Pam R

OK. I think this will be the last big entry for tonight. Did I mention that I have a non-Passover recipe column due on Thursday? I was testing Pasta recipes on Sunday, last night and tonight after I got home before I got online, I tested the final one. So I need to type that up before falling asleep. While I was gone, Hazel (works with us) brought all of these angelfood cake pans up from the basement and washed them for me: Once back at the shop, I began actually working on food prep! All of these lemons were scrubbed, zested and juiced: 7 L of juice and just under 2 L of zest: Remember the eggs? Well I seperated a few: That's 20 dozen eggs. Seperated one at a time in a dish so that I could check for blood spots and throw out any bad eggs. I've done this about 4 times since last Monday and only had to throw out about 12 eggs. Then it was on to the first batch of lemon chiffon cakes: This was the first cake I baked this year. I followed my recipe then we tasted it because the ingredients can vary from year to year - and decided it was a little dry and I cut back on cake meal and potato starch. After this, I baked several batched - 5 cakes per batch. Did I mention that I didn't use any flour? Hmm... maybe one more entry before bed

Ummm... I realize I'm posting a whole lot here - two reasons. Although this blog is only for one week, Passover actually started last week. To get a feel for what I do at work, I think it's a good idea to show you what went on last week too. I hope nobody minds my turning this into a 2-week thing (all within the one week of course). The other issue is that I actually made it home before 8 pm tonight - that's not likely to happen for the next couple of days, so I'm taking advantage of that opportunity. So after the kitchen was ready to go last week, first thing to do was go to the wholesale. All of out meat and cheeses come from Toronto. So do most of our kosher for passover baking and cooking supplies. (There is a kosher food store across the street from us, and I go in there to grab whatever I didn't order in from Toronto). Because the bulk of things come from elsewhere, it's rare that I order from Sysco. So off I (or my mom or dad) go to the wholesale to shop for things like produce, eggs and some dairy. There are a few other things like sugar, nuts, some baking supplies and other things we get there as well. Here's the Real Canadian Wholesale Club and our carts as we're loading the cars as it starts to rain: ummm... the 7-up is for home... shhh.. and I don't know if you can see the 6 cases of eggs, but remember them.... they play an important roll in this holiday. This was trip #1 of 3 to the wholesale last week.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Passover has stricter dietary laws than the rest of the year. In addition to all of the things we’re not supposed to eat, during the holiday we’re not allowed any leavened bread, rice, legumes (including beans, lentils, peas, peanuts), soy, corn, grains, certain oils (like canola) …. and I’m sure more. (I’m rather tired and forgetting things I’d like to add here… sorry) Not only can we not use these forbidden foods, but we have to use different pots, pans and utensils. Most people have different sets of everything that they bring up from the basement at Passover. It’s also important to clean all of these items out of the house. At work, it’s not possible to get rid of all of these foods, but they are all removed from the kitchen. Any plastic or wood utensils are put away for the holiday. After the kitchen has been cleaned, we boil our soup pot (it holds about 80 L) and dunk all of our metal bowls and utensils and pots in the boiling water. This ‘kashers’ these items – cleans them well enough for us to use them. The metal counters get licked by the flames of a tiger-torch, burning off any food residue that may be forbidden. I was going to take pictures last week when this was going on but there was lots of swearing as people got burned and I thought it best to stay out of the way. But I did snap a picture of one of our butcher-block tables getting wrapped in plastic. There is no way to kasher these, so vapor barrier is placed on top and taped underneath. It’s replaced a couple of times throughout the 2 weeks of prep.

Now, what did I eat today? I'm afraid I have to say not much. I arrived at work at about 7:20 this morning and other than some komish crumbs (as I was slicing them) and a few potato chips, didn't eat anything after my strawberries and nuts this morning until dinner at about 6:30 I really try hard to have some lunch, but the phone didn't stop ringing, the customers didn't stop coming in and the baking had to be done! I did drink my coffee throughout the morning and some water. But I made up for it at dinner. ** Disclaimer #3 I eat in non-kosher restaurants. This week won’t allow me to go to more interesting places to show you what my fair city has to offer, but I will be able to take you to a couple of local places. Not what you would call ‘fine dining’ but good food nonetheless. ** So after work, my mother and I grabbed dinner at a greek restaurant. My father was off doing deliveries and when I called his cell phone to tell him to meet us at the TUXEDO Village Inn, he thought I said the PEMBINA Village Inn and by the time I saw that he had left a message on my cell, mom and I had pretty much finished dinner. I have no idea what he ate, but we shared: Avgolomeno Soup, pita and Greek Salad Followed by a platter of Greek goodies that had too much!! I hadn't been to this restaurant in a long time, but everything was great. I was so hungry that before dinner I was a little dizzy, so I really enjoyed. (had an Ice Tea too)

