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Forum -> Yom Tov / Holidays -> Pesach
What am I doing wrong (cooking)
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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 10:00 am
I decided to start cooking early because I’m having a very large crowd this year.
I thought that since I have lots of extra days to cook I would accomplish a lot. I guess I work very slowly because it doesn’t seem like I did that much. I started on Sunday afternoon. It’s Wednesday morning now. I’m about to go back to my kitchen. I’ve been literally standing in my kitchen for days from morning till night that my feet are hurting before I even get out of bed.
I feel like I need another week for all the food prep. I know there’s a week till pesach… I mean I need even another week to cook.

Here’s what I did-

Sunday I prepared a few gallons of soup. Took quite a while to peel all the vegetables.
The 2 large pots cooked all afternoon. While the soup was cooking I started on potato kugel.
I only made two 9 x 13 pans and one 8x8 pan of kugel. It was already getting late… my family needed to eat supper.. after bedtime I turned off the soup, wrapped up the kugels. I put the pots of soup in the fridge for overnight because I was too exhausted to start ladling everything into containers (and I needed a strainer to be toiveled). Then I cleaned up the kitchen and went to bed. It was already 12am. I had been in the kitchen since 9:30 in the morning starting with covering the counters…
Monday I woke up at 6 and felt like I hardly slept… stayed in bed a little because I felt so exhausted. After getting kids off to school it was back to work. I took out pots of soup, heated up a little to strain and started putting into plastic containers. Then back to peeling potatoes. Made a few more potato kugels. Kitchen was a big mess after dealing with the soup and kugels. Washed everything including pots, food processor.. it was already 4pm / kids were coming home from school. Dealt with supper, took my daughter shopping for a robe…
Day 2 and all I did was soup and kugel. It literally took me 2 days!!!
Yesterday was day 3.
I thought I would do all my baking.
Only got some of it done.
2 cakes - doubled recipe so it’s really 4 cakes
Double recipe of chocolate chip cookies
Tried a recipe for rolls made out of potatoes.. didn’t come out good but it still took me time-
Left a messy kitchen at 4pm and took my girls shopping for shoes
And then everyone needed supper..
Back to the kitchen/ spent a long time washing up/
Then decided to start my pesach ices
It’s a 2 step process. First is boiling water and sugar- then adding juices.. then whipping in food processor. I made grape juice ices, orange ices and lemon ices. Put the pans in the freezer. Wrapped up the cakes and put the cookies in ziplock bags in the freezer too.

Today I’m back to the kitchen but I thought I would deal with chicken and meats but I’m not finished with the baking! Everything is taking so long!!! First I have to take the ices out of the freezer to slightly defrost- then put in food processor for the right texture and refreeze.
Back to baking that didn’t get done yesterday.
Apple kugel, pineapple kugel and meringues.
Will I have time to bread a few pounds of schnitzel? Will I have time to go to the store to buy the meat?
Why is everything taking me soooo long??
What can I do differently?
I’m cooking for 20 people.. I need a lot of food.
I’m so exhausted and I can only check off a few things on my list…
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amother
Candycane


 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 10:06 am
You need a helper. Someone to peel veggies or wash dishes so you can get more actual cooking done.
When you’re alone it makes sense to take so long.
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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 10:07 am
amother Candycane wrote:
You need a helper. Someone to peel veggies or wash dishes so you can get more actual cooking done.
When you’re alone it makes sense to take so long.


Yes, I need a helper…
What should I do???
I’m sitting on the couch wasting precious time. I have no energy to start another day of cooking.
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amother
Wine


 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 10:10 am
amother Candycane wrote:
You need a helper. Someone to peel veggies or wash dishes so you can get more actual cooking done.
When you’re alone it makes sense to take so long.


THIS!
I've recently got help in the kitchen and I feel like such a balabuste! LoL as I'm the furthest thing from an actual balabuste... but it takes me forever to peel and wash and clean.

Now I have piles of peeled and chopped veggies and I can do everything chop chop.

But really it's the help!
If I was doing it all alone - I would be way behind where your at.
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amother
Anemone


 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 10:12 am
I would stick to easier recipes and cut out the complicated ones. Do cakes not cookies. Potato kugel but not the rest...roast veggies closer to yt instead. The Ices and meringues sound like a hassle too.
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Rappel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 10:12 am
You need different recipes.

Kugel, shnitzel etc, is really time consuming to prep. Roasted chicken, on the other hand...tilapia in pineapple sauce.. goulash...

These things are crowd pleasers, but only take 10 minutes to set up, so you can make massive batches of them.
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Good Friend




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 10:56 am
Besides for what was said above, it helps me to feel calm and like I can manage when I make a plan in advance.
Write down everything that needs to be made over the next week and write a date next to it. Write Tuesday or Wednesday for the things that need to be done closer to yomtov and divide the rest over the other days. If possible leave one day somewhere in the middle empty, or with very little to cook, so if you fall behind schedule you don't have to panic. Things that take a long time to bake, like meat, put in right before you go to sleep to take out when you wake up.

