Combining Holiday Left Overs

This Thursday, April 9th, starts the holy days for many this year. Both Passover and the Easter holiday week begin. For those of you not familiar, it is Maudy Thursday, the day of last supper, possibly a Passover meal itself, and Passover, the celebration of the freeing of the Isrealites from Egypt.

The overlap of Easter and Passover this year it is the perfect excuse to have both a Sedar and an Easter celebration to welcome the change of seasons and take the luxury of investigating and experiencing traditions and cultures you may not be fully aware of.

I grew up with family that celebrated either one or the other and sometimes both each year. I often had the pleasure of being at the family table when they did. Regardless of our religious leanings about a week or so after the holidays a bag of on-sale left over holiday food stuff, boxes of Matzoh, packages of stale Peeps and broken Easter Bunnies, always seem to find their way into our "diets". I had a cousin that was known among us younger cousins for his Judeo-Christian Smores. He would place a marshmallow Peep and broken pieces of chocolate bunny between two pieces of matzoh he had carefully broken to"match". The stacked sandwiched masterpiece would then be placed into the toaster oven and broiled until it was gooey and hot. Sometimes it was just a chocolate covered marshmallow egg between the matzoh instead, but regardless of the source of the marshmallow and chocolate it was always enjoyed with a cold glass of fresh milk. Years later he told me it was his way of combining two traditions he had a connection to in a way that avoided him having to choose to be either. Kids tend to be more simple in their solutions than adults are.

My arteries are hardening just thinking about this snack, but a cafe au lait with a sheet of buttered and salted matzoh and a left over hard boiled colored easter egg sounds good right about now.