Passover begins tonight at sundown – are you ready?

If you’re not COMPLETELY ready, no worries. After all, the key ingredient for tonight’s seder is family; the loved ones around your table are even sweeter than the unleavened, flour-free baked treats you’ll enjoy later this week.

And when you’re ready, check out these special-for-Passover recipes:

Passover Popovers
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Almond Cloud Cookies
Flourless Fudge Cookies
Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons
Flourless Chocolate Nut Cake

Chag same’ach!

What’s the first food you think of when you hear the word “Passover?”

Matzo, for sure. Charoset. Horseradish. Parsley. Eggs. Matzo ball soup. And for me, popovers.

Doesn’t everyone associate popovers with Passover?  Well, apparently not.  But at the Silver family seders, popovers were always the star, thanks to my grandmother. (more…)

So Monday is the first day of Passover. I’m sure you’ve got your seder meal all planned. Except maybe the dessert. Hmmm, what’ll it be this year? Same old, same old? How about something different, like almond cookies?

Almond cookies?! B-O-R-I-N-G…

Not if you like almond flavor – and certainly not these particular almond cookies, the likes of which you’ll never encounter in the cookie aisle at your local grocery store.

First of all, these aren’t the crumbly-textured almond cookies you’re served at the end of your American-Chinese restaurant meal, with chunks of pineapple and fortune cookies. Or fragile, lace-like Almond Crisps. Or dunkable almond biscotti.

(more…)

It’s with some trepidation that I approach April each year.

Not because of the prospect of showers (which do indeed bring May flowers); or tax season; or Major League Baseball’s opening day, which means I have at least 6 months of Red Sox-induced angst in front of me.

No, it’s because April brings Passover. Which, as far as I’m concerned, is my opportunity to be thoroughly humbled by my total lack of knowledge regarding Passover baking rules. Never mind kosher; Passover alone is enough to send me cowering into a corner. (more…)

Passover is to the Jews what Lent is to Catholics: a time of ritual, of family, a time of faith.

And a time when you have to stop eating some of your favorite foods.

For Catholics, it’s no meat on Fridays. Not so bad, really. Adults usually enjoy fish, anything from broiled salmon to Tuna Wiggle. Kids can always get by on pizza, or mac and cheese. For the more imaginative, a cheese soufflé, spinach lasagna, or Thai stir-fry are options.

But for the Jews, the eschewed foods are flour and leavening. Which means baking, as we know it, is pretty much out the window. (more…)