Also now is the time to do take out or really easy suppers (or have frozen in advance but it's too late for that for this year), so you shouldn't have to worry about that now.
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s1




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 11:21 am
Sounds like you’re doing great!
The hardest part of cooking is having to stop the whole time to do shopping and laundry and make suppers!
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Highstrung




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 11:50 am
Peeling can take forever . I always lined up my kids from when they were able to peel and had them do the peeling for Pesach. They don’t help with anything else but kids from age 6 and up can peel and they usually enjoy the process.
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sub




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 11:54 am
Im dizzy from your list. You accomplished TONS, you did prep, cleaning, cooking, daily things like supper and shopping.
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imasinger




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 11:57 am
Another vote that you're doing great, and you can look to simplify.

You've already done soup, desserts and sides. That's wonderful!
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honey36




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 12:08 pm
Don't strain your soup. Takes too long and extra things to wash (bowl you strain into, strainer) just skim it a few times when boiling. If you don't wants chicken bones in it, put chicken in the strainer bags first. Can throw out bags so less to wash.

Not sure this would work for Pesach, but in general try and use prewashed and peeled veggies. Like instead of peeling carrots, just dump in a bag of baby carrots. Costco has prewashed celery. I'd still give it a quick rinse, but much easier than trimming, picking of leaves etc. Buy pre-peeled fresh garlic.
Squash Kugel/muffins - use the frozen precut etc.

Buy biggest onions and potatoes you can find. Much easier and faster to peel. I fill sink with water, peel lots and lots of potatoes and onions, put in sink. Get eggs, spices in and oil all ready. I know how much of each thing because I measure it by size of food processor. Begin processing, dump into bowl when processor is full, quickly add eggs and oil, mix, the. Quickly put in pan and into the oven. Start next batch right away- no need to wash food processor, bowl, measuring cups in between. Saves lots of time.

Ices- I feel like you can find a recipe where you dont have to reblend it, but not sure.
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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 12:09 pm
Good Friend wrote:
Besides for what was said above, it helps me to feel calm and like I can manage when I make a plan in advance.
Write down everything that needs to be made over the next week and write a date next to it. Write Tuesday or Wednesday for the things that need to be done closer to yomtov and divide the rest over the other days. If possible leave one day somewhere in the middle empty, or with very little to cook, so if you fall behind schedule you don't have to panic. Things that take a long time to bake, like meat, put in right before you go to sleep to take out when you wake up.

Also now is the time to do take out or really easy suppers (or have frozen in advance but it's too late for that for this year), so you shouldn't have to worry about that now.


I did make a list of what I should do each day but I’m not finishing everything for the day.. which is why I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong
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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 12:16 pm
Rappel wrote:
You need different recipes.

Kugel, shnitzel etc, is really time consuming to prep. Roasted chicken, on the other hand...tilapia in pineapple sauce.. goulash...

These things are crowd pleasers, but only take 10 minutes to set up, so you can make massive batches of them.


Thanks but no one would eat tilapia or goulash… not even sure about chicken on the bone but I plan on making that anyway
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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 12:17 pm
imasinger wrote:
Another vote that you're doing great, and you can look to simplify.

You've already done soup, desserts and sides. That's wonderful!


Thanks for your words of encouragement..
I only did one side though…
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giftedmom




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 12:18 pm
amother Candycane wrote:
You need a helper. Someone to peel veggies or wash dishes so you can get more actual cooking done.
When you’re alone it makes sense to take so long.

This. Either a cleaning lady or some pre-teens/teens
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amother
Cerulean


 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 12:33 pm
I’m like you OP, I always beat myself up for cooking slowly.

I’m jealous of people who cook their whole Shabbos in an hour or two.

I got new sharp knives, which helps a little. Easier recipes are helpful. I find that new recipes always take me far longer than familiar recipes, so I leave those out unless I have extra time.

And this is how Hashem made me, my hands don’t move fast in the kitchen. I’ve tried to speed up but then I cut or burn myself and make a gigantic mess. Everyone has characteristics that are different… apparently Hashem wanted me to be a slow paced person in the kitchen, much to my dismay!
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tichellady




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 12:43 pm
cooking for 20 people takes a long time. also everything is different and disorienting in a pesach kitchen which isn't the same as your regular kitchen
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amother
Currant


 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 1:01 pm
Aren't there vegetable-peeling machines? I've never owned one but I've always been tempted to buy one.
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amother
Cognac


 

Post Wed, Mar 29 2023, 1:03 pm
You peeled all that yourself? Ouch! Maybe ask whoever you’re hosting to help with the cooking? My kids and dh do a lot of the peeling.
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