Baby's First Passover

My sister and her husband and 14 month-old son came over for Passover dinner last night. I'd wanted to do something because we've been trying to get together for weeks but the boys' sleep schedules haven't really permitted an easy meetup. Also, Passover's a bit of a Thanksgiving event at my parent's house and since they're now 3,000 miles away I figured it would be good to assume the east coast mantle of Passover Host.

I cooked up a surprisingly good (in my humble opinion) chicken matzoball soup. Most surprising because I've never made chicken soup before and my cooking skills are limited to only a step or two above Kraft Dinner. Of course, some of the ingredients (read: the matzoballs) were from a jar, but the rest was all me. And Food Network. They deserve some of the credit for the recipe, though I did take my own liberties and changed it up where I needed to to get by.

I also got a great Haroset recipe from Food Network, which included walnuts, pecans and almonds. I used a Baron Herzog Merlot instead of Manachewitz so it wasn't as sweet, but some honey sweetened it up nicely without making it overly so. My brother-in-law gave it high marks, and he's not even Jewish!

My sister prepared the main course and brought dessert. She made some thinly sliced checken breast in olive oil with thyme which was simple yet surprisingly good. And then there was also a gouda cheese gravy that went over it which was delish, though quite rich and a little went a loooooong way.

I had a great time and I hope everyone else did too. But before you congratulate me on pulling off a traditional seder, I must confess that the extent of the religious aspect of dinner was a quick "The Pharaoh enslaved the Jews, but God brought the plagues and had Moses lead us to freedom. The end". That, and my lamb shank was a bone from a chicken drumstick. I'm hoping it was the thought that counts.

Really though, it was just good to get together with family and have a nice dinner and nice conversation. The end.