Looking to stay home for Pesach, 1st time, ISO advice

chatouli

Sun, Dec 08 2013, 10:30 pm

This may sound crazy, but make your menu and work from there. For example, if you will be making gefilte fish, chicken on the stove, potato kugel, carrots and chocolate torte for dinner, you need to buy:

A hand grater or food processor
Vegetable peeler
Fleshig pot
Parve pot
Cutting boards
Mixing bowl
Wooden spoon
9x13 baking pan (or if you are me, a lot of aluminum roasting pans)
Oven mitts
Sharp knives (parve and fleishig)

I buy one big pot rather than a few smaller ones. I just wash it frequently.

I hope this made sense. This is how I do it.

Barbara

Sun, Dec 08 2013, 10:34 pm

amother wrote:

Any advice on where to START? I'm referring to shopping for pots, dishes, and anything I could possibly need.
Thanks.

Start simple. As the years go by, you can add to your supplies.

Go through the steps.

KASHERING YOUR KITCHEN. What do you need to do. Covering counters is usually the biggie. If your sink(s) is (are) not stainless, you're also going to need to buy sink inserts. Google some old threads on counter covers. We use something like this: http://www.containerstore.com/.....00688

EATING. You can use freshly laundered tablecloths, so you're OK there. Dishes. Cutlery. Glasses. Mugs. How many people are you really going to have? And are you really going to wash all those dishes? We haven't used our milk dishes in years; its paper all the way. I'd prefer to spend more and limit your numbers, buying more later, here. You're not likely to replace anything any time soon.

SEDER. Seder plate. Kiddush cups. Elijah's cup. Matzo cover. Again, this is your first year. I'd advise you to go low-end, plastic on all but one item. If you have an Amazing Savings near you, they have the cheap plastic stuff. Otherwise, try ebay. Every year, you can replace an item.

COOKING. Have I said simple already? I meant it. Maybe you use your food processor every day of your life. You can get through 8 days without it; no one has ever died of not having a kugel. A meat frying pan and a couple of meat pots. One milk frying pan and milk pot. Lots of mixing spoons, measuring spoons, measuring cups.

ETA -- you can buy something like this http://www.amazon.com/Pyrex-10.....BUMLQ to use for mixing bowls and to cook in, and divide it between milk and meat. Or this. http://www.jcpenney.com/for-th.....c=JCP|dept20000011|cat1003070058|RICHREL&grView=&eventRootCatId=&currentTabCatId=&regId= Try the Corningware outlet stores, or http://www.shopworldkitchen.com/pwp-dec13/

Other stuff. Do you need a water urn, given that you can heat water on yom tov?

I'm sure I've forgotten things. As it gets closer, see if you can put together a menu, then think about what you need for it.

UQT

Sun, Dec 08 2013, 11:39 pm

What a special experience - after we stayed home we never went away again! One thing I would recommend is getting a good mixer. I was cheap the first year and bought a $70 mixer. Every recipe has you separate and beat the eggs white. the mixer did not have enough stuff in the bowl to turn on it's own. I had a zillion things to do and had to stop everything to be a 'mixer bowl turner'. After a few years I bought the mini-basch (around $200) and it works great. I appreciate it every year when pesach rolls around and the $70 mixer is just sitting..

ra_mom

Sun, Dec 08 2013, 11:48 pm

amother wrote:

OP here. Wow. Some really great advice here!
I'll be cooking fleishigs only. Only the kids eat dairy (DH doesn't on Pesach).
Thx! Any tips welcome!

Get yourself a good set of meat pots/pans. 2 good knives. 2 good peelers. A set of serving utensils (soup ladel, etc.) from the dollar store.
Dairy should be store bought items only (cheese, yogurt) with no need to buy kitchen tools.
How much kugel will your family eat over pesach? How many cakes do you need? Whether or not you need a food processor (that comes with beaters/whip for mixing cakes) will depend on your answer. If you won't need too much, a simple hand grater and disposable pan for mixing a one bowl cake will do.
A crock pot might be helpful if you're used to using one year round for cholent. You can use it for cholent on pesach as well as an extra cooking element for roasts and for chol hamoed suppers that cook while you are out during the day.
Hot water urn is not necessary unless you are used to using one all the time.
You can use disposable dishes the first year if you want to wait on buying. There are some nice options out there and the upside is fewing dishes to wash.

seeker

Mon, Dec 09 2013, 1:45 am

Agree with the advice to start simple. Also know that even though at times it seems overwhelming, it is so worthwhile - even if the food isn't as good as wherever you were last year. The accomplishment of doing it on your own and that family time are just incomparable.