Right now we're about 12-13,000. At it's prime, it was about 20,000. Learn more about us here

Melissa, You amaze me with what you find online. I have not seen it before and jsut skimmed it - I am printing it out to look at more and will probably refer to it later in the blog Thanks!

I taught in a Jewish Day School and the kitchen was, of course, kosher to the highest standards. The woman who set up the kitchen decided of her own volition to mark the big utensils with paint to show which were "meat" and "milk" .. needless to say, the inspection people were horrified that we were poisoning the children with lead-based paint ... so those were thrown out and new utensils were purchased ... more acceptable option ... ← grrrr .... I was uploading pictures all of our paint is on the OUTSIDE of the pots and pans... and on the spoon and knife handles

We've never done the hole in spoons thing. Though we work in many synagogue kitchens.. and not only do they have holes in utensils, but in bus tubs and bowls too!! That annoys me. We have two ways of distinguishing between meat/milk/dairy. One is paint. If we have more of one thing for different uses, it gets red paint for meat, white paint for parve and blue for milk. The second way is to buy things that come in different colours or look differently for different uses - some bus tups are grey, some are orange,black or white. The thing about Passover is that most of what we use during the year, we can't use during Passover because the rules at Passover are more strict. So most of our stuff is taken out of the kitchen and quite honestly, we buy a lot of cheap stuff to get us through the holiday. So you won't actually see many painted things. But I'll get into this more a little later.

**Disclaimer #2 To be able to say that you are a “kosher company”, you must have a hechsher or supervision from a supervisory entity which checks to make sure all of the ingredients used are in fact kosher and that all of the laws are being followed. ** We were supervised for over 20 years. Due to many many issues, mostly political and nothing I’m going into here, we have chosen to give up our supervision. So, under Manitoba’s laws, I am not allowed to say that my business is Kosher. Nor am I allowed to say that we are ‘kosher-style’ (apparently this is illegal here). What we do is use all kosher ingredients and follow all kosher laws when preparing food – then it’s up to the consumer to decide whether or not they want to eat our food. The first year we gave up supervision we weren’t sure how it would affect orders – but we had more Passover orders that year than any other… It’s interesting, some of the most orthodox people will eat our food, while some of the least religious won’t because we don’t have supervision. The two big certifiers are O-U in the US and COR in Canada - several other large ones that are generally accepted by all are MK (Montreal), Star-K (Baltimore), Kaf-K. O-K, BCK. There are many many more. This means that most (though not all) people who observe kashrut will eat food certified by these organizations. There are some groups who won't eat some of these - a lot of the reasons are political, but some reasons are that some certifiers allow things that those individuals do not consider to be kosher. In large cities like New York or Toronto it's easier to observe the rules at the highest levels. When you get into smaller communities, it's harder to find kosher foods and some people will settle for what's available.

That's what I always do to - for kugels and latkes. GG _ your recipe sounds good. I'll try it next week.

Hmmm... around here it's two Jews, four opinions This is exactly where the 2 Jews, 3 opinions comes in. For almost every Jewish law there are different levels of observance. Some very observant Jews will have two seperate kitchens. Some will have different sections in their kitchens, with two of everything - one for meat and one for milk. Other people will use the same counters and sinks for both, but will have different pots, pans, dishes and utensils. Yet others will have differnt pots and pans and utensils but will have one set of dishes - if they are glass. Glass is non-porous, so it doesn't absorb any food particles and may be considered neutral - by some . At work we have different sections in our kitchen where we process meat/milk. We have different ovens, utensils, pots, pans and sinks. I'll try to get some good kitchen pictures by the end of the week. Though our company name is Desserts Plus, we do full-line catering. Our newspaper ads always used to be Desserts Plus What? Desserts Plus..... appetizers, Desserts Plus... Entrees.... ect. You'll see a bunch of stuff this week.

Im' being yelled at to get back to work Back later.

