Pesach Program 2: Plan Smart

[Music] hi this is Deborah Orlowski and welcome to the rub your Olaf ski show and the special role of ski paisa program where we provide you with extra material for your Pesach preparation needs and whether this is your pre pace up packing or your pre pace off scrubbing or cleaning or organizing or sitting on the couch forlorn feeling sorry for yourself I'm here to share that with you anyway so that's this is episode episode 27 of the rabbi Orlovsky show and it's number two of our special Pesach program podcast Pesach preparation podcast for the pre pace [Music] it's a pleasure you never have the positive possibility are you anyway oh yeah so we spoke last time about Pesach cleaning we tried to give a context to it do a little bit that it's part of our avodah where we're spending the time that you know pace that was not meant just to be sitting around doing nothing it's it's supposed to have a certain the way we left Egypt with that puzzle with that with that bahala with that kind of sense of confusion and panic that's how it's supposed to be I have to tell you that for your pace up preparation this happens to be the best possible year I think next year a two years from now we'll also be good but this year is one of the best because the first Seder is Friday night two years the same will be on mostly Shabbos on Saturday night so you really can't do anything on air of pacer you to finish both of your meals by like you know 9:30 in the morning you know you'll beat them yeah crumbs and getting yourself ready we'll talk about that if we're still doing this in two years but but that's the idea the idea is you have a full extra week from the shop ahsoka because this is always the tricky thing if the first thing that comes out today's Monday Sunday Monday anywhere Tuesday at the beginning of the week so you have to make Shabbos so then go into this so what do you do you look for somebody who's going away from pace off and get them to invite you over for showers a cuddle it's the least they can do yeah my family is dating there's a Israeli neighbor who always goes away for Pesach and he takes pity on different families and it's more for shoppers I got this one year he invited us I said I'd be delighted and he said okay anyway Friday night Winchell I wish him good job is but javis he starts to leave so I said to him what you know what time are we supposed to eat he goes you're coming so I said yeah goes you said you were already invited I said no I said I'd be delighted yeah it's not only to listen to this podcast to think that I encourage hoarding when I take something away they put things together with plenty of food wasn't a problem but but there was a moment of shock that all of us but this is fair which means you can have sharpest and then you starve all week so here's the plan and it's a little late now I really should have done this in the first podcast at the beginning if you're if you're if you're playing catch-up now all right first thing is you have to be organized make a list of everything that has to be done if you have another freezer if you have another fridge if you have your closets whatever you're going to do now this doesn't apply to America I don't think it definitely applies here itself if you wait to the week before Pesach to do your main shopping there will be many items missing you have to do the shopping the week before now anticipate if you are going to do shopping the week before obviously don't go out for the for the you know refrigerated items but for the frozen things and for your groceries the first thing you have to do is do your pantry and do your freezer make sure you clean it well and you line it and you have it already and then you can do your shopping if you do shopping earlier you will save yourself a lot of grief now I say this is an art show because the year that I went down to Orlando give me just a moment anyway I went that my mother of a Sheldon wanted to go down to Orlando for pay stuff nobody want to take it was hilarious Pesach we we went down and we did shopping in New York and they drive a van down and one of the stores that we did not shop and the van broke down at everyone's food spoiled but that didn't happen for us but Hashem my boy a lot of stuff other stuff we drove down in a van we will all stoop into this van and we and we pushed well like fill tools like what could you around people if you had to leave you know forget about it just stay we won't sleep in the van and we drove down to Orlando and when we got there for some of the things we went out to Costco anyway we ran out of stuff so went to the local winn-dixie they had everything they had coffee so they had frozen food and prepared through that and whatever you could want they had over there in that winn-dixie and it could been such a genius I said there loved everything down from New York yeah my my brother Gedaliah is going down to Orlando this basa and bringing his family down they rented two houses a lot of a lot of rooms but should be comfortable and my sister-in-law Meryl and two of the two of my niece's are gonna go a couple days earlier and by the bank and and the nice Tova Khan who lives in Miami and I just hosted me and my and my like some of my children we were down in Miami but so she's gonna she's arranging for the food to come from Boca and here's the thing you know you can't go to Target or cusps on these places and and you can order it and like deliver it right to your house you don't have to run through the thing and when I wanted to do this well these things could be taken care of so I mean I learned a lot from the experience and I said you know if I had to do it over again I would stay home but but you know other people are doing it much much smarter my son went with some friends down to Orlando last year and everything was this could be they learnt learn from my my mistakes we may be midgets but we sit on the shoulders of giants so get your shopping done and make sure you schedule that in so therefore obviously your pantry and obviously your