Simcha rabbah, simcha rabbah, Aviv higiya, Pesach ba!

So it's really on its way - Pesach that is. The house is getting ready, I have started cooking ( I LOVE my Pesach kitchen), and no one is freaking out. Actually, many youngsters in this house are freaking out about the limited food choices this week, but to that I say, "You belong in school anyway, so zip it!!!" I am cool, calm, and collected, except when I am in the supermarket. Then I am a little rattled. But I am fortunate enough to have a great shopping partner who stands at the chicken counter and pushes the cart, not to mention has been married to me for EIGHTEEN years! (Perhaps someday we will celebrate our anniversary by doing something other than shopping for Pesach, by timing is everything, isn't it... ) Also, I get a kick out of knowing that EVERYONE is shopping for Pesach, not just a minority of the population. Pesach is a little more complicated in our house, because of allergy issues, not to mention the whole kitniyot craziness, but we seem to make do, and it's just a week, for goodness sake, though you would never know to look at our basement.

Dvora's Cookie Creations is on hiatus, so there are no yummy cookie or cake photos. We have even ordered some rugelach for Shabbat. I did bake something this week - coffee and cream brownies and raspberry truffle brownies, but they mostly went to welcome our new neighbors, who finally moved in to their house at the end of the block. Ariella is excited - this is the first friend of hers to live on our street (they moved from across the yishuv), and even as I type, she and her friends Shikma are playing in their backyard, after playing here. I do not bake anything professionally for Pesach, but am now about to get to the fun of whipping egg whites for our cakes. Party.

I am still undecided about what to bake and cook, so I think now is the time to plan menus - a much less pressured endeavor than it was in Chu"l. Here is a quick peek at the yishuv Purim parade ("Adeloyada") from last month. Here is Lola Bunny with her friend Sarena.Here we see Dani and Pacey, dressed as Avraham, carrying the Glenwood banner.

David and cronies keeping us "safe."Josh S. aka Mordechai, leading the parade on horseback.Migdal Bavel, which later was decapitated by a wire...

Fun street entertainersThe Glenwood float, appropriate for a shul with the repuation of being all olim.More brave (and overheated) Glenwood participants.

There were many different groups of marchers: the school, the various shuls, bike riders, obsessive exercisers, dogs and their walkers (I could have done without that, not being an animal person), the noar... and at the end, there was a small street fair, with stands including (yay!) iced coffee. It was a lot of fun - we are already looking forward to next year. Kol hakavod to everyone who worked so hard and was so creative.

Hope you enjoyed this little glance back, as we look forward to one seder and lots of Chol HaMoed, relatively speaking.

Dvora

And it's been such a long time...

It's been such a long time that I don't even know where to start. Okay, how about with cookies?!

Here is a variety that was for a giyus kiddush

Chocolate pecan sticks, mint brownies, black and whites, chocolate peanut butter brownies, chocoalte cream sanwiches, apple crumble bars - all the platters were variations on this theme, same flavors, different layouts. There were also coordinating cupcakes, vanilla with frosting and sprinkles in the unit's colors.

This platter was a gift for a hostess - she must be quite a hostess to deserve such a nice platter! She received chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookies, polka dot cookies, alfajores, molasses cream sandwiches, orange-cranberry-white chocolate cookies, and thin mint sandwiches.This next one is a Purim platter (but you could have guessed that), including linzer cookies, ginger crinkles, blueberry bars, Mexican brownies, and polka dot cookies.We made a great many hamantaschen, in a wide variety of flavors, including prune, chocolate, caramel, apricot, raspberry, blueberry, and kiwi, which is always a crowd-pleaser/frightener.

The kids have all turned out to be pretty good hamantasch folders and pinchers, though I tend to think the picture is of mine and Shana's.

Frankly, I have no idea what the next one is - a random cookie platter from a random Shabbat...

It includes a new flavor, apricot squares, in addition to whoopie pies, glazed lemon cookies, double decker brownies, and chocolate caramel sandwiches.

This was a bar mitzvah kiddush platter for a celebration in Yerushalayim -chocolate caramel sandwiches, glazed lemon cookies, and the bar mitzvah's favorite, whoopie pies.Mazal tov, Yakir!!!

Finally - Dani's birthday cake. Our little man is a big 12 now, and in the bar mitzvah countdown mode. Wow!

Time really flew, especially on his birthday, where I ended up baking and decorating this cake in under 1 hour 45 minutes. Not too bad!

Next time, Purim festivities and mesibat siddur!

Dvora