Kashering the Kitchen

For the first time in my life, I kashered my own kitchen. I have helped at Colgate but nothing on my own. I had a nagging feeling in me for several weeks to clean and scrub down my kitchen and separate everything. Seriously. I wanted to feel that connection to the Jewish tradition.

So what did I do?

1) Cleaned the oven the best I could with bleach.

2) Packed up all chametz goods, including beans, pasta, rice, and mac n cheese in a grocery bag and put it in the hallway closet. I put the tortilla wraps in the freezer (you can freeze it apparently).
3) Put all of my dishes, glasses, and silverware in the dishwasher.

4) Wiped down counters with very hot water and a new sponge.

5) Set the old sponges to the opposite end of the sink for my roommate to use (she's Korean).
6) Wiped off the shelves, placed plastic wrap up to divide my side from my roommate's side of the cabinets and sealed it with packaging tape. Then I laid out foil. And then I put Passover-friendly stuff back on the shelves.

7) Took off the placemats from the table and put them in the grocery bag.
8) Moved the toaster off the counter. I also do not plan to use the microwave since you can't really kasher it.

9) Wrote a long note to my roommate explaining what I did and what is Passover and for her not to use my stuff unless she promises to use very hot water and that sponge that I put out for my own use.
And this was her response:

Although I couldn't do every single thing, I did the best I could. I'm awfully proud and doing all this didn't really feel like *work*. I am separating Passover from the other days. I want to feel that special meaning of Passover as an extended Shabbat from our ingulences (although Passover can be worse than regular days because of "special" food that we have specially prepared for this time of the year like gefilte fish and chorset). I'm not even freaking out over my meals.

My meals will mainly consist of:
Breakfast: Yogurt, fruit, milk, matzah with butter, eggs, and perhaps if I can dare myself, make quinoa with apples and walnut with a dash of cinnamon.

Lunch: Protein (chicken or hard-boiled eggs) on top of spinach and whatever other vegetables I have on hand to make a salad. I may eat half a matzah.

Dinner: Fish, or quinoa with meatsauce (courtesy of my mother that she gave me several months ago) with vegetables.

Snacks/Desserts: Fruit, flavored yogurt, macaroons, ice cream form Ben and Jerry's, and carrots

Not bad.

So I announced to Grandma that I had kashered my own kitchen. She was so proud and asked me what did I do. After telling her the steps I took, she said, "Wow! You really went all the way!" Almost to her way anyway, more than my mother (her version of "kashering" is cleaning the fridge and taping the cabinet doors shut. She also considers Passover a "break" from cooking so whatever she plans to use for cooking during the week, she will just take them out of the cupboards). Then we started talking about grocery shopping. I told her that there isn't much in Ann Arbor for Passover food except for Zingerman's and Whole Foods in terms of prepared food (I'm considering myself too lazy to make charoset at the moment). She said, "But Whole Foods isn't kosher for Passover. They make Passover food but they're not kosher!" Hm, okay, I think I will just get charoset anyway.

The next morning, while eating my breakfast of yogurt with some maple syrup mixed in and matzah, I decided that my matzah needed something. So I got a tub of butter out. While eating, I began thinking about what Grandma said. Hmm... I looked at the tub and read the ingredients. It had soybeans in it! I was, "whoa, this isn't kosher for Passover." I carefully put it back in the fridge. Then I looked at my cupboard again and read that Pam isn't kosher either, it's got soy lechitin. I thought, "And I have chicken being soaked in marinade in the fridge with Pam sprayed in it.... I promptly took it out and wrapped up the chicken and put it in the freezer and pulled out another package to thaw. And I washed the pan again. I also realized that my favorite mints also contain soy lechitin as most candies do.

So, I began wondering, "Well, if I can't use Pam to grease the pan, then what do I use for meat?" I went over to the supermarket and looked at the spray can that's "kosher for Passover". I almost laughed out loud, for $5.99, the primary ingredient was olive oil! I would be just paying for a can spray of olive oil! I'll just go use my olive oil and put some on a towel and grease my pans that way.

Oh Pesach. It has its way of raising awareness among all of us in terms of what we buy and eat.
Here's a relevant NYT article about food waste and Passover.