@eggyg Elaine you ask about the meal. Well there are two components to that. First there’s the ceremonial/religious elements and then there’s the meal itself. Albeit the meal is always shaped by family tradition.
During Pesach you’re not allowed to eat anything which can ferment pretty much. That’s because when Pharaoh announced that folks could finally leave they didn’t have time to bake leavened bread. Instead they made do with flat bread. Although they probably ended up with something like pitta or maybe more like hardtack we have matzos.
Matzo ends up being part of every meal.
In addition to that, at the religious part of the evening we eat:
Bitter herb - usually parsley or lettuce dipped in salt water but in our house it’s grated horseradish
A cold boiled potato
Charoset - a paste made of apple, nuts, spices like cinnamon and red wine
A mix of horseradish and charoset.
Then there’s the meal. That always starts with a hard boiled egg in a little salt water. That’s tradition and I know no family that doesn’t have this element to their meal.
Then it’s a normal meal. I think we’ll likely have chopped liver, chicken soup with dumplings made from matzo meal (matzos are made from wheat flour but you can’t use flour during Pesach however you can use matzo meal which is finely ground matzos. Don’t ask!
Then chicken, assorted veg followed by dessert. Although desert might be more appropriate given the wandering through one that followed the exodus.
At the end of the meal and to mark the recommencement of the religious side of things we have to eat an olive sized piece of matzo.
Like all Jewish festivals it’s a mix of interpretation of the rules, family tradition and expediency.
) and scanning again a bit later my BG was coming up fine so said I was ok thanks. When I went into the dentist a few minutes after that, they had out a box with glucogel and a BG meter in case I needed further help! Luckily I was ok by then but it was so nice that they were prepared and knew what to do to help.