I used a bunch of disposables; down the line I'll get to more dishes/flatware/roasting pans but in the short run it was just that much easier to afford for now. And we're a small family, much of the large package of plastic plates and bowls went into the closet for next year. For yomtov meals we used nicer disposables. Besides the initial outlay cost, it saved tons of cleanup time which ordinarily I wouldn't shirk as much but after making Pesach I appreciated the break more, I was able to enjoy my family instead of washing dishes and pans three times a day.

Keep it simple is right. Every meal needs a protein and a vegetable, you don't need to do every fancy thing in the magazines. You don't even need to do ANY of them. I don't know about your family but my first pesach was just me, dh, a toddler, and a nursing infant, so I just made one big roast and dressed up the leftovers differently for several meals - that was the first days and chol hamoed. In between those iterations we had chicken (spice and toss in pot, nothing fancy). One batch of pesach cake in a disposable pan. One large pot of chicken soup - made once, lasted from beginning to end of yomtov and fed the soft chicken to kids (dressed up a bit). Another nice cut of meat for the second days. Potatoes with various combinations of seasonings. Eggs scrambled and boiled for non-feast meals. Lots of matza. Really was not a huge deal and really was a beautiful yomtov and you have to take my word for it because I am SO not balabustish. You CAN do it!

Isramom8

Mon, Dec 09 2013, 1:53 am

What an exciting adventure! When our kids were small, we stayed home for Pesach. I made Pesach from the second year we were married, and we had guests.

Later due to family circumstances we went away for about seven years running. Then we stopped, and we've been making Pesach at home again for a few years now. We LOVE Pesach at home!

In the intervening time, we had more kids, and the small kids grew big, so I've had to add to my supplies. As Barbara suggested, I've learned from experience and built up slowly.

The size of your fleishig pots and pans depends on how many kids and guests you will be having. The number can be minimal - maybe three pots and three pans, unless you use disposable pans? And a frying pan. You need silverware, a peeler, sharp knives, a soup ladle, maybe a nut cracker, maybe a wine bottle opener, kitchen towels, maybe an apron, a spatula, a slotted spoon, maybe a colander, and a set of dishes. A mixer is important for Pesach. (For some reason I'm still using a hand blender!)

An oven, or an oven insert (if your posek requires one). We bought a Pesach oven that sits on top of our regular gas burners.

Sink inserts or racks (if your posek requires one).

Very heavy aluminum or Formica or whatever to cover the kitchen counters.

Paper to line shelves (if you do that).

It's important to me to have lots of cooking time before the chag - at least one full day more than it would take me to make a regular Shabbos. I find the bulk of Pesach cooking is before it even starts. There is baking, and preparing all the seder plate foods.

Simple cooking on Pesach is clean and yummy. Roasted chicken, potatoes, onions, carrots and zucchini, delicious!

seeker

Mon, Dec 09 2013, 9:59 am

amother wrote:

ra_mom wrote:

OP, will you be using your regular oven over pesach? (It makes cooking and baking so much simpler.)

I'm not sure. DH is overwhelmed by the process and prefers I buy a toaster oven. Does that even make sense?

I'm so so so grateful for everyone's advice!!!!

I did fine with almost all just stovetop. But remember I was basically only cooking for 2. I "borrowed" an oven t make my one cake! Everything else including reheating was on the stove iirc.

