Passover began last night with the ceremonial seder meal.
We were invited to the home of my husband’s aunt whom he has been especially close to since he was old enough to walk, and whom I became close with since I first began dating my husband in high school.
At that time his aunt and uncle and cousins lived in the same town in which we grew up.
In the late 70’s, years after we had married and moved to Chicago they moved to Virginia where our aunt still lives today.
The amazing thing is we never know what lies ahead.
In 1988 we found ourselves moving east after living in Chicago for 15 years.
We never could have predicted that one day we we would be living in Maryland, and even more amazing that we would be living just 35 minutes (barring traffic /accidents/ construction on the beltway) from our wonderful aunt.
And now as our life takes another turn we find ourselves celebrating the last of many Passovers and other holidays and events we have shared with her and her family over these past 25 years.
Through all these years we have had a special relationship with our aunt who is now the matriarch of my husband’s family.
She is a special lady who wrote the book on how to age well.
She is young at heart with an optimistic outlook, seemingly able to roll with any punches that life doles out.
Her schedule of activities and social life would be challenging for many half her age. Her sense of humor and lust for life are evident whenever you speak with her.
And did I mention that she is quite a looker, to boot?
She refers to herself and her significant other as the “oldest teenagers in their town”!
We have shared so much of our lives with her over these past years, and it will be difficult to say good bye.
Once we are settled in our new home we know she will be one of our first visitors from the east coast and we will insist that she add a regular trip to San Luis Obispo to her yearly travel schedule.
We look forward to sharing many more good times with her in San Luis Obispo, and of course, we will be back east to see her regularly as well.
Preparing a seder is no small fete. Although I love hosting the holidays, even I realized that with our upcoming move it was not to be. We have begun packing, selling some furniture, and my house is slowly but surely deconstructing, a necessary, but very sad evil for me.
Anyway, I am far from being done cooking here so I enticed my aunt to allow me to bring several contributions to the meal, one of which was the traditional dish of apples, nuts, cinnamon and wine known as Charoset, Charoseth, or Haroset.
The Charoseth is symbolic of the bricks and mortar used by the Jewish slaves to build cities for the Pharaoh.
It is one of the ceremonial foods on the Seder Plate. During the service we partake of it on a piece of matzoh along with a little horseradish, representing the sweetness of freedom and the bitterness of slavery.
Although we usually eat Charoseth once a year at Passover it is so delicious there’s no reason why we don’t eat it year round. Here’s the simple recipe:
Charoseth (serves 8)
1 cup chopped or diced apples
½ cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, or almonds)
2 tablespoons honey or sugar
¼ cup sweet red wine or grape juice
¼ teaspoon (or more to taste) cinnamon
Mix chopped apples and chopped nuts. Add remaining ingredients, and mix thoroughly. Serve with traditional Passover dinner.
