Our Pesach Kitchen

[sarahd]

We just put in a Pesach kitchen, although we've never yet stayed home for Pesach and aren't planning to this year either. Next year looks like a distinct possibility, though. Anyhow, the kitchen installer owed my husband a favor and we decided to put in the kitchen before he forgets that he owes us.

We made the kitchen in the laundry room on the second floor (no other place for it) and I expect to use it mostly for pre-Pesach cooking/baking, although dh thinks I'll be doing all the cooking there all Pesach. Somehow, I can't see carrying hot, full pots and pans up and down the (carpeted) stairs. Time will tell.

We have an L shaped kitchen, with one sink, a two burner stove and a full-sized oven, and a deep-freeze. We also have one storage cabinet going around the corner of the L and one under the sink, as well as a drawer. Also two cabinets overhead.

We opted for the freezer rather than an under-the-counter refrigerator because when cooking in advance a freezer is more necessary and besides, a small fridge isn't of much use.

[Dream]

Some ppl use their 2nd kitchen for hometz only, while they kasher & use for Pesah their main kitchen...

(Just an idea for you)

[Yehudis]

But I thought the whole idea of a Pesach kitchen is that you don't have to kasher the oven and the stove and it's more mehudar.

I'd like to put in a Pesach kitchen, for that reason, but I can't figure out where to put it. (We don't have a laundry room -- the washer and dryer are in the kitchen.) My husband says we should at least get a new oven, just for Pesach.

[sarahd]

I don't know if it's more mehudar, but it certainly makes life easier if you don't have to scrub, rub and kasher. My reason for a kitchen is that I don't want to have to do all the cooking and baking in the last 2-3 days before Pesach, when I'm tired and hassled.

Yehudis, do you have a basement?

[Yehudis]

No, don't have a basement. We do have a backyard, and someone was saying maybe we could make some sort of cover and put it outside, but it sounded a little dangerous to me.

[Dream]

I do baking & kugels - opened & grating required stuff.
The rest can be done on YT.

Also, our fridge doesn't really fit food for a 2 (more so 3!!) day YT. (even w/ use of freezer).

[Yehudis]

sarahd, did you make a vent in the ceiling when you put in the oven?

I had this crazy idea to put an oven in the office.

[Yehudis]

I do baking & kugels - opened & grating required stuff.
The rest can be done on YT.

Also, our fridge doesn't really fit food for a 2 (more so 3!!) day YT. (even w/ use of freezer).

How can this be? When we lived in an apartment, I still cooked before YT, even a 3-day one. I don't like leaving any major dishes for YT. Maybe salads, but not things that actually have to be cooked.

We somehow managed to stuff everything into the fridge. We piled foil pans on top of each other, put salads into ziploc bags, etc.

[sarahd]

sarahd, did you make a vent in the ceiling when you put in the oven?

I had this crazy idea to put an oven in the office.

We made a vent to the outside wall, which will also serve to ventilate the laundry room so I can hang wet stuff without starting a mold and mildew colony.

If your office is big enough, it might be a good idea to put in one of those mini-kitchens - a strip with an oven, one sink and a two-burner stovetop, or something like that, and make a curtain to cover it all year.

[Dream]

I do baking & kugels - opened & grating required stuff.
The rest can be done on YT.

Also, our fridge doesn't really fit food for a 2 (more so 3!!) day YT. (even w/ use of freezer).

How can this be? When we lived in an apartment, I still cooked before YT, even a 3-day one. I don't like leaving any major dishes for YT. Maybe salads, but not things that actually have to be cooked.

We somehow managed to stuff everything into the fridge. We piled foil pans on top of each other, put salads into ziploc bags, etc.

It really depends on how many ppl one is having for seudot.
We can go anywhere from nobody to 8-10 ppl. Sometimes we even manage a minyan.

PS bagging salads is an interesting idea!

[Yehudis]

Where nobody is 5?

We also have a lot of people sometimes. My husband does have an engineering degree, so I leave the stuffing food into the fridge problem up to him .

It helps to have stackable square or rectangular containers (as opposed to round). And pretty much anything can go into a ziploc bag -- fish, chicken, even soup.