A Potato Kugel Lady's thoughts on Mishloach Manos

amother

Thu, Feb 17 2022, 6:33 pm

I still think that making homemade food is more labor- intensive than buying ready made foods and you have to have fridge or freezer space and be concerned about freshness. So it's not for everyone. It's definitely easier and less stressful to be able to prepare the packages days in advance and have them sitting on a side table ready to go.

So everyone has to do what works for them.

zaq

Thu, Feb 17 2022, 7:16 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

. It's definitely easier and less stressful to be able to prepare the packages days in advance and have them sitting on a side table ready to go. .

Nice if you can afford to take up that space for so long. Not everyone has a handy side table that can be vacated for the purpose,or , for that matter, a household in which it’s “safe” to leave those kinds of packages lying around for days.

amother

Thu, Feb 17 2022, 7:24 pm

zaq wrote:

Well, you need space whatever you do. Fresh or store bought. If you make a lot of MM, you need a place to store it. If you make it fresh, you only need to store it for that day, but the downside is that there is more stress at the last minute.

We always put out two tables. One for the outgoing MM and one for the incoming ones. We put them in one of the bedrooms.

Purim day is always too busy to open the packages. So we wait until the seuda is over and everyone has left before opening all the packages.

amother

Thu, Feb 17 2022, 7:30 pm

zaq wrote:

This reminds me.
One year, a good friend of mine who takes great pride in her meticulous mishloach manos and is very organized, prepared her MM days in advance. They were all lined up neatly on the dining room table.

The night before Taanis Esther, the bathroom upstairs sprung a leak and somehow no one noticed it. This happened in middle of the night. The water dripped and filled the bathroom floor and eventually seeped through the ceiling underneath.

They were woken up in the early morning when the ceiling crashed down right on top of the table and all the shalach manos were ruined.

(That would never happen to me because I would never be so organizes about it. )
BH there were still candies left in the store to buy new ones, but I know this was a very traumatizng experience for her, as you can imagine.

amother

Almond

Thu, Feb 17 2022, 9:35 pm

My favorite theme we did was one year when Purim was on Thursday... We gave out a 9x13 foil pan with lid as the container, a small grape juice, 2 homemade challah rolls (10 lb altogether), fish crackers, noodle soup, chicken squishy (my husband likes giving out toys), potato chips for kugel, a Sterns pastry for desert, 2 tea lites, two flower pens.

I am stumped as to when I baked the challah... Unless I did it at night? I remember it was a huge job because I weighed the dough to make sure it would be enough and bagged them individually.

amother

Thu, Feb 17 2022, 11:57 pm

Allow me to share one more thought (for now) on shalach manos.

I remember seeing a cartoon drawn by Yoni Gerstein. This was back on 2000.

He drew two pairs of men exchanging mishloach manos.
The first pair of men gave simple plates with two or three items on the plates. Both men were looking at and smiling at each other. Underneath it, it said "Year 1900."

Next to it was a drawing of two men handing over heaping baskets of food piled high, with ribbons and bows... But neither man was looking at the other. Their faces were turned away and they were both on their phones.
Underneath it said "Year 2000."

Needless to say, the powerful message stayed with me all these years.

amother

Daphne

Fri, Feb 18 2022, 7:11 am

amother [ Almond ] wrote:

That's cute. If I would do that theme I would put it in a box instead of a 9x13 foil pan.

Raisin

Fri, Feb 18 2022, 8:40 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I hear you.

And I feel sorry for the people who go to the trouble of buying junk. And yellow Laffy taffies and black jellybeans because it matches their theme. Oh and green tea. Lots of it gets dumped as well. (The green tea gets passed on to their cleaning ladies.)

For that matter, I feel sorry for people who spend money on fake grass and shredded paper and cellophane paper and ribbons, and then spend hours wrapping it so that it should look just so, when most people just rip right into the package.

What

I love black jellybeans and yellow laffytaffys. Please send them to me!!!

(But I know what you mean..)

amother

Fri, Feb 18 2022, 8:47 am

Raisin wrote:

I love black jellybeans and yellow laffytaffys. Please send them to me!!!

(But I know what you mean..)

Do you also like Moon (poppyseed) hamantashen? I feel like it goes together with the black licorice and jellybeans. I'll send it all to you.
The yellow Laffy taffies are not so bad, I agree.

amother

Almond

Fri, Feb 18 2022, 8:51 am

amother [ Daphne ] wrote:

That's cute. If I would do that theme I would put it in a box instead of a 9x13 foil pan.

Why? The point was that it was something that goes with the theme of things you could use for Shabbos.

amother

Daphne

Fri, Feb 18 2022, 9:17 am

amother [ Almond ] wrote:

Why? The point was that it was something that goes with the theme of things you could use for Shabbos.

Yes, I get it's part of the theme but it looks so....plain. But that's me.

amother

Mon, Feb 28 2022, 11:25 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I have tried it. It doesn't taste as good.
The only time I would use a frozen kugel (toserve others) is in the cholent. For my family I would be less makpid.

Plus, even if it was good, if you are making just a few kugels, fine. But if you are making a lot (and we give out over 50) it becomes too much of a hassle. And I only have one oven.

I'm coming back here to take back what I said about frozen kugel.

It happened once that there was a mix-up on erev Yom Tov, and the person who was supposed to pick up the kugels for the shul didn't show up. So I put the kugels in the freezer. Then, on Yom Tov, they came to pick it up. I don't know what they did wrong, but I heard back from my family members that the kugels were not good. That's why I said what I did above.

However, I'm taking back what I said because lately my baby, who has a newfound obsession with kugel, has been coming home from playgroup and pointing to the freezer. (He doesn't speak yet, but I know what he wants. ) My freezer is stuffed with lots of small pans of potato kugel. So I have been putting some water in the pan and reheating it on 350. And you are right, it tastes just like regular overnight kugel.

I stand corrected.

amother

Sat, Mar 19 2022, 10:30 pm

amother [ NeonPurple ] wrote:

OP, we need to know, did you bring the writing to Ami or was it plagiarized?

Yes, after hearing it suggested by several posters, I caved and sent it in. Thanks to all of you who read and commented and urged me to submit my writing.

As an aside, I asked my sister if she remembers the story of my Mishloach manos the year she was in seminary. She burst out laughing and said that she tells her kids the story every year as they prepare mishloach manos. She finds it hysterical because now she always sends something homemade. Wink