Thanks for the encouragement everybody. Now, on to lesson #1… Kosher – What is it? This is going to by HIGHLY simplified. Kosher food is NOT food that has been blessed by a Rabbi. It IS food that is prepared following a specific set of dietary laws given to the Jewish people thousands of years ago. The Top Two, as I like to call them, of the kosher world: 1. Thou shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk. Eh? We aren’t allowed to mix milk and meat. No pepperoni pizza – no cheeseburgers and milkshakes. 2. Only certain animals may be eaten. Hmmm? To be technical here, an animal has to have split hooves and be ruminant (chew its cud). Whatzat?? Cows. Deer, sheep, bison.. all ok. (Giraffes are ok too…. but I’ve never heard of anybody eating one… can you imagine putting that neck on your Seder plate??) Pigs and umm… kangaroo aren’t. (I’m trying to think of another common meat other than pork that’s not allowed and am coming up blank). Birds are a little tricky. No predatory birds are allowed and there should be a tradition of eating them in order to consider them kosher. Chickens and ducks aren’t a problem though some people won’t eat turkey. Why you ask? Because turkey is a bird of the new world – so how can there be a tradition of eating them? All I know is… well there’s a tradition of eating them in my family! Fish – must have scales and fins. So…. That means no shellfish. Salmon, tuna, most whitefishes are all allowed. Now, in addition to being limited to specific animals, they also have to be slaughtered and processed following a specific set of laws. A shoichet is a person who does the slaughtering. He will use an extremely sharp knife to slit the jugular vein in the neck. Then the meat goes through a process of salting and rinsing to draw out as much blood as possible. Did I mention that only various cuts of meat are kosher? In most places in the world, it is rare to find somebody who can produce kosher cuts out of the rear end of animals. There are some tricky veins in there that are hard to remove and outside of the major Jewish centers, nobody’s doing it. Most typical cuts of meat available (whether from a cow, sheep, etc.): ribeye, shoulder, chuck, ribs (flanken), tongue, liver and the king of all Jewish cuts of meat - BRISKET! One last note on ‘kosher’ for now, is Parve (pareve). If you frequent the baking forums you may have read posts requesting ideas for parve baking. (somebody please correct me if I’m wrong but), Parve means neutral. This means that if a food is parve then it is neither milk nor meat and can then be eaten with either! Parve foods include: water, fruits, vegetables, grains, fish…and.. ummm… air. If you are making a Garlic Roast Brisket for dinner, that means that EVERYTHING else you serve at that meal must be parve (or other meats). So you can’t use butter in the mashed potatoes or on the vegetables. You can’t bake a cake that has milk or butter in it. That’s why while most people shun dairy substitutes, those of us who are kosher cooks (and especially those in the kosher cooking business) often embrace them. We’d have very limited option if there was no margarine of non-dairy creamers and whipped toppings…. Later in the week you’ll see some of my parve creations. I feel like I’m spewing too much… am I?

I've kind of been thinking the same thing.....

Je ne parle pas francais - so yep, it was quite challenging. It was also very different food than what I'm used to doing - but on the up side, once lunch was served, it was pretty much dead for the rest of the day, so I actually started testing recipes for my cookbook there. A lot of your questions have been answered by others (thanks) - some of your questions are better answered towards the end of my week - once the holiday begins. If I miss something later on, please remind me.

While I’m at work today, if you’d like to learn a little more about Passover, you can check out this link. Passover Kashrut FAQ What is Kosher you ask? You can look at this link to learn a little more about Kashrut in general. OU If you want to wait, later I will post a simplified explanation of kosher/Kashrut. See ya later, off to work.

Last night I prepared my iced coffee for today: I use potato milk and a little caramel in it (everything is better with caramel). Into the fridge and in the morning I just add ice and have it for the car in the morning. I actually make a couple of bottles so that I can have it throughout the day if I wish. Otherwise I tend to stick to ice-water. Along with the coffee is strawberries and nuts. (I'm taking all of the berries with me - but only a handfull of nuts) PS: there will be no cute pet pictures (at least not of my pet – as he as he is no longer with us). If I can I may sneak in a couple of cute kid pics – not my kids, but they’re related to me.