MMCH

Mon, Dec 09 2013, 10:37 am

ive been making pesach since my first year married and we love it!!
every year we get a little more comfortable, have a little more guests..

start making lists of everything. try to keep in mind what you use most in the kitchen. and buy those things
and then obv pesach things

I wouldn't buy a set of pots, I would got to amazing savings (or the like: xmas tree shop) and buy 2 BIG soup pots, and 2 or 3 frying pans with lids, and then like one little soup pot
(I bought a set, and ended up not using some of the pieces)
I would get a good hand mixer, and a food processor (I recommend the Braun,(exp though) with the Kugel blade which makes making potato kugel a breeze)
and LOTS AND LOTS of plastic mixing bowls.
dont wait till the last minute. if you have the space I would buy stuff now, toivel, and have everything as ready as you can, so that when it comes down it, the month be4 can be focused on turning over, which is really the hardest part.
good luck

Barbara

Mon, Dec 09 2013, 10:53 am

amother wrote:

ra_mom wrote:

OP, will you be using your regular oven over pesach? (It makes cooking and baking so much simpler.)

I'm not sure. DH is overwhelmed by the process and prefers I buy a toaster oven. Does that even make sense?

I'm so so so grateful for everyone's advice!!!!

No. It doesn't make sense, unless he's doing all the cooking.

Kashering the oven is not all that difficult. If you have self clean, that's about it. Otherwise, you'll need to clean it. From OU:

Quote:

Kashering a Non-Self-Cleaning Oven:
1. Clean walls, floor, door, ceiling and racks thoroughly with an abrasive cleaner (for example, Easy-Off ) to remove tangible chametz. Pay special attention to the temperature gauge, the window in the door and the edges of the oven chamber. Black discolorations that are flush with the metal do not have to be removed.
2. Once the oven is clean, it is preferable that it remain unused for twenty- four hours.
3. Place the racks back into the oven, and turn the oven to broil for one and-a-half hours.
4. Pesach food or pans may be placed directly on the door or racks once the oven has been kashered.

If the oven has a separate broiler chamber, it should be kashered in the same manner as the oven chamber.

A broiler pan that comes in direct contact with food cannot be kashered.

Note: The method of kashering described above is based on the ruling of Rav Aharon Kotler zt’l. However, Rav Moshe ruled that the oven must either be kashered with a blowtorch, or that an insert should be placed into the oven for the duration of Pesach. Consult your own Rabbi for guidance.

I really don't recommend a blowtorch unless you feel you must.

bubbebia

Mon, Dec 09 2013, 10:56 am

Good for you! Making Pesach is a daunting affair but an exciting one and once you do it the first time you'll be less terrified after that.

Like everyone says, start simple. Use paper goods and aluminum foil pans as much as possible. You can kasher silver/metal kiddush cups. If you live in such places like Brooklyn they have sites where you can kasher all that stuff.

Making a menu ahead of time will give you a better sense of what you will need to purchase. But you will need a decent sized pot for soup, a good big frying pan and a couple of smaller pots. Buy inexpensive wooden spoons, spatulas, a peeler, couple of cutting boards, ladles, etc. Personally, I can't live without my oven but we have a self-cleaning one so that helps. We also bought an extra set of burner covers expressly for Pesach.

In terms of covering your counters, you can buy shelf liner that you can cut to shape. We also used a roll of linoleum from Home Depot for a lot of years that could be rolled up and stored. We cut it to the shape of our counters, labeled it with a sharpie as to where it went and stored them for about 5 years until they started to tear. Now we use heavy duty shelf liner that we also cut to shape. Until we had stainless steel sinks we lined them with heavy duty aluminum foil held down with masking tape. We also use sink racks that hold the dishes up an inch so the dishes don't sit in the sink per se. It works just fine. If you have stainless steel, clean them real well and kasher them with boiling water.

A decent food processor and a good hand mixer are pretty important. I found my crummy little cheapo Hamilton Beach handmixer has done the trick just fine and I've had it now for over 30 years. Granted, they don't make appliances like they used to, but to start with you don't need a really fancy mixer. In later years you may find you want something more. I'd start simple and see how it goes for you. Then you can decide to invest in something better in future years.

The outlay of money for Pesach is considerable. To have to outfit your kitchen as well as buying all the food you need which invariably, especially since you only eat meat, is going to cost 3 times as much as usual, is going to be horrifying. That's why I advocate buying simple and adding to your stock over time.

Good luck!