A theme of Purim is v’nahafoch hu, a celebration of things getting turned upside down. Haman builds gallows for Mordechai, and is hung on those same gallows. Haman plans a fantastic reward for himself, and instead has to bestow this reward on Mordechai.
There’s a less celebrated version of  v’nahafoch hu, as well. We buy bags of flour, oats and other baking goods to prepare Purim treats, and almost immediately need to think about ridding our house of chametz for Passover.
In that spirit, I’ll be posting some of my favorite “get rid of your chametz” recipes over the next few weeks.
The first is a delicious and really easy pareve cake, Grandma Mettie’s oatmeal cake. I use Earth Balance original and skip the frosting – it doesn’t need it at all.
The second is a great bread machine challah recipe, courtesy of Minnesota Mamaleh. She found it on Allrecipes, but I think it’s originally from Kosher by Design, a series of cookbooks which I find generally overrated, but not in this case. This is the best bread machine recipe I’ve found so far. (But if you have time to do the whole thing by hand or using a Kitchen Aid with a dough hook, try this one instead. It’s from Smitten Kitchen, one of my very favorite blogs.)
Shabbat Shalom, and welcome to all of my new readers. If you like my blog, please spread the news to your friends, students, and congregants. And don’t foget to tell my mother.