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seder
As I have for a few years, I hosted a Pesach seder this year with the goal of lots of discussion. We had a great group of people this year and it was a big success.
We had eight people, several of whom brought other haggadot to share things from. People asked questions (for which we sometimes pulled reference books off the shelves) and we had lots of great conversation. We also sang lots, which makes me happy. We went for a bit over six hours (including the meal).
I heard some new-to-me melodies, which I haven't necessarily retained but I know whom to ask. Chad Gadya with sound effects -- I'm just sayin'. We sang most of Hallel and I taught a melody for part of the first psalm, which we normally read in English because we didn't have a melody. (So I wrote one, a few years ago. I have a melody for the whole psalm, but I didn't have transliteration available for this psalm and some people needed it, so I didn't want to impose.)
I chose the haggadah I did, despite some archaic language, because not only does it include transliterations of key phrases, but those transliterations are in Sefardi-style Hebrew instead of Ashkenazi. (Sefardi is what comes naturally to me and is used in my congregation.). But there's some stuff that's not transliterated that we sing as a group, so I made a supplementary page with those transliterations. But I need to update it with a couple things for next year, including Psalm 113 so we can sing it.
I made this charoset recipe and it was very successful. It more closely resembled mortar than anything I've ever had based on apples and walnuts, and it was tasty enough that there were almost no leftovers. (I almost halved the recipe because, hey, we were only going to be 8-10 people, but I'm glad I didn't.) I left out the walnuts and increased the almonds and pistachios accordingly, by the way. (I like almonds and pistachios more than I like walnuts.)
I had a couple people coming who don't eat meat (but do eat fish), so rather than making "fake" chicken soup that contains no actual chicken broth, I went looking for interesting alternatives. A search for ginger soup (which I know is a thing and, mmm, ginger) led me to this recipe for green soup with ginger. This took a while to make, and you should definitely use a bigger pot than you think you need so there's room for the greens before they cook down, but wow, that was good! (The recipe says sweet potatoes but shows yams in the photos. I wasn't sure which to use but the decision was made for me: the store didn't have any sweet potatoes when I went shopping. Yams work fine.)
During the first part of the seder I put out snacks (so hunger and spending time on the haggadah wouldn't be in conflict). I put out raw vegetables, dates, and almonds, and a guest brought an eggplant dip. We began the meal with hard-boiled eggs as is traditional. Besides the soup, we also had gefilte fish (brought by a guest), baked herbed chicken, roasted small potatoes, and roasted vegatables. A guest brought fruit salad for dessert, another brought candy, and we had macaroons.
I had to quickly wash the plates we used for the ritual items during the reading of the haggadah so we could use them for dessert; I need to figure out a better solution next year. (Possibly nice disposable plates for one or the other.) We didn't just use the dinner plates because we weren't sitting at the dining-room table the entire time; I learned from my friend Lee Gold the custom of starting in the living room where you have comfortable chairs/couches, so people don't feel rushed by butt-numbing furniture. We gathered around the coffee table, which required small plates. (Obviously this only works if you don't have so many people that you're using all available space for dinner tables. I have the luxury of enough room to use two seating areas, at our current size.)
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