One of the things that I missed during shiva was our annual discussion here about Pesach preparations. At least we covered the Pesach babies, and I hope readers will update as they give birth. I wrote a draft on epidurals, and perhaps I will get it out in time for some of you.
Kasher Your Kitchen in Two Hours, with English Subtitles
This humorous Israeli video, explains how to kasher your kitchen. Click on the link above the video to watch with English subtitles as I couldn’t embed it. What I like about it is that there are no chumras (stringencies)—it’s intended for someone secular making a kitchen kosher for Passover for the first time. They don’t buy or replace items: They kasher the oven, microwave, dishwasher, pots and glasses. It does say you can’t kasher ceramic items and must buy new. My favorite part is the meshulach (beggar) and all of the blessings that he gives to the secular guy—perfectly cast.
So using this method, can two men kasher a kitchen in two hours?
If you’re looking for more Pesach inspiration on cleaning, cooking and shopping, I’ve prepared a page with links to posts from previous years. It’ll stay in the navigation bar above until after the holiday.
I do things by bits so it unfortunately feels like ages. Maybe I should change my method.
I-D, I wonder also whether it makes more sense to do everything at once.
I should hope they could. It took me 3 hours alone. LOL
Our Rabbi is very adamant about getting rid of the chumras which helps a lot. The first year I made Pesah I followed my teacher and covered everything, bought KLP designated everything and it took me 3 days. The following year we had moved here and I was overjoyed.
Miriam, can I please have the name of your Rabbi? Sounds like I’ve been looking for him all my life 😉 LOL
Miriam, I am not sure she was kidding…
LOL 😉
My husband insists on covering the counters and the fridge shelves. Just that takes over an hour.
And I was kind of surprised to see them kasher a teflon frying pan…
the most basic opinion is that you can. It’s better not to, obviously, but in a time of need, you can. kashering a teflon pan is better than eating chametz on pesach.
I’m not seeing any subtitles. I don’t think the kashering of that pan is as much of an issue as the pan itself! Buy that kid a nice stainless steel pan, or teach him how to take care of a non-stick one! That is dangerous and obviously no longer “non-stick.” I hope you don’t mind if I leave a link to my post dealing with care of teflon and alternatives: http://nonrecipe.blogspot.com/2010/12/to-stick-or-not-to-stick-alternatives.html
I don’t know what happened to them. I could swear there were English subtitles before.
Updated the post to include a link to the subtitled video. I couldn’t embed that one, though.
hmmmn, now I’m wondering if I have a klp frying pan… I tend to think yes. My biggest issue in the past has been the knives not being well marked. This year I bought silicon-handled knives – one chef, one paring in orange and blue. (one of each in each color) They were dirt cheap, under 20 shekels for the chef knife and under 10 for the paring, so I’m assuming they’ll be low quality, but for 7 days a year… actually 10 this year. We’re switching over on Wednesday/Thursday, but then going away for Shabbat (bar mitzva)
Of course, this guy starts out with a cleaner kitchen than I do… and no small children running in and out wanting snacks in the middle of the process.
We got started yesterday by cleaning out the fridge. My 4 year old is willing to help with any kind of cleaning that involves a) power tools (like the vacuum) or b) the water sprayer. Haven’t yet figured out how to make scrubbing fun. 😉
I’ve always found for four year olds that scrubbing can be a lot of fun if you involve a cleaner that makes LOTS of bubbles….just a thought.
Deb, true. Although I couldn’t bring myself to buy it.
My husband could get that done in one hour! 😉