freezer things I don't have to be done so that when you do your shopping you can put it away someplace if you're like me and you order your mod says you Matt's has come beforehand we're gonna put your Matz's so that they don't get crushed or absorb comets radiation not everyone believes in comets radiation but my wife does if there's comets in the house then paces they could be that's why I can't take my bottles of wine from my cabinet and wipe them down and use the again because they've absorbed the comets from the cabinet I have to buy new bottles of wine from paisa so so make sure your Matz's don't get a comet's radiation and if you're gonna put it on top of the breakfront and make sure that it's cleaned off over there to clean that off if you're gonna put it up there and make sure also that the breakfront doesn't curve or it'll slide right off and break and that's sure gonna be bad did you try to find those monsters that came in up just you know in one piece anyway so so you have to anticipate that now here's my advice work zones because people have to live you have to continue living you can't you can't shut down your house why are you doing things so I say work the periphery the back bedrooms the basement the upstairs if you have those things yeah the outside whatever it is get everything done so that by Shabbos you have only the kitchen and the living room dining room that's the idea you can make Shabbos or you can buy Shabbos and you can eat like a mansions no problem and then after Shabbos you clean up everything from Shabbos and you put everything away and then you start working living room dining room who's doing the couches who's doing the table if you're just closing at the breakfront you really don't have to clean out the brick front whose was getting everything yet everything clean so that the living room dining room is done now you get into the kitchen and we have a little Lobby outside of our apartment so we usually set up a table with whatever food that's gonna be eating it and the meals now during the beginning of that week take place outside then I have to admit that we do tend to buy a lot of takeout during that time it's not the healthiest week but at least we're keeping the spread of comets out and we work now where beforehand so if my said much of the kilo the the end any action has to start by thinking for it's amazing how people don't think things through I was once a chef at town was just before shallow showed us at the the end of Shabbos and a guy says to me this was a really successful shop at own the the organizer I said really why says well we've brought a lot of people together and they all had a good time so I said was the purpose of the shy baton to bring a lot of people together and give them a good time he thinks and says well what should be the purpose of a chef at OU and I said shallow should is this the wrong time to ask that question that's what you asked when you first start planning so the more you plan out what you're gonna do the better and this is specifically about cabinets which cabinets do you need be realistic it's too late obviously for this pace huh but I will tell you one of the things that I did that changed my life two things that I did one is I could never get my oven and stovetop clean to my satisfaction and I could never close cover it to my satisfaction and I was I was always unhappy one time I hired people to clean my oven I paid them about six hours of work and when they were done I had to clean the oven and even then I wasn't so happy but you know so I made a coachman when I paid these guys in ten years I could buy myself a new one and that's what I did I bought myself a separate Pesach oven and I used to keep in the back of my son and then I would take my home sticker oven which is been through a lot it goes to a lot in this house and I wheel it out and I bring in my fresh face out other and plug it in and give all dick the only thing is that I kept from the back of the mocked side of the storeroom so I have to empty it all out to bring the oven end and I have to put everything back in and then I've take everything out again to put it back and then put everything back in it was an ordeal so when I redid my kitchen years ago I in your freshman I'm gonna lose a certain amount of room but I built myself a soft cabinet a big pace off cabinet that fits the oven and I've got shelves above it with all of my pacer Caleb all my pots all my pans all my dishes on my glasses everything is shoved it might my Pesach broom my face up sponger you know stick bucket everything goes it might Pesach tablecloth might Pesach dish towels that everything goes into that cabinet we've closed it up and that's it and then what I do is when when we finished the kitchen I take open it up I take out the oven I take shelves put in wood shelves where the oven was I rearranged all my things and I'm able to keep most of stuff there so I clean up my pantry and I have most of my food there got my pace up cabinet and there's a few other cabinets that I do I do the silverware drawers a few other things and that's it well we used to turn our whole house upside down we would like take out all over overcomers think of dishes and carry them off to the bunks on and clean and cover everything you put it in for a week it was crazy so think carefully which cabinets do I have to use on pace on and otherwise you know if you have some little kids around children or grandchildren depending on your age group put them to work making hermit signs if they're really young then just print it out with an outline that says comments and let them color it in keep them busy for at least three or four minutes yeah and then you're gonna hang them up on the cabinets you're not using but but try to keep the amount of cabinets that you're cleaning out and using to a minimum otherwise you're gonna drive yourself crazy and that's what we're trying to memorize okay so who we have in my opinion Sunday Monday Tuesday to do the living room to do the dining room to do the refrigerator or refrigerators