We come to the first meal of the holiday (third or fourth of the weekend). Its Seder Time and that means Tradition. Recall if you will, the setting. We start the Seder protocol about 30 to 60 minutes after Shabbat ends. In Israel this year, we will start the Seder around 9pm. The big problem is that you cannot set up ANYTHING until after Shabbat ends. This means that the table, the food and anything else that we need to prepare needs to be done between the end of Shabbat and the beginning of the Seder. We now sit down and begin. Some two hours later, we reach the Shulchan Orath (Set Table) portion of the Seder. Its time to eat. Clock Check: 11pm. So we start the meal at 11pm at night. Who is ready for a major four course rich gourmet meal? Oh, and recall that at least half the crown is buzzed from drinking two full cups of wine. My view is that Seder meals should be full of tradition and light on content. My families tradition is not to serve anything resembling a Paschal...
Hospitality and Food along with a little Jewish content. These are the records of our weekends with guests. Meals are rarely less than 10 people and frequently top 20. Recipes and Philosophy included.