Saturday, April 7, 2012

Today is one of those sunny-cloudy days.  The sun is out and then it’s not.  The good news is that it’s still relatively warm out.  Most businesses are open today and we may visit one or two during the afternoon.  We have a 7:00 PM date with Nacho at Mantequería Chisbert to join him for a beer and a snack.  As it turns out, Brian and Ofelia have invited us to join them for Easter dinner tomorrow.  That will be fun!

We had lunch at home yesterday.  Susan made a salad with sliced chicken.  In addition to the lettuces she used cheddar cheese, dried cherries, walnuts and orange slices, cucumber and tomato.  It was a ten out of ten.  Later in the afternoon we decided to go to Linares in search of dessert.  My friend from last year, Estefania, was on the job.  We were attended to by the owner and after he handed us our cones he told us that the ice cream was free because it was Estefania’s treat.  What a nice surprise.

Around 7:00 PM we showered and got dressed for the Seder.  We arrived at 8:15 and the table was already set and ready for us to begin.  Zahava led the Seder and we touched on all the highlights of the Seder and it took us about an hour to get through them.  I got to ask the Four Questions in spite of my age.  We then began the meal with salted boiled eggs.  The salt that was admixed with water came from Malta where Klaus and Zahava had recently spent a week.  The salt came from saltpans that were originally constructed by the Phoenicians.

After the eggs came a plate of gefilte fish that Zahava had made from scratch using cod and hake.  There was also a plate of potato latkes.  Next came the matzo ball soup made with a vegetable stock instead of the traditional chicken stock. Then came the salad.  When we finished the salad we all confessed that we were finished, too.  We were so stuffed that we had to forego the main course and I was so stuffed I even passed up dessert.

Klaus and Zahava had recently been to Gomera, which is one of the Canary Islands, and to Gozo, which is located in Malta.  They showed us photos of both their adventures.  When the computer was put away it was already a little after midnight and I was seriously tired.  We said our goodbyes and as we exited their building a cab was passing by and we hailed it.  The trip home was a quick one and we finally went to be a little after 1:00.