to do your oven your stovetop get everything done yeah and then Wednesday we would we have stainless steel sinks we car show the sinks we cash for them we cover the anyway because we're fanatics and we have granite counters and we casual them and then we cover because it just wouldn't be peso if we weren't running around the kitchen with boiling hot water and a hot rock with pliers you know going over all the counters and making a flood everywhere so that fills in all those cabinets if we didn't bother cleaning it anyway so it just wouldn't be Pesach but it also helps to do another sponger because even though we did a sponger than the night before I'm talking about I'm an old sick man I'm down on my hands and knees scrubbing off everything their bleach when you're at a hole in my finger it didn't it didn't bleed or anything there's like a burnt stream the special thing about steel wool and bleach like combination on your hands and just you know gives it that certain ruggedness but you just can't get when you're a speaker anyway you see you leave yourself that time you'll be sorry if you do this right unless it caused you just by yourself from your elderly I think with a walker yeah what I'm doing that you're you know got a couple of people working with you the living room/dining shouldn't take more than a day you can do the kitchen in two days and you're done Wednesday we would cash everything we would cover and then you can start cooking already and it's Wednesday Thursdays Benitez comments and and then you go in already you know your shop is getting ready for the Seder it makes such a Jif difference like such a change think beforehand okay on the subject of planning and peeling I don't know why people don't like the plan all right make your menus now not air of Pesach so that after you already did your shopping and you put everything away and everything all set up you suddenly realize you know oh I bought livers and I don't have any way to grind them up so I just realized I don't have a grinder now I got to run out and try to buy things or I suddenly realized my menu I didn't take into account this I need that sit down and make a menu and I mean Shabbos exami Friday lunch people are starving Irish obvious you can't Erev Shabbos out of yontiff you can't have comments you can't have Matt so what are you gonna eat I'm gonna do I've gone away to hotels we ate guns fine you don't worry about that but people are hungry the year we were in Orlando it was also a Friday night and so I made a pace that they could challenge and and everybody ate it on Friday there's a nice hot meat potato challenge over there you know everyone just took a bunch at the ball just the ball so most of it most the challenge went to the way of all things but make you menu Friday lunch what do we have in fact I when I do it I figure out also because climates night because if you buying takeout okay but if you're not so you're gonna make a supper already praise the kiss-up what are you making yeah and then what are you serving at the seder and go down the list with everything what do I need for the for the Cairo what do we need for them for the Seder Plate what do I need get everything down etc etc yeah okay and then what are we doing Shabbos lunch which has a tendency to start late because of you say to finish late then people have a tendency to to start this late as well yeah but then you have a shows lunch and Matsu Shabbos is usually a few key processes like mats and butter much whatever it is if you don't need to Brooks there's potatoes anyway play now call Emily I'm playing a little Mike what am i doing for the cepa's I don't know if you have to plan out the lunches but plan out the separates what are you gonna do we have certain things that we always like to do this is not one of my mother's recipes this is one of our basic recipes we always make pan-fried hamburgers that's because some people don't use an oven that's why some of the pace up streets tend to be on the stovetop so instead of growing it I know some people buy themselves a like a little grill and they actually make barbecue with like that but what we do is one night with basically you cut up onions and you fry them up a little bit and then you make your patties chop meat and and a little garlic powder there yeah so when you use garlic garlic then I don't know what to tell you anyway so you make them into little patties and you you cook them up with the onions and and then you have to you know clean them out and replace the onions anyway it is such a treat such a treat I would do this towards the end of homeboy because people are gonna be sick for the next two weeks from all the fat but but it you know it's a treat there's a lot of a lot of pay so they could treat that people want to schedule it in so you know what you need be realistic I don't do this I just I just put in my my matzah order and we all sit around every year and say how much did we order last year because last year was really good I didn't write it down I never do you should have a list how much matzo they were to last you is that enough for too little how much potatoes start should I buy was it enough was it too little they have a tendency before Pesach to sell like potatoes and onions and carrots and bulk I can't fit all into the into the refrigerator and they end up going back and it's not like when I first moved here it's twelve thirty years ago came cold mowie the whole place closed down yeah today everything's open a colloid if they'll run out and get another bag of carrots let's get famous you know don't go crazy because nobody wants matzah if the Pesach people aren't looking for more matzah more thing in fact is a little irony we only use Cobra matches use c'mon sis why because that's what I do because that's what I do I use a couple of months anyway so so we like to make farfel again those new people who don't Iike Baraka so you could just skip over this part but we would make farfel my son was one of the people is very good farfel maker you have to take the the mats and you have to