"seder dinner" news and stories

Passover, the holiday that lasts for a week and requires that observant Jews give up any leavened bread/grain product for the duration, starts this Saturday. My extended family isn't particularly observant, so while we're having a Seder dinner (the traditional Passover meal that includes a lengthy service called the Haggadah) we're cutting the Haggadah section of the meal down to a manageable five minutes.

The one place where we aren't breaking from tradition is that the actual meal will be Kosher, with no leavened dishes on the table. For the first time ever, I've been assigned a dish to bring (I guess my cousins figure that since I'm nearly 29, I can handle it). They asked me to bring a savory matzo kugel (pudding). I've made noodles kugels and sweet matzo kugels in the past, but I've never made exactly the thing that I've been asked to create.

So Slashfood readers, I need your help. Point me in the direction of your favorite savory matzo kugel recipes! If you have a family recipe that you are willing to share, pop it into the comments section. My family and I thank you!

We already know that there are a lot of "commandments" that govern the Jewish holiday of Passover, which will be starting tomorrow evening. Many of are strict dietary rules. The first two nights of Passover are the most important because Jews hold a religious service in their homes with friends and family around the dinner table called the Seder. The Seder is a time when the Passover story is told from a book called the haggadah, and explains why the holiday even exists.

The word "seder" means "order," indicating that there is an "order" in which 15 things, or steps, take place. If you didn't figure it out by now, the Seder dinner can take a very long time. There are very detailed steps that include blessings, hand washings, asking of questions and recitals of answers, and storytelling.