We held a little seder at home the first night.

Sunday morning I had some charoset with a matzah covered with dark chocolate cream cheese.

Sunday night Andy made a delicious matzo ball soup.

Tuesday night Andy made a sumptuous lasagna with matzah instead of noodles. It had beef in it (my idea), so it’s meat and dairy together, but that’s how we roll!

Friday I made a lemon sponge cake from a recipe on a canister of Manischewitz potato starch.

(Friday night I drenched it in an icing made of lemon juice and powdered sugar. Even yummier.)

I’m not orthodox about the way I celebrate holidays. There was the hamburger in the lasagna. Heck, on some Passovers I’ve breakfast on eggs, matzah with butter on it, and bacon. Once in a while, I give into a craving, mix meat and dairy, add bacon, and have it on a chometzdik bun! As I Facebooked Thursday, “Eating a Sourdough Jack during Passover is wrong in so many ways… but it feels so right.” I do try to avoid “cheating” for the sake of observing the holiday, but when I give in, I don’t feel guilty; I just joke about it. The way I see it, even if I’m breaking tradition and joking about it, I’m acknowledging the tradition. The stomping of feet, the smell of sweat breaking out on flushed skin, the fear and hope of people who grabbed what they could and ran out of Egypt without even time to let their dough rise– these “memories” are with me. One might ask, “If you’re going to break the commandments, why even bother?” Well, I would rather observe the holiday by mostly abstaining from chometz (leavening) than by not abstaining at all. This was our Pesach, and I enjoyed it!

You know how the haggadah says “Drink the first [second, third, and fourth] cup of wine”? Do you gulp it down or take a sip? Every seder I’ve been to, people take a sip and move on. Wait a minute. Let’s read between the lines. Let’s read “and talk” when it says “drink the Nth cup of wine.” The Greek word symposium literally means “drink together.” And the idea of “drink together” is “talk together.” So, instead of taking a sip, why not talk for as long as it takes everyone to comfortably finish a glass of wine? Talk about the meaning of Passover. Talk about Passovers past and Passovers future. How have you been helped up with a mighty arm and outstretched hand? Don’t just eat, pray, sip. Eat, pray, drink! And talk, and drink, and talk.

Just don’t drink and drive.

UPDATE: I figured this out on my own when I wrote it last year, but apparently I’m not alone. just now I Googled ‘the seder should be a symposium’ and I found these related articles:

• The Origins of the Seder
• The Seder and the Symposium
• The Passover Seder – A Banquet Of Greek, Not Jewish, Origin?
• The Seder is a Modified Symposia

Real good smoothie. Zoey dives in for extra goodness!

Reblogged from Bein’ Greene:

Yuletide Plates. Originally uploaded by danielgreene.

I am a Jew who loves Christmas. To me, Chrismastime is a season, not a celebration of Christ. I do not believe that Jesus was the messiah. Personally, I do not believe that there will ever be one Messiah; instead, I believe that each baby born brings with him or her a great hope that he or she may help, in his or her own way, to heal the world (

Read more… 269 more words

A glimpse at Christmastime at the Smithers-Greene

My husband Andy decided to put on a pink shirt, red tie, and wear my red zip-up fleece vest today. I made us a strawberry-banana smoothie. I figured a photo of Andy toasting the holiday with a pink smoothie in front of all of his pink and red would be cute. Unfortunately, he was in a hurry to go to work, so when I asked him to smile, his expression was frighteningly fake-looking. So I just cropped the photo down to the pink and red, and I’m sure Andy does join me in wishing one and all a very happy and healthy Valentine’s Day– even though he had to hurry off to work.

We’re not afraid to say it:
Happy Chanukah!
Originally uploaded by danielgreene.

Our home’s chanukiah (the proper term for a Chanukah menorah) on the first night of Chanukah. It’s displayed prominently in the front kitchen window, facing the street.

The title of this photo is a reference to some Christian people’s response to secularism, in particular, a BBQ restaurant sign in Nashville, TN I photographed that said, "We’re not afraid to say it: Merry Christmas!"

By the way, those are multicolored LED Christmas lights reflecting off the chrome of the chanukiah. We are an "interfaith" couple; besides, I grew up celebrating Christmas in a secular or, let’s be honest about it, pagan way. What’s all the fuss about anyway, folks? Don’t know know why Christmas, Chanukah, and Ramadan are all around the same time? They are religious overlays to a pagan foundation of celebrating the winter solstice! If you ask me, we’re all just trying to cheer ourselves up by lighting candles, stringing lights, and giving gifts at this, the darkest and coldest time of the year.

Today, I partook of an American custom– the Labor Day Pool Party. This year, my partner and I bracketed our summer with a Memorial Day pool party and a Labor Day pool party at the same house. It was fun. Hope you had fun too!