Maria invited people for a Passover Seder and we worked out a menu for the festival meal: * Hard boiled egg * Gefilte fish * Matzoh ball soup * Brisket with dried apricots and aromatic spices * Roast Chicken with lemon and herbs * Braised asparagus * New potatoes * honey-soaked almond cake, recipe torn from April 1987 Bon Appetit

I intended to go in to work Friday, so I swapped the holiday for Thursday. What she overlooked was that she doesn’t have a day off to swap. Oops. So I’m taking care of everything.

Tonight I’m making the brisket and Maria prepared a Sephardic haroset (dates, nuts, an apple, honey and wine) and the eggs. Early tomorrow I’ll make the cake and soup. The gefilte fish is from a jar and the matzoh balls are from a mix so that’s a cinch. The chicken is my own recipe (rub chicken inside and out with olive oil, bruised fresh rosemary and thyme, ground black pepper and sprinkle with dry boullion, stuff with quartered lemons and roast. Works best if I don’t measure anything) and always turns out okay. The vegetables are simple, no sauces. The brisket gets sliced and reheated. I have to get things arranged and set the table.

Nothing difficult, still, it’s tricky getting the last minute coordination of a meal right, especially single-handed. Trying to pull this off alone makes you appreciate how hard our Grandmothers worked.