Image by JCarrot

As Passover rapidly approaches, cleaning and preparing for the holiday is a topic that comes up more and more. It seems like a huge undertaking and most people dread Passover cleaning– me included. But this year, I’m a little excited. I’ve divided my cleaning into two parts, my kitchen and the rest of my apartment.

I’ve decided to make my Passover cleaning into a more traditional spring cleaning. And what better way to welcome springtime than with a fresh and clean apartment?

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As for the kitchen, it’s always quite a project. I started last night with a play from my college roommate’s playbook. I took a box and placed it on the center of my kitchen floor and started throwing all of my chametz into it. I filled the box pretty quickly, now I know why she put the box out about a month before Passover. There were a lot of staples (beans, pasta and rice) in the box, but there were also some hidden treasures in the back of my cabinets that I had completely forgotten about.

I’ve decided to turn this box of chametz into a challenge. Before Passover starts, I’m going to try and use as much of this food as possible. Additionally, I am not going to buy anymore chametz, which adds to the difficulty because I finished my last slice of bread today. The good news is that there is a lot of food in the box for me to work with.

To complete this challenge I am going to get creative with my recipes. This is the perfect opportunity for me to try new things. Some of the items I know how to prepare in different ways, for example, I am making sesame noodles for dinner tonight. It is going to be harder to use up some of the other items. For instance, the only way I know how to cook rice is to boil it. I usually serve rice with a main dishes but the rice itself is nothing special.

10 days and counting; let the cooking begin!

Sesame Noodles:

1 lbs of thin spaghetti

4 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

6 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Cayenne pepper (to taste)

3 tablespoons sesame seeds

2 scallions, chopped

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook pasta.

Put the peanut butter, soy sauce, vegetable oil, sesame oil and cayenne pepper in a small bowl and whisk together, until peanut better is mixed in.

In a large bowl mix the sauce mixture with the cooked pasta. Garnish with sesame seeds and scallions.

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