Day 23,716: How I Lost My Leeks.

This weekend is the beginning of the spring holiday season from Passover to Good Friday to Easter. My family’s celebrations will start tonight with rituals and lots of food. It takes 2-4 shopping trips for me to amass what’s needed for the festive holiday meal. You would think after years of doing it, I could do it in one fell swoop, but that isn’t the case.

First, I procrastinate, waiting until the final few days to get fresh produce. It puts me in danger of missing the required cuts of meat, but somehow, I have always been able to find one last brisket. Secondly, I have a bad habit of doing at least one shopping trip before I’ve set the menu and checked recipe ingredients.

The last bad habit requires a last minute run to the grocery to get several ingredients on key recipes I didn’t choose until either the night before or that very morning. It also cuts into cooking time as I start cooking only after the final run to the store.

Tonight’s meal will be our smallest ever with just one daughter coming home. Still the preparations are largely the same. Chicken soup, brisket, baked chicken and potato sides with green and other vegetables will grace the table. We will have too much food, but some of it will do double duty tomorrow paired with more fresh food at the  slightly larger holiday table.

Letting It All Rest

Right now, I’m taking a break to rest my back, blog, let the chicken marinate, and delay before putting the brisket in the oven so it comes out 3.5 hours later warm and on time.  I have also put the leeks in Time Out on the counter as I’m not speaking to them. They hid for a good 15 minutes from me in the refrigerator. They were only purchased this morning, so they had no good reason to go into deep hiding behind leftovers still in the fridge, but hide they did.

The result was open refrigerator doors way too long for my Samsung that likes to freeze up in the back operating grids. I emptied the vegetable crispers twice, not trusting my first foray into produce land. I emptied the bottom shelf – also to no avail. I peaked at the upper two shelves where the leeks should not have been so I was not surprised to not spot them. Finally, on the second shelf after doing more than peaking and dropping a few things while on the hunt, the Leeks reappeared.

Perhaps they are not looking forward to the chopping block. Few things would. Perhaps they want me to use onions instead, but I’ve already diced and sliced at least a half dozen onions for other recipes. This one requires the subtle flavor or Leeks, and since they were purchased for the recipe, I was determined to find them.

Onions of all sorts are a basic at holiday time. Tonight’s meal will include white onions, red onions, scallions and yes, leeks. I’m sorry the potatoes seem to go best with the leeks. Tomorrow night, if it makes them feel better, the potatoes are calling for kale.

P.S. I’m also mysteriously missing some chocolate macaroons, but the other five containers I have of other flavors as well as more chocolate will just have to do. The missing ones were more bakery fresh, and will hopefully come forth before tomorrow’s meal.  Once found, they are more likely to go into my mouth rather than time out.

Happy Home Cooked Meals and Festive Food to All Friends, Family and Readers!

Daily Focus on Gun Sanity: Passover marks, among many things, the time the Jews first received the 10 Commandments.  The first commandment is Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me — that includes guns and the second amendment. The second is: Thou Shalt Not Worship False Idols. That also includes guns. The sixth is: Thou Shalt Not Kill.  The implications of that one seem obvious. It’s not just the killer who pulls the trigger, but everyone beforehand that allowed the killer to get to that point.  That’s just my point of view. As we all celebrate religious holidays this weekend and next, it’s worth considering the holiday lessons in light of our current gun culture and see where the discussion might take you.