Home Holiday

Passover is the ultimate in Jewish home holidays. Traditionally we celebrate it with a large Seder on the first night at our house or at someone else's house, as we did this year.

But today we opted for a very small family Seder since our daughter couldn't make it down for the first day. There was no need to decorate a long table or to ponder the logistics of many courses of food. It was just us and we could choose to be totally unconventional as we did.

One thing we did choose to do was to haul out my antique meat grinder and put it to work grinding fish for another round of gefilte fish. This was the way my husband's grandmother did it when she made enough for all the guests at his bar mitzvah long before the advent of food processors.

Since the traditional fish -- whitefish, pike , and carp -- were no longer available, we tried a mixture of halibut, cod, and red snapper. Surprisingly, this might have been the best batch ever.

I made a big pan of roasted vegetables. My husband made charoset (apples, walnuts, honey, sweet wine). My daughter made superb matzo ball soup. Those along with the fish were our dinner.

We spent much of the Seder talking about things like freedom, the plight of the stranger, modern day plagues, and signs of hope. We ended with songs of freedom, like "If I Had a Hammer."

It was a family affair, working to co-create a Seder that my husband's grandmother would probably have enjoyed. I think she would definitely have approved of the fish.

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Location:Dawes Ave,Alexandria,United States