May, several years ago, you posted your Vegetable Kugel recipe. (I've reposted it below.) Your notes say that the flavor was good, but it didn't hold together well, and you would add more matzo meal or potato starch next time. Did you ever experiment further? I'd like to try the recipe this year, with a couple of changes. I was thinking that it needs a few eggs to bind it together: maybe 3 or 4 for that volume of veggies and matzo meal. I'm also considering the addition of some chopped sweet onion, raisins, or even pineapple. Any other suggestions? Here's the recipe: Kugel (Sweet Potato Carrot Apple) Ingredients: 2 cups grated Red Delicious apples 2 cups grated raw sweet potato 2 cups grated raw carrot 1 cup matzo meal 1 stick margarine, melted 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 to 1/2 cup granulated sugar Instructions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (160 degrees Celsius or Centigrade). Grease a 9-by-13-inch (22.5 cm x 32.5 cm) pan. In a large bowl, combine apple, sweet potato, carrot, matzo meal, margarine, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar; mix well. Pour into prepared pan. Cover with aluminum foil; bake 45 minutes. Increase oven heat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius or Centigrade), remove cover, and bake an additional 15 minutes. Slice and eat hot. Makes 12-16 servings. Sue

Thanks, everyone! The secret to setting a pretty table for a lot of people is being willing to store settings for a lot of people :) I spent a lot of money on the cabinets to store them in, but I didn't spend much on the the stemware, flatware, dishes, or chargers. The trick is to go for decent rather than fab quality, have a unifying look, choose over time, and shop closeouts of house brands. Plus, fill in with "heirlooms" (see below), and the real heirlooms, the candlesticks my grandfather gave my mother, his d-i-l. Steph, thanks for the extra credit grade! Cat_mom, Morgne, Donnakay come on down! Thanks, Alabamanicole! Malhgold, I only have matching for 24. I have plenty to fill in for double that (i.e., the whole family minus the out of town dwellers). I'm sorry you missed the service, but at least you made it before Elijah! :) We have a "tradition" of people coming in just when we open the door, but I think that only happens at my parents' house. I have stairs. :) Darbuka, I hope you'll be able to have your Seder next year. In the "pulled togetherness" of the table are the gold color rimmed personal ashtrays for the horseraddish from my mother's young married days, the white glass nut dishes with the faded gold paint rim for the charoset from the same source, and the pyrex custard cups for the salt water. Over the years we've given my mother enough Lennox oddments for her not to need these, so now Seder is at my house? You put lots of colorful vegetables, some pretty flowers, and use whatever you have that fits! We've been using the same Haggadah all my life (it's excellent!). I think there were 20 of them. Though they were hardbound, they did finally start needing repair. The typeface is also hard for the old folks to read. So a number of years ago I typed it up, and added in a couple of side things to fill in the gaps. Plus, I gender neutraled it as much as I could, and updated other language that was way dated. We had xeroxed copies for a couple of years. Then, after I edited a published Haggadah, I got adventurous, found some interesting art to dress the text with and laid it out. I used my art printer and laminator for the cover and bound them myself. But my printer didn't like the cover paper and stopped printing it after 10 copies (apparently normal behavior according to the company), and the 8.5"x11" size was awkward, so while I was restricted in activity this year, I reformatted to the half size pages and had it professionally printed with a different cover. And did the song book too, which has the silly songs as well as the traditional ones. Owls, thanks! Chag Sameach! John, the trick is that while it feels like a separate room because of the beams and lighting, the dining room is wholy open to the living room. The table extends 8-10 feet beyond to within a few feet of the hearth on one side, and the TV and computer cabinets on the other. My actual table (minus the folding) seats 8 in the large chairs. A few more squeezing in on folding chairs. Country, the photos were all with no guests, except the bird. The camera was right there, and the family were reading the service. I just had to have a picture. :) I found the posts about how a kitchen actually worked, with dishes and towels and stuff all over were a big help to me, so I'm trying to pay it forward. I'm glad you're enjoyed it too! The girls are hired help. With all those dishes coming in and out, and needing to be washed, it's worth my sanity to have help. The family also carried soup and cleared, and all the other food was passed family style. I can't believe yours just schmoozed! Maybe they were overwhelmed by your competence? Or scared of your new kitchen? Maybe you just need to tell them what to do? Even with the Twilight Zoneness of it all, I hope it was a lovely meal and a happy holiday!! Thanks, Squigs and Fori! The bird has traditional stuffing: We freeze the leftover matzah and mandelin from the previous year, and supplement as needed with new. There's plain, egg and whole wheat in there. Sauteed veg (onions, mushrooms, colored bell peppers, and celery), a little seasoning and some eggs. Chag Sameach, Tomuch2chus! Thank-you for all the kind words! And I'm so glad you're rockin' the baby beets. :)

You're absolutely right, Friedajune. The right way is the way your mother, may her memory be a blessing, made it! And the way my father does. We treasure every Pesach he's with us to make it. I found a kind of dark picture of the table, though not the food (that's the box for the books in the background). The tablecloths come with the tables and chairs so I get a different color every year. It's so warm and Springy this year, hence the pink: I did make the pastry cream and raspberry sauce, finally, and put together the douzaine de crêpes (is that the right way to say it? It's certainly not the mille crêpes I was originally aiming for). The top crêpe in the package turned into a frisbee, but the rest were just fine, but only 13. Given that they had some problems to start with. Judicious stacking and patching actually made for a fairly round cake, I used a bit of pastry cream to ice the sides to make it look better, then ringed the whole with raspberries and edible flowers. There may be unevenness, and some overbrowning, and it's more cheesecake high than cake high, but it tastes great, and the raspberry sauce is awesome. Using arrowroot starch was expensive because I didn't have enough and had to buy it in a little glass jar, rather than the pound bag. Sigh. It made for a divinely smooth custard, however, that was still strong enough not to ooze under the weight. I took it to a family dinner, and this is the remains on its way back in to the fridge.

Oh. Olychick, you're right. You can't warm it in the microwave and have it be crisp. Period. The inside steams and softens the filo and sogs it. Also, I think it has to be traditionally flat, rather than as deep as a regular pan to stay crisp too, so the proportion of wet interior to crisp dough doesn't overwhelm. I let my frozen warm up a little just to take the edge off, then put it in the oven frozen so the damp of thawing goes to steam rather than sog. Have you considered making it with a pastry crust for freezing? I think that would survive zapping a portion for lunch better. LoneJack, even if the chickens would like it, I paid for all that chard, and it cost a lot more than chicken feed! And the gas to take it to a place where they have a whole flock would cost more than the chard. :) So, by sacrificing the kale to the soup, and stuffing things all around the fridge, plus, finding a couple more things that could go, I was able to empty my big produce drawer. I think the chard will fit. I hope there's room for the spinach--did I tell you they sent an extra bunch of spinach (above the order)? I sent them a note to charge me. Anyway, it's lovely spinach, and it's looking put out by all the fuss over the chard. The overnight simmer was good for the soup. It went through a stage last night of not tasting great, but after a good long boil this morning it's good again. This is going to be more like a stock. It's clear and light. I hope I haven't boiled out all the vitamins. :) I know some will be halved, at least, but I hope enough remain to have some nutritional value, not just tasty water. :)