(Cross-posted at Mixed Multitudes)

When Passover approaches, it seems like everyone in the Jewish community goes a little bit (or more than a little bit) crazy. You start hearing about people going through every page of every book in their house, trying to eliminate miniscule crumbs. Kosher stores are clogged with families inspecting the new Passover friendly products, and elaborate Passover recipes are getting passed around, each of which seems to call for potato starch, and 7 egg yolks.

If you don’t have an endless supply of time and money to buy and cook for Passover, then let me give you my foolproof Passover food tip:

Chill out, and go as simple as possible.

I’m fascinated when tradition gets tested by modern science and comes out standing.  I’d cheered when acupuncture was shown to be effective for chronic pain.  Now, I’ve learned that America’s Test Kitchen, which publishes Cook’s Illustrated, has subjected challah to its test kitchen experimentation.  The results: pretty much what you’d learned from your mother and grandmother (or would, if you had one).

The best tasting challah is not too sweet, not too dense, not too fluffy and not from the commercial bakeries.  Their results, from the Holiday Baking 2009 issue, included:

I got an intriguing email from another member of my synagogue this week. He knew I had organized bringing a sustainable meat co-op to the shul, but was wondering what I knew about bulk dry goods in our area. Married to a vegetarian, he cooked a lot of legumes and grains, but found it hard to find them in larger packages (more than say 1-2 pounds for legumes or 10 pounds for grains). Also, prices for these staples have been rising. He floated the idea that there might be interest in the synagogue in buying these items in large quantities (say, 100 pounds at a time) from a bulk supplier, both to bring down cost and to reduce packaging. It also might provide all of us with more variety, since the risk of trying a new product would be spread among the group, and encourage us all to eat more sustainably by reducing our meat and dairy consumption.

Recently, Michael Pollan linked the reduction of medical costs to the even more controversial reformation of the food industry, what he calls the elephant in the national debate about the health care crisis. While Washington dukes out the legislative challenges to securing a healthier national environment, the country’s children have already returned to another school year and the Jewish New Year is upon us. Can we really wait for all this legislation to be enacted? Not me. I’m joining others who believe that change begins at the kitchen table. This year we are going to do a family food tashlich and symbolically cast away the elephants in our own refrigerators, the habitual bad food practices of everyday life.

Oh dear readers, the Shmethicist has been AWOL for a while.  But now I’m back and better than ever (not unlike that pea soup that was even more delicious when we reheated the leftovers!).

Dear Shmethicist,

I am currently feeding a family of four (two adults, two toddlers) on a very small food budget ($150 a week).  A couple of years ago, my husband and I were able to buy all organic dairy and produce, and free range meats and eggs.  Now, it is a rarity.  Our costs are so tight, that even at $150 a week, we only cook nice dinners on Shabbat.

We have noticed a difference in how we feel and would absolutely love to do this again. We do not have our own yard in which to garden, which I would love to do someday.  There are several farms near here, but they are not open to the public (instead, they drive their goods to the farmers markets in the large city, which is over an hour away and which we cannot afford to drive to regularly, at $20 gas for the trip and $10 parking for the day).

I met someone special at Purim this past year.  It wasn’t love at first sight, not at all (after all, I was wearing a mask when we met). And it took some persistent and clever wooing on his part, but I am now very smitten.

It’s been a few months now, but my heart still races whenever I see him.  I get this big goofy grin on my face when I am with him.  He makes me want to be a better person.  In the past I’ve described myself as a conscientious omnivore, but he really challenges me (in good ways) to think about my food choices.   Needless to say things were going quite well.   We had gotten to the point in our relationship where he offered me some space in his apartment to keep some of my personal items, like a toothbrush and some clothes, stuff like that.

Ask not what your CSA can do for you but what you can do for your CSA…  OK maybe that doesn’t quite work. However, lately I have been thinking somewhere along those lines. This week marks the second annual start of the spring/summer season of my community’s CSA in a suburb of Philadelphia. We knew approximately what time the trucks from rural PA were due in but they still hadn’t come an hour past their scheduled drop-off time. I’d helped unload the trucks in the past, but there was something awesome about the season beginning again. I was restless and excited. I’d marked the date on my calendar weeks before. Turned out that dismissal from my kid’s school came before the truck and I packed my toddler and camera up and got into the minivan to repeat a trip I do more often then I’d like.

