goes to show that making a seder memorable is fun........

(the sunglasses represent darkness......C2 realllly appreciated his kiddie glasses!! LOL!)

...................NO MATTER WHAT YOUR AGE!

(did ya' notice the matzo kippot!)

Passover Brownies

I don't know how many out there reading this blog are Jewish, but if I can save even one person from expensive, horrid boxed mix or dry homemade Passover brownies, this posting will be worthwhile!

If you do not celebrate Passover, you are totally unaware of the cardboard food we endure during the holiday. During the 8 days of Passover it is forbidden to eat any foods that

"have been made from the five major grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt) and has not been completely cooked within 18 minutes after coming into contact with water." Flour products come into this catagory. We do eat matzo

and have come up with any number of ways to manipulate the otherwise library paste ( it is only flour, water and salt) into tasty holiday dishes. Desserts are not usually one of those tasty dishes.

We like these brownies so much that the girls request them! Unheard of in Passover dessert circles!!!! (click on the photo to make bigger) I used dark cocoa this year. That is why my brownies are nearly black. In the past I've added KFP chocolate chips. I do not add nuts because my family doesn't like them. All in all though, MMM, MMM, GOOD!

(To really be fair, cardboard food only comes into play if you try to substitute the matzo and matzo products for your regular products that leaven. Ever since DH and I stopped eating bread and bread products, the only problem Passover posed for us is that we are required to eat matzo at the seder and that we want to eat the holiday foods we grew up with . Like any tradition we look forward to the foods of the holiday. Other than that, leaving out leavened food is not difficult to merge with our everyday diet. Meat and vegis and fruit have no leavening!)

Shot glass vs. garbage disposal

Grinding up a shot glass in the garbage disposal..................stupid!

Having a garbage disposal rusting away and needing replaced......already known.

Creating large holes with the shot glass.....................incredible.

Spending money that wasn't expected.......expensive.

Being all ready to make horseradish and Passover bagels but can't.................annoying.

Needing to wash the dishes from making chicken soup and Passover brownies but unable to .....frustrating.

Breaking the glass (huh??) pan collecting water when the disposal crashes down onto it.........ridiculous.

(cool picture through the drain.......)

Looking at DH's "plumber problem" (use your imagination) all afternoon as he fixes the disposal......uck!

Getting this picture of DH...................priceless!

The last of the Oldies

I've been waiting until closer to Passover to post these. I'm not sure if I ever posted them before but as I explained I am trying to archive and condense all of my photos. I needed to get these off of Webshots. These are two of three table runners I made. This one is mine and is one of a kind! The outer fabric is 6 pointed stars, the paths are matzo fabric, the green represents spring & parsley & the purple the cups of wine (I know, there really should have been 4 but I didn't have enough fabric). These are all themes represented in the Passover Seder. Unfortunately, I wasn't thinking when I took the closeup. It is a terrible mismatched seam!






This one is a twin. I always make things in 3's. I make one for me and one for each girl. Theirs have Jerusalem fabric with the matzo paths. It looks a bit like eggs on a plate huh!









These are two of the matzo kippot (head covering males and some females wear in synagogue) I made. I made about 40 of these. A woman offered me $10.00 each if I made her 8 in about 4 days. Her family wore them at their Seder! The really cute thing is I had her son in my Hebrew School class. I gave one to each of the boys that year. He wears his still! At the High Holidays, there he is wearing his matzo kippot!




By the time I finished all of these kippot, I had perfected the the process and made 60 for Mrs. S's wedding, I realized that you can buy a stamp and fabric ink and stamp them just like the custom made "store bought" ones. The kippot for their wedding were stamped with their names and the date of the wedding.

Prep Work

Horseradish

BEFORE........... AFTER...........................
I forgot to take the picture of the in between stage. I don't know what it is about horseradish over the past few years but it is definitely not as hot as it once was. Although I needed to open the door and point the fan outside for a few minutes and I felt as though my nose would explode when I opened the food processor (it probably would have helped if I'd not had my head over the bowl), the final product is not really hot. It stings but not that nose frying, sweat producing short burn I really like.

