Passover 2010

This year I hosted 14 of my closest friends/family for the second night of Passover (That's right SROT, you're one of our closest).  It truly was a fabulous night filled with lots of love, laughter, and eating. My husband led the seder and I was in charge of the meal (which took about 4 days to prepare).  Luckily my Mother-in-law is the cooking maven, so she was kind enough to share all of her (our) family's secret recipes which truly saved me.

The Menu

To Start:

Arugula Salad with Balsamic onions, Goat Cheese, and Candied Walnuts (already posted in Spring Like Dinner)
Store-Bought charoseth (Citarella makes a solid one) served with two kinds of horseradish
Main:
BBQ Brisket (sliced paper thin like Al's beef)
Passover Chicken Parmesan
Carrot Kugel Cake (every bite of this crisco-laden cake is worth it on your hips)
Roasted Jalapeno Fingerling Potatoes
Roasted Asparagus
Dessert:
Store-bought Passover macaroons and chocolate/caramel matzah
Homemade Passover Brownies (better than normal brownies)
My sister-in-law's delicious Kosher Toffee Cheesecake

I had to set two tables since our main dining room table only fits 10.  So I split them up by putting 8 at the head table where I used our china and and 6 at the second table where I used every day dishes and spruced them up with candleholders and such.

Here are some pictures of the main table: (I'm still waiting on my placemats) and I think I want a second set of purple napkins to go with my napkin holders:

2nd table:

A cross-section of the meal:

One of the dessert platters:

My sister-in-law's delicious cheesecake:

And the gorgeous flower arrangement my husband brought home as a surprise (to which I added one of our dragonfly napkin holders since it matched)

Lastly-I had to show off my fabulous new dragonfly candle holders which were a wedding gift from our good friend Lindsay.  They're a dream come true for me. :)