I don’t know if any of you lie in wait for your CSA trucks or if I stand alone but it got me wondering what was all that exciting? Was it the veggies themselves or something else? I can honestly say it must be more than the actual delight of staring at the produce—which is beautiful. (Last year my squashes and carrots often acted first as centerpieces before transitioning to table food.) Perhaps it is my artificial connection with the land that is so wonderful. The farmers are a conduit for me, my liaison to the lands. Or maybe it has to do with community. Am I getting a side order of community with my heaping share for the week? Sometimes I’d like to think so…

I am in a mixed marriage.  I am vegetarian and my husband and children are not.  If only I could have a plain old vegetarian kitchen life would be so good.  I could give away my fleishig things and have tons more space and much less confusion in the kitchen, not to mention I’d never have to wash another fatty greasy dish again.  I abhor buying and cooking meat and the times when I am alone cleaning up in the kitchen I view the mess like it is insult to injury.  You are probably thinking why is she doing it?  My plain answer is out of love for my family.

How could that be?  Well, when Shabbat rolls around chicken is what my hard working husband wants to eat.  For years I declined buying or cooking meat and then I was worn down when family and guests would grace our table and I would feel that sadly they preferred and were more satisfied when there were animals on the table.

Being vegan made me feel focused, healthy, and proactive. That is except during Passover. I was neither focused nor relaxed on this holiday because I was hungry a lot of the time. Preparation is key for those of you who are about to celebrate the coming holiday and plan not to eat any animals or animal bi-products. On a normal day as a vegan I nourished myself with bean spreads, peanut butter, and an array of soy products. These are excellent everyday foods but all of these things include kitniyot which is a category of food not consumed by most Ashkenazi Jews during Passover. It is commonly understood that the avoidance of kitniyot is a stringency we place on ourselves to better shield us from mistakenly bringing home chametz. Examples of common kitniyot items are corn, rice, peas, beans and peanuts—i.e. major sources of protein for vegans. These foods have the potential to be ground up and made into a substance resembling flour.

Thanks so much to Yiska Obadia for her great Guest Post.  Yiska is a licensed acupuncturist currently practicing in NYC. She has a background in massage therapy and received her undergraduate degree in Holistic Health Studies.  A lifelong passion for nutrition and a 70 lb. personal weight-loss have inspired her work. In addition to working with individuals one on one, Yiska leads Transformative Nutrition Groups in NYC.  More information can be found on her website.

* Photo by Daniel Albanese

I hope you’re feeling that early spring feeling, where your energy starts to lighten and brighten, springing your creative life force into action. Many people begin to feel this enlivening occur as buds grow on the trees around us and the days get lighter, longer, and warmer. Some though may feel like they are still carrying around the weight and heaviness of winter, physically and/or emotionally. I know I was. Hence the notion of spring cleaning… I don’t think it’s an accident that both Lent and Passover occur during this time of year, both holidays encouraging the clearing out that makes space for the spirit of rebirth to spring forth.

Spring cleaning can happen on many levels. On the physical level alone, a simple elimination of processed and refined foods and chemicals from the diet can work miracles. As always, if you feel stuck, change something up and movement is bound to follow. You might consider giving up alcohol, sugar, and/or coffee for a month. Note: not forever! Try switching it up with an herbal detox tea instead. For allergy sufferers, this elimination can be profoundly beneficial. By diminishing unnecessary stressors, our bodies are more apt to handle the stress of pollen and other seasonal allergens with greater ease.

Celery? This is not what people mean when they think of an after school snack. No, they imagine milk and cookies and an apron-wearing parent in an aromatic kitchen with a wooden spoon in hand. Now, however, once you consider trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, cholesterol, hormones and artificial preservatives, celery emerges as a big winner.

From the Reagan administration’s attempt to declare ketchup as a vegetable,  H.W. Bush’s ban on broccoli (from the White House), and Clinton’s love of fast food our Presidents have not always had much of a track record in setting a good standard of healthy eating.

Good news though, today’s New York Times again reported on Michelle Obama’s commitment to healthy and fresh food for everyone.  The Obamas already moved their local food-loving personal chef to Washington, but do they know that the new White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, was a member of the Chicago Tuv Ha’aretz?

“They were to observe them as days of feasting and merrymaking (y’mei mishteh v’simha) and as an occasion for sending gifts to one another and presents to the poor.”
-Esther 9:22

Other than reading and/or hearing the Megillah, every mitzvah of Purim is mentioned in this one verse. Each of them is centered on food in some way, as it is a Jewish holiday, and the verse could arguably be the basis for the joke that every Jewish holiday can be summed up by the phrase, “they tried to kill us, God saved us, let’s eat.” What the Jews of Shushan did, however, was more than just eat.