Order your meat now before the prices go up. That’s right, now is the time to get the best deals on Passover meat purchases. And the best part is that you don’t have to take delivery until closer to Passover.
Organize and clean out your Closets. You decide what the difference between spring cleaning and cleaning for Pesach is! If you can devote some time to streamlining what clothing fits and no longer fits, you will have a head start on the next step, which is to start shopping for yourself and the family to make sure you have new Passover outfits and shoes that fit.
Start shopping for clothing sales now and create family clothing sizes charts before you shop to know what everyone needs.
Your first phase of cleaning begins in the living and storage areas-bedrooms, closets, guest rooms, closets, etc. Clean the upstairs rooms from back to front starting with the closets and storage centers in each bedroom, such as drawers and bureaus. This way you can be certain these areas are chometz free and they can potentially be used to store items as you clean other rooms in the house.
If you have prepared for Passover before, look over your Pesach kitchen inventory and determine what kitchenware and cooking tools you need to buy or kosher for Passover. If this is your first Passover, everything that you purchase now will go into your Passover kitchen inventory. Designate a separate place in your basement or kitchen cabinets to store all Passover wares.
Designate a separate pantry on the main floor to store non-perishable Passover grocery items so you can start Passover shopping early. If you don’t have room to create a separate pantry for Passover food, start to move your chometz foods out of your newly-assigned Passover food area. It is best to do this step right after Purim, so, instead of putting all of the food you received over Purim back into the pantry, you put it aside. Keep some grocery bags lined up against your hallway or dining room wall so that everyone knows this food is not going back into the pantry because it is now reserved for Pesach non-perishables. Now is best time to order your Matzohs. It is also worthwhile to find a list of kosher year-round brands so you are not limited to buying expensive Passover brands.
Veal Stew with Apricots and Prunes
Prep: 9 min Total: 1 hr, 19 min Yield: 6-8 servings
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons olive oil 2 onions, coarsely chopped or cut into wedges 1/4 cup tomato paste 2 to 3 pounds veal stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon coarse black pepper 16 baby carrots, halved, length-wise 3 cups water 3/4 cup dried apricots 3/4 cup dried prunes
Preparation:
Heat oil in 4-quart pot over medium heat.
Place onions in pot and saut? for 8-10 minutes or until just beginning to brown. Add tomato paste and stir continuously for 2-3 minutes.
Rinse veal and pat dry; season with salt and pepper.
Add veal to pot and brown for approximately 10 minutes.
Add carrots and water.
Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 40 minutes.
Add apricots and prunes and continue to simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until veal is soft and sauce thickens.
Jamie Geller is the spokesperson for Kosher.com and author of Quick&Kosher: Recipes from the Bride Who Knew Nothing (Feldheim). Residing in Monsey, NY, Jamie also blogs daily at blog.kosher.com and is currently working on her second cookbook.
For more detailed plans on how to make Pesach Perfectly Organized, please visit www.Jewish-life-organized.com and take a look at the Yom Tov Perfectly Organized Collection, written by Rivka Slatkin, Professional Organizer.