crush and I put the pieces and yeah cook it in the whole thing you know sit and you serve this as like a side dish for like meatballs and things like that it's a it's always a treat I know a one year we don't have enough matzah last year last year we never enough mad system we didn't make them out so far full so I went out and bought two of the boxes it was but that's matters I'm a son that wasn't like oh sure yeah matzah farfel and and we were waiting for people to make the matzah farfel and it's I just found the two boxes now so I was going through the cabinet so it's about a year later and nobody ever made the mats because nobody wants the matzah afterwards yeah people love matzah brei people love matzah lasagna but after they saw people are not so interested yeah unless Kenya and thank you brother my son married a girl from Aisha family the lenses and he says like no they first they put down a plastic and they eat or they at my church fresh themselves off they take off the plastic and that's it there's no more matter that's that's really intense yeah nothing but the greatest respect don't get me wrong but I feel like that if I had to give up my matzah brei and Mike enabler you know my matzo balls and you know my Sonya I probably would just give up Judaism altogether what's what's the point why should I be Jewish anyway I'm digressing but let's keep our foot I got into trouble once when I used to teach at seminary because the story about this moshe feinstein who kept inviting this person over his house for Pesach fursuiter I think I kept making excuses but he's not gonna come so funny what Mercia says is it because we get Brooks so he says yeah I guess I can accommodate you he says yeah sure I'll get two more people we might another now I said I was gonna try thingie Brooks for those who nationally this go Brooks are a custom where nobody will let any liquid touch matzo that's the idea so they will not have matzo balls they will not have matzo brei they will not have Mattson and spreads and if people are real intense about this and you know so remotion Feinstein who was a great great rabbi from this generation he says the problem is cuz you know you brought us no problem I'll get three million to more rabbis and we'll remove the valve that you're not eating anger brush then you can have a good breakfast and everything'll be fine so I took this story over anyway one of the teachers is a sit around and uh and called me on the carpet for attacking other people's customs so I I'm not trying to kiss dispersions you know but plan out what it is you're gonna have so make sure you figure out how much matzah what you need don't go crazy every year we do this for our ferocious is my recipe for our OSIS apples we grate them on a grater and it always has just you know you're supposed to add a little red wine for the Dom for the blood but no we put actual blood in because we get down to the greater the greater good anyway so apples and we chopped walnuts and I can't explain to you why this is but they make they sell chopped walnuts but I can't use that I have to take actual walnuts and chop them up that's how that's how we did it my house and that's basically it and then you add some wine and some cinnamon and ginger and every year from paisa I buy a ginger and we sprinkle some of it into the into the process and that's about it it's it from the cabin to forget me throw it away we buy no yeah so you gotta be realistic if it's something that you don't think you're gonna use let's face it there's not a big demand for payment potato starch after Pesach so I I some people use it instead of corn starch these are for certain things to thicken gravies and things but but be realistic try to try to keep a Frenchman try to keep an account every year of how much do these things use so plan out your meals plan out your menus plan out your shopping etc and I'm gonna throw in one other thing and we'll talk about this a different time but um think about what you're gonna do on column o it because you suddenly homeboy pops up and what we usually do homo eating them we'll talk about this we're gonna have a have a whole one just for Conroy but what we usually do for colloid is I go to the of earning slowly people wake up and they all make either eggs or matzah brei and that's most of the morning and then we discuss what we're going to do with the day should we go here should we go here should we do this should we do this and we go back and forth until we decide it's time for lunch and then we eat lunch and then we say now now it's the way it doesn't pay to go anyway you'll be surprised how many days you could use the same exact program so there was one year when I programmed my Pesach and it was a much better pace I will talk about some of those ideas but you know after you have to be able to anticipate that a little bit so so that's the idea that's the idea the idea is it's doable I want to empower you you can do this there's no reason to freak out no reason to get upset you can handle this with ease just have a plan and if you stick to the plan remember what I'm telling you do everything except for the kitchen and dining room this week then how do you Shabbos don't cook too much don't go crazy or by taking enough what you need and then after that do the living room dining room shouldn't take you more than a day two days to the kitchen changeover if you're conferring everything cash everything call it a day it should make your Pesach preparation that much easier and hopefully we'll be fine that's about it if you want to find out more about the show in general go to reveal a ski that counselors podcast if you want more information on this particular show with tremulous keep calm slash podcast slash twenty seven you want to find about upcoming events or your lesson that constellation vents you want to contact me is a real a ski that counselors contact if you'd like to sponsor an episode go to a ski that calm slash podcast and click on the sponsor an episode I'm Deborah Orlowski and this is the rebbe Olaf ski show [Music]