passover
While You Sleep
Slow-cooker book by
local mom creates
Pesach without panic.
JULIE HAUSER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN FAMILY TABLE BY MISHPACHA MAGAZINE PHOTOGRAPHY: HUDI GREENBERGER STYLING: RENEE MULLER
Orange Juice Roast
INSET: Garlicky Zucchini Soup
62
April 6 • 2017
jn
T
ime. Money. Sanity.
Everybody wants to pre-
serve what they have of
these three things. In the crunch
between Purim and Pesach, we
could all use some help in balanc-
ing this act so we are not spending
time on the wrong things, spend-
ing too much money where it
could be saved and losing bits of
sanity little by little.
Pesach does not equal panic.
I literally cook for Passover with
my eyes closed — while I sleep. My
secret? A few slow cookers and a
folding table in my Oak Park base-
ment become my “Pesach kitchen.”
I keep a cutting board, knives,
peelers, a few gadgets (like an
immersion blender) nearby, and
I cook the majority of my Pesach
food ( for all eight days) and freeze
it weeks before Pesach.
Using simple kosher-for-Pass-
over ingredients, I often run out
of real estate in the freezer stor-
ing my pre-cooked Passover food
before many begin stocking their
Pesach pantries.
Not that it’s a race. It’s a relief.
Because there are many other
physical (and spiritual) ways to
prepare for Passover, it all seems
much easier to me if the questions
“What will we eat?” and “When
will I cook it?” are answered early.
The first time I tried this system,
it took some flexibility to believe
I could cook anything but mush
in a slow cooker. But once I tried
it and saw how low-maintenance,
efficient and delicious it was, I was
hooked. I experimented and took
notes for a few years.
I am not a chef, a cook, nor
someone who even remembers
what ingredients I put in the sup-
per. However, I find this system
so useful I felt compelled to share
my method and recipes in my new
book, Pesach While You Sleep: The
easy way to cook ahead for Yom
Tov … no Pesach kitchen necessary
(Israel Bookshop Publications).
This is not meant to be one of
those glamorous gourmet cook-