The Bunny Box

picture source As I embark on Pesach cleaning, I find myself faced with the same dilemma I have every year: The balance between what I need to do and what I feel I SHOULD do. My husband is anti-chumra on Pesach. He insists that Pesach cleaning should be bare minimum to avoid shalom bayis issues. I grew up putting away toiletries and scrubbing every inch of the home. My husband says I don't even have to vacuum. (If you wouldn't pick up the chometz and eat it, he says, it's not substantial chometz. Unless it's an actual chunk of chometz, it doesn't matter.) Every year, I try to adhere to his Pesach rules, and I end up feeling anxious and guilty, like I've for sure missed something important because I didn't have a nervous breakdown and shout obscenities at anyone. Isn't that what Pesach cleaning is all about? So, okay, I get where he's coming from. It makes sense. I'm sure he's right. But isn't Pesach a time where we're supposed ...

It's Purim ! Can you guess what my daughter is dressed as? A bunny, of course! So is her cousin. :) Today was Ta'anis Esther (the Fast of Esther) and as it happens, I have a little tradition about fasts. I always, with very few exceptions, break my fasts on mac & cheese. Sometimes it's the boxed stuff (gotta love it!), sometimes it's just pasta with cheese melted on it. This time, I still had some of that spinach left in the fridge, and I had a craving for fettuccine alfredo, so I decided to try making my own cheese sauce with spinach. It was pretty yummy, if I do say so myself. After dinner, I had to run to megillah reading, and when I got back at almost 10PM, I remembered that I had wanted to bake some cupcakes tonight. I could just do it tomorrow, but then I'd have to do it with my dear daughter screaming in my ear. So I went ahead and baked them. And took a few pictures. And experimented with staging my shots to get them the way I want them. I came ...

Last night, I was thinking about dinner and the very small amount of chicken left in the fridge from shabbos. I knew it wasn't enough for both myself and my husband, but I really didn't want it to go to waste either. A while back, I'd found a recipe for pesto chicken pasta. Pesto + chicken + sliced black olives + pasta. I made it once using leftover grilled chicken, and haven't made it since. But it's a really yummy recipe, and I don't make it nearly often enough. So I made it last night. It was SUPERB and easy. Then tonight, I thought briefly about making rice and beans, which is one of our staple dinners, but then I remembered it was the night before a fast, and I had fresh spinach in the veggie drawer that I wanted to use. And it's been so long since I made pizza. So pizza it was. With spinach and mushrooms and butternut squash (which was also hanging out in the veggie drawer for a while) and light sprinkling of mozzarella . The gooey shot. :) Omnom...