Passover Woes

This is recent photo of Amy, Vaughan and Marisa: aren't they gorgeous! The occasion was a birthday celebration.

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Easter to our friends who celebrate that holiday. Happy Passover to those still working through the 8 days, actually 9, meal-wise, because it started at sundown on Monday and does not end until Sundown on Tues. I am tired of the opportunities for innovation that the holiday offers. People could certainly eat normally if they wished, without breaking the Passover restrictions. In other incarnations, when I was a member of Overeaters Anonymous, I could eat well, as usual, during Passover because I did not eat anything but fresh vegetables and fish.

For some reason, this Passover I have had the urge to try new recipes. I made the leek gratin with Passover cottage cheese instead of Gruyere. Pretty good. The leeks and potato are good, and the cheese did no harm. I tried Sylvia's noodles, and they were a complete bust, thick and far from tender. Hers were delicious when I last tasted them. I tried mixing them with sautéed mushrooms. Didn't help. Merwin complains about the borscht in a jar that there aren't enough shredded beets. I tried to make up my own version, failing a good recipe to follow. The beets came out all right, but the liquid did not taste like borscht. Basically, he had wet shredded beets with sour cream. Ugh. Another failure.Though he did like it some.

This morning I made spinach pancakes, something good at all seasons: pre-washed fresh spinach, washed at home thoroughly, spun dry-ish, torn into small pieces. Beat in eggs so that every leaf glistens and you don't see plain yoke. Don't worry if there is egg at the bottom of the mixing bowl; when you fry the spinach in pancakes, you can spoon some of the egg from the bottom of the bowl on top of each pancake. This makes a very egg-y pancake. They can be eaten for breakfast (Passover cereal is not available in our supermarkets; in some neighborhoods everything is available) with sour cream or plain. Cold, the extra pancakes make an excellent sandwich. I still have 3 Passover rolls, only because Vivian brought over 4 of Mel's rolls, made from my recipe. His came out much better than mine this year. They are delicious whenever, and I plan to make more tomorrow, or later today: the trouble is, that even sitting on my stool, I get tired from the effort. I must not just lie around, though. I know that ultimately that makes things worse, no matter how much the bed beckons. I am missing Sonia, who came only once last week. She certainly keeps me going.

We went to a Strauss opera yesterday, Capriccio. This was, as my friend Florence said afterward, "Much ago about nothing." Of course, Renée Fleming was brilliant, beautiful, but she had a hard job varying her expression—and of course in HD the expressions are prominent. She managed well, but we are going to cross this opera off our list. The wonder is that Strauss wrote this for a performance in 1942—in Germany. In the pre-opera talk, a little mention was made about the reasons he remained in Germany when Hitler was in power, and the fact that the content of this opera was not what the State required then of most artists; they had to celebrate the German nation. The basic story, in case you don't know, repeated beyond patience argues which is superior words or music? The Countess (Fleming) has to choose between the two men who represent words and music. First, we see that music can enhance words, and then we learn that without the impresario to put this all together, neither can shine. In between there was the de rigour ballet, which was played for comedy, and an Italian couple who sang—and ate. And there was more but not much. Very repetitious.

The good thing is that I was able to manage the 2 hour and 15 minute opera (plus waiting time before, more than another hour) without having to raise my feet. I didn't know that there would be no intermission, and we had to sneak the sandwiches I had prepared, tuna fish for me, a hamburger for Merwin, on Mel's rolls. It turned out to be enough for us so that we wanted no dinner! We watched UP, a movie I had seen a little bit of in a very poor version on the hospital TV. A bit silly, but moving, too.

The Magnolia is fading, the cherry tree is lovely, the Forsythia remains strong, the tulips are burgeoning, and there are many ground flowers. This is all in our small front yard. It's even warm today!

Lots of love to all,

Bernice