Religion!

My life lacks religion for the most part.  That hasn't really changed, but a couple of weekends ago, I did attend a Passover Seder and an Easter supper.  (Anyone miss that those both revolve around food?  No?  Just checking.)

Saturday, April 11th - Passover Seder

E has been hosting Passover Seders for three or four years now.  Her parents comes down from Maine, her aunt and uncle join, there's some friends and cousins...  In the end, there are about twelve people crowded around a table in her living room in S'ville.

These dinners always involve a) drinking wine and b) reading the Seder text.  (I have no idea what it's actually called.  Which is terrible.  I've read it three or four times now, and I have no clue.  It talks about the Jewish people and the Seder plate and the oppressed people...  Well, wiki's entry covers most of it.)  We take turns reading the text, which generally results in some yelling about where do people begin and end in the text.  Hilarious.  (There's also mention by the Christians in the room - lead by E's uncle - about how this isn't their "thing."  Also hilarious.)

I must insert something of a cool story here.  This year, E put an orange on the Seder plate.  Someone commented that this was strange, so it was told that (and, no, I don't have dates, names or locations straight here) some old male said that women belonged on the altar (is there a Jewish term for that?) "like an orange belongs on the Seder plate."  So, it has become some sign of female empowerment to have an orange on the Seder plate.  Yay, ladies!

In the end, I'm always a huge fan of these gatherings.  I never had a big family growing up, so to have a gathering of all these people of different generations is lovely.  (Plus, there are no actual kids, so it's great to be on the same "adult" level as everyone in the room.)  Given E's family, politics are always brought up - this year was distinctly different, thank you, Barack!!!

A brief note on the food...  I can't (won't) eat most of it - brisket, potatoes (cooked with meat,) matzo soup.  However, E's aunt made a beautiful and delicious salad.  My favourite part of Passover?  Charoset.  I have no idea how E and her mom made it, but here's a recipe - apples, spices, nuts, sugar, red wine - yum!  Since the beginning, I've made Chocolate Chip Meringues, which always go over well.  (Notes: Pinch of salt.  I had to do the oven thing twice to get them baked through.)  Easy and delicious!

Sunday, April 12th - Easter Sunday

M3's Sunday dinner turned into Easter supper - a lovely excuse to make a lot of food and get together a bit of a bigger group than usual!

That being, said, we had a bit of a hard time coming up with what Easter supper consisted of.  I can't remember growing up eating Easter supper, so...  I looked online.

All combined, our dinner ended up consisting of: (ham,) roasted potatoes, deviled eggs, guacamole (new tradition!,) asparagus, pineapple bread (made by M2) and cherry pie.  Yum yum yum.  There was also Easter candy, but I think we were all too stuffed to eat any of it!

Really enjoyed this weekend... and all the food it involved!