Seder Prep

We are having our Passover seder on Saturday. I know it is supposed to be on one of the first couple of days of Passover, but this weekend is just more convenient. I wanted to get a few things done ahead of time so I'm not overwhelmed on Saturday.

I'm not normally much of a desert maker. I rarely bake, and when we are having people over, I usually count on someone bringing a desert so I don't have to make anything. But, I saw this recipe for chocolate caramel matzoh crunch and it sounded too good not to try. I think I have had something similar with saltine crackers as the base before which was also delicious. I used a little sprinkling of this fancy sea salt made by Jacobsen Salt Co. that my Mom sent us which is actually made from water from Netarts Bay. Netarts Bay is just south of Oceanside, OR where my family has a cabin and where Nate and I got married. It was really easy to make and the combination of caramel and chocolate and salt is insanely delicious.

I also dyed eggs for the seder. My mom has been making onion skin Easter eggs since before I was born. Either by just wrapping an egg with onion skins secured with pantyhose and boiling them. Or by making a dye first and creating silhouettes of leaves or flowers by laying them on the egg and again securing them with pantyhose and boiling the eggs in the dye. The eggs wrapped in onion skins version is simpler and I've been doing that myself either for easter or for the eggs for our Passover seders that we have been having for the past few years.

This year I decided to try making blue dye out of red cabbage along with the brown onion skin dye. It turned out pretty good. After the blue eggs were done boiling in the dye I let them sit in the cooled down water for a few hours because the red cabbage dye isn't quite as strong as the onion skin dye. I discovered California poppy leaves make the prettiest silhouettes. I love the way the blue dyed eggs look almost like sun prints.

We finished off the dove rolls that my Mom sends me for Easter every year in record time. For some reason it is so satisfying to rip off and eat their cute little heads. Kind of barbaric, but so tasty.