Good Morning everybody. It's just before 6 am here and I thought I'd start this off before I get ready for work. As I’m still relatively new around here, let me start off with a little intro. My name is Pam and I’m single and living in Winnipeg, Canada. When I was young my parents started a catering company called Desserts Plus. I grew up in the business – as most children of small business owners do. Our building was close to my school – so I would often walk over after classes and peel potatoes or wash dishes or do whatever else needed doing. I went off to university in the big-ole US of A. Got my degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management and returned home. After a BRIEF stint with a large-chain restaurant, I thought “this sucks” and quit to go back to the family business. Over the years the business has been different things. It started with the baking of high-end tortes … then it became a full-line kosher catering company… occasionally we’ve had a restaurant and run the food services in other locations (one summer at a golf course, one year at the Asper Jewish Community Campus and one school year at St. Boniface Collage – a French language University in Winnipeg). The largest part of our company now is actually retail sales. We bring in kosher products from other cities and wholesale/retail them. Somewhere along the way, I discovered the thing I enjoyed the most was creating new recipes. After a good time procrastinating, I put knife to cutting board and pen to paper and wrote my first cookbook. Since it was published, I’ve started writing a bi-weekly food/recipe column for the local Jewish newspaper (Jewish Post and News) and have been working on getting things into other publications (which finally happened last week/this week with some of my stuff appearing in a paper in LA, Vancouver and the Jerusalem Post). Yay! A typical week for me usually has me testing recipes. I luck out and often only have to try something a couple of times. There have been other occasions when I’ve had to try something at least 15 times before it worked the way I wanted it to. This is not a typical week. This week my mother, father, one other staff person and I will be preparing food for about 150 families. We’ll be feeding more than 1000 people over two days. The kicker is that EVERYTHING has to be prepared for pickup this Friday afternoon. So, I’m going to show you what I eat this week (don’t be expecting too much) and I’m going to show you what it’s like to prepare this food. I’ll go into what “kosher” is – and I will explain what I can along the way. I’m not sure how detailed this should be. I don’t want to bore you! If I’m going on too much, somebody nudge me and let me know. If I’m not explaining enough for you, PLEASE PLEASE ask. I’m happy to answer what I can. I know that there are some very knowledgeable people on eGullet who I would be happy to have helping out answering any questions. This blog is starting in one of the busiest weeks of the year for us… so I will try to post whenever I force myself to take a break. Towards the end of my week I’ll actually be enjoying a couple of days off – so if I miss anything I promise to try to catch up then. **Disclaimer #1 - I am not at all orthodox (religious). I’m hoping to get some photos at my family Seders this week and will be posting on the Sabbath. ** Whew! Let’s get started.

Goodnight Wendy - and thanks so much.

Holds down a job?? Some of us just rely on the support of friends and family members I'm going to suggest looking at The Writer's Market. It lists most of the publishers in North America and tells you what type of books (ie: cookbooks) they publish and whether they accept unsolicited and unagented manuscripts. I decided not to go with an agent and after 3 offers to publish negotiated myself between 2 publishers. When I told one publisher (American) that I was going with another (Canadian) the response was that perhaps they could buy the US rights - which is what happened. Having the two offers also helped me negotiate between the two - if there had only been one offer I would have likely taken whatever was offered. Could I have gotten more with an agent? Maybe. But I'm very happy with both my publishers, and so far so good.

I'm almost shocked to tell you that I'm not cooking for my own seder! One night my extended family is off to a hotel (oy), the other we'll be at a cousins. Having said that, I am cooking for about 100 family' seders

I use the safflower oil too - and like it (though I seem to be slightly alergic). Caution - it is considered kitniyot - so it's not good for everybody.

Thanks Wendy. Your blog came at a great time - I'm about to start a new venture at work and you've inspired me. Though I doubt I'll ever get to your level, you've given me some great ideas and I promise to work on my own techniques.

Please don't be sad! We may not be posting a lot, but we're all reading and enjoying. I asked a question earlier that you missed (I think), so I'll re-ask it now. You mentioned using the airbrush to cover your tiramisu with chocolate. How do you do that? So you mean regular chocolate that you melt and airbrush on or is it some other type of chocolate?

I'd love to see some pictures too, if possible. We no longer have a baker (PC) at work, and I'm planning on trying to do some so-called "fancy" stuff myself - and having no training or patience - I have never been great at smoothing out icing. I'm hitting myself on the forhead right now because I've never used scrapers like that - I've always used offset spatulas. I'm heading to a hardware store tomorrow.