every year, our family grows a little bit. the latest baby to hit the lowin scene is my sweet niece mila, who’s just a month old this week, and i’m so grateful that she (along with her parents, my brother and sister-in-law!) are here in new york city with me. i’ve been taking advantage of that closeness by visiting her all the time. meanwhile, my other nephews are spread out a bit less conveniently (though it could be worse, i know). they’re all over the east coast, which does give me plenty of excuses to bop around outside of the city, but i definitely see them less frequently…and that’s a bummer.
BUT! for big holidays, babies and adults and even cats come from near and far to get together at my childhood home in connecticut. and it’s the greatest.
it’s also why i’m looking forward to passover this year more than ever. not only is it already my very favorite holiday (with thanksgiving trailing close behind in second place), it’s also such a happy reunion for my entire family.
all this talk is just to say…that when i was thinking about what to do for my third #matzahchallenge post, i couldn’t help but get inspired thinking about a kids’ table.
after all, that’s where all the best action happens on passover, anyway. mah nishtana, for starters, but also…grape juice.
which is just so much better than wine in every way. man. that stuff is my heaven.
if you haven’t been following along, a little background on that matzah challenge business: my friends at UJA Federation NY enlisted me to take part in the second annual event and i was so thrilled to take part. UJA is a fantastic organization that helps millions of people in need every year, from ensuring that Holocaust survivors are taken care of to working towards alleviating hunger and poverty.
the challenge itself is fairly straightforward: for every matzah photo posted to instagram with the hashtag #matzahchallenge, they’ll immediately get an $18 donation to help someone in need.
the idea, of course, is to do something creative with the matzah, and not just to slap down a box of streit’s and call it a day. but…you do you. just as long as you’ve got the hashtag somewhere in your post, they’ll approve and that $ will make its way to someone who needs it.
fun, delicious, AND helpful. a pretty great trio of things.
so that’s where these matzah place settings come into the picture. i have to credit martha stewart for the initial idea here. when i worked at martha HQ my first year out of college, i spied her matzah place setting idea when i was rifling through one of the archived magazines, and i couldn’t get enough. i mean, it’s genius. go take a look and come back quick.
DID YOU SEE?!
amazing, right?
i know. so, i couldn’t help but be inspired by that, and i’ve literally never forgotten about it. the thing is, chocolate and sprinkle…while TOTALLY welcome at the grown-ups’ table…might be better appreciated at a kid’s table. which is how i got the idea to simplify things down to just one ginormous initial and call it a day.
(…that, and the fact that my chocolate piping skills leave a little something to be desired.)
and it couldn’t be easier to throw these together: simply microwave a cup of chocolate chips in 30-second intervals, stopping the microwaving process to check in on them and give them a stir. then spoon the chocolate into a plastic bag, snip a TINY piece off the end, and voila! you have yourself a pretend piping bag. pipe the letters onto a piece of matzah (i know this part sounds intimidating, but trust me, it’s actually crazy easy to pipe freehand letters with melted chocolate). sprinkle with nonpareil sprinkles, and you’ve got yourself a magical, rainbow-y, personalized place setting (or fun seder dessert).
if you do end up making these for your seder this year, lemme know in the comments! or just say hi over on insta.
happy almost pesach to all!