Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/807429
62 April 6 • 2017 jn ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN FAMILY TABLE BY MISHPACHA MAGAZINE PHOTOGRAPHY: HUDI GREENBERGER STYLING: RENEE MULLER While You Sleep passover Slow-cooker book by local mom creates Pesach without panic. JULIE HAUSER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS 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- Orange Juice Roast INSET: Garlicky Zucchini Soup