The prune bowl

This bowl was a wedding present of my parents. My mom always used it for prunes & oranges at Passover. Other then prunes, I never remember anything else ever going into this bowl. Until one Thanksgiving when I walked in the door and there in the bowl were mashed potatoes. When I asked my mom how she could dare to put mashed potatoes in the prune bowl, she got all indignant and said it was NOT a prune bowl. My sister walked in and I asked her "what goes in this bowl?" "Prunes." My brother walked in, "What goes in this bowl?" "Prunes." From that day forth it became known as the prune bowl. After my mom died I took the bowl and use it every Passover to hold...Prunes!

Soup a simmering

The soup is in the fridge, the matzo balls sitting in the bowl next to them. The gefilte fish has been doctored and is cooling, the chicken is seasoned, the brisket sliced. The vegetables are waiting to be cleaned and cooked. The tables are almost finished and Ms. A is on her way home. I'm tired, very tired. My wrist is killing me and my back is threatening to boycott. But tomorrow night my family will gather, tell the story of Passover, sing songs, eat, laugh, tell stories and be together. 24 hours of bliss until Ms. A needs to go back home, DH gets on a plane for Anchorage and quiet descends again. Tired...who cares. Being together during the holidays is worth it all. Life is good.

Fat Quarters

If you go back to my very first post, you will see the explanation of why this blog is called Fat Quarters. When I told the story on Stashbusters, someone wrote and told me of a little group they started that was also called Fat Quarters. They put aside one fat quarter for every pound of weight they wanted to lose. As they lost it, they reclaimed their fat quarters. I thought that this was such a good idea that I started a Fat Quarters group in our night guild. The rules are simple. You declare your goal for the month and then "ante up" the same number of fat quarters of fabric. If at the end of the month you lose the amount of your goal, you get to take that number of fat quarters from the stash of fat quarters. In our game you don't necessarily take back your own fabric. I was given money from the group to buy some additional fat quarters to seed the pot. In an effort to be fair to our one and only LQS, I decided to buy an equal number of fat quarters from them and Joann's. Joann's had their fat quarters on sale.

This is what I got from Joann's.....

This is what I got from the LQS.....

For the same amount of money.

My fabric snob pendulum swings between going to Joann's and not going to Joann's. Being a fabric snob and not being a fabric snob. Name brand fabric only, any name fabric. I do think though, we make enough quilts, wall hangings, placemats and on and on, that I am not making an heirloom with every single stitch. "Nuff of that!

I can't wait until the weigh-in in 2 in two weeks to see if I can take any of these. The only problem is that Passover is in between and ugh! Weight loss is not necessarily a by product of Passover food!

Been wondering

Right now my life is non quilt related. I am in the midst of the frenzy of pre-Passover cleaning. I am no where near as meticulous as many, many others out there, but I do my best. Part of Passover involves ridding your home of those foods and other items that are forbidden. Not only do you need to remove them physically from your home but you need to clean all traces of them away. Put very simply, you don't want any bread crumbs in you cabinets, the creases of your sofa etc. The only way to remove all traces is to clean, clean, clean. I don't know if the concept of spring cleaning is because of Passover or visa versa!!! It always feels so good to get the house clean and fresh. My wrist aches after a good day cleaning but it is worth it.

I've been noticing that many people have multiple blogs. Is this because belonging to a blog ring comes with certain requirements? I mean, if I make 3 non quilt related posts, is that cause for concern? 5? 10? I've realized that I don't have time to maintain contact on two blog rings, let alone maintain two blogs themselves! I suppose if a blog becomes too off track the "ring leader" intervene. I am just in awe that others can manage to maintain two blogs. I seem to have a hard enough time with just one!!

Forgot my camera at work so I can't post pictures........