Passover

?You should only get married once in your life, and there are so many beautiful dresses. It?s a problem.? Filipa Goarmon, a customer at bridal dress sale and fundraiser at the Woman?s Industrial Exchange Article, PG 1B Up Next Wednesday Back to Basics for Passover Despite matzo's burgeoning variety, there is a growing demand for genuine Passover bread, baked in haste as it was so long ago. in TASTE Thursday A different hip-hop mash-up Rap veteran Guru returns with the fourth installment of his critically acclaimed Jazzmatazz series, which melds jazz and R&B sentiments with New York hip-hop.

Do all Passover wines have to taste like Manischewitz? Not anymore. While the sweet Concord grape beverage has a sentimental following among sippers who recall sampling it during many bygone Seders, now the selection of wines for Passover has become broad and sophisticated. "I was surprised by how many wines are kosher," said Andrew S. Neusner, director of digital media for JTA, a Jewish news service in New York. Neusner and about a dozen colleagues tasted 20 wines for an article on Passover wines that the news service published in 2005.

Not every Passover Seder table is set alike.Gefilte fish, chicken soup and matzo balls are highlights in many homes. But other Jews, who trace their heritage to the Mediterranean, celebrate the holiday meal with bold, colorful dishes enlivened with zesty spices, herbs, garlic, olive oil, lots of vegetables and marinated salads.Every year, Toto and Miki Mechali of Pikesville look forward to sharing such family recipes as pastel -- with layers of saffron-tinged mashed potato, ground meat and sliced eggs -- and tagine -- a bright melange of chicken and vegetables -- with guests.

As dawn broke yesterday over Northwest Baltimore, Bert Miller began stoking the flames in a line of oil drums set up on the lawn in front of the Glen Avenue firehouse in Mount Washington.In a tradition dating to the origins of Judaism, a steady stream of Orthodox Jews brought the leftover loaves and crumbs of leavened bread they cleaned out of their homes in preparation for Passover for burning in fulfillment of the commandment set forth in the Torah."Jewish people have been practicing this ritual for over 3,000 years, since we left slavery in Egypt," said Miller, a math teacher at Owings Mills High School who supervises the burning of the leavened material known as chametz.

The sophisticated sweet toothYou won't find doughnuts here, but Confections of Annapolis has just about everything else -- as long as it involves cake batter, pate a choux, puff pastry, whipped cream or frosting. The shop specializes in elegant custom pastries, from croissants, scones and petits fours to exquisite five-figure wedding cakes. Pictured is a champagne and raspberry mousse bombe with white chocolate and gold dust. Confections is at 53 West St. in Annapolis (410-295-0459).Spend the evening of March 27 in the kitchen with cookbook author Clifford Wright and the Epicurean Club of Maryland.

Passover substitutionsHere are some easy substitutions for forbidden foods from Zell Schulman's new book on Passover Sedarim, "Let My People Eat!" (Macmillan, $27.50):* For 1 cup flour: 5/8 cup matzo cake meal or potato starch* For 1 tablespoon vanilla: 2 packets Kosher for Passover vanilla sugar* For confectioners' sugar: 1 cup minus 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar pulverized in a blender and sifted together with 1 1/2 tablespoons potato starch* For 1 ounce chocolate: 3 tablespoons cocoa and 1 tablespoon shorteningChowing down on seafood chiliIt's Maryland's answer to the popularity of Tex-Mex fare: Gordon's Chesapeake Chili, manufactured by Mid-Atlantic Foods.

"It's a challenge to be an Orthodox woman of the '90s who works full time," Faith Wolf says, talking on the cellular phone in her car as she waits for her children's music lesson to end.The 43-year-old wife and mother of four teaches weekly gourmet kosher cooking classes to high school students and adults at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community High School in Baltimore. When she's not caring for her own children (age 5 to 17), teaching other people's children or running her kids to extracurricular activities, Wolf is scouring cookbooks for teaching material, putting together handouts on kosher cooking tips and prepping food for her classes.

If matzo is the culinary star of Passover, then dairy products take center stage for the next Jewish holiday.Shavuot (or Shavuos) is Hebrew for "weeks." It comes exactly seven weeks after Passover and has spiritual and agricultural roots. The holiday, which begins at sundown May 30, celebrates the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai by the Israelites.Shavuot is also referred to as the "feast of ,the first fruits," a reference to the tradition of making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with the first fruits of the summer wheat harvest.

The holiday that most American Jews celebrate is, unquestionably, Passover. The celebration that begins April 10 is also the one that brings out the most hand-me-down recipes. It is a time to remember ancient sagas - the deliverance of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt - and also a moment to recall personal family sagas. What better way to remember these stories than to weave them with the foods of one's family and culinary traditions of one's people?A contemporary effort at doing this is found in the recent book, "The Tomarkin Story," by Joanne Gerson, an artist living in Cincinnati, Ohio.

WHEN I was single, I held a Passover Seder every year for my friends. I'd put a blanket on the floor, a dozen pillows around it and the special Seder foods in the center: the unleavened cracker called matzo, a gnarled root of horseradish, cups of wine and salt water, and the chopped apple mixture, haroses.Once a Catholic friend raised his hand and said, "Judy, before we start, could you tell us what this holiday is about and why you have these special foods?"Without realizing it, he had paraphrased the four questions traditionally asked by the youngest child at the Seder.

On Wednesday, Jews will observe Passover, remembering the escape of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. But well before their Seders, many will mark a rare event: The sun's return to the position it held on the fourth day of creation, at the time that God made a light to rule the day, according to Genesis. "It's a recognition of the creation of the world, and it's kind of a marker and a remembrance of that event," said Rabbi Dovid Heber of Khal Ahavas Yisrael Tzemach Tzedek in Northwest Baltimore.

When I first met Aichana while doing research in Africa, the heat from the Sahara that was sweeping through Mauritania's capital had made it so difficult to sleep indoors that she had thrown a mattress on the terrace of a friend's home. Aichana's dark skin blended easily into the night. The blue scarf she'd wrapped around her long hair was about the only bright spot coming from the shadows. Everything else about her faded into the blackness of the evening. I'd never met anyone like Aichana.

As he prepared to preside over his last Passover services at Beth El synagogue in Pikesville, Rabbi Mark Loeb allowed himself to consider the opportunities and the responsibilities that come with freedom - his own and the human family's. "Most people think the story is the Haggadah, where we say God gets the people out of bondage. We celebrate it, and happy days are here again. That's not it," Loeb said, referring to Passover. "Liberation from bondage only takes you away from oppression, but it doesn't liberate your soul to dream about how to live your life."

Columbia Jewish to hold talks The Columbia Jewish Congregation will sponsor a talk by Imam Yahya Hendi, Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, "What Jews Should Know About Islam," at 8 p.m. Wednesday at The Meeting House, 5885 Robert Oliver Place, Columbia. Alan Elsner, author of the novel The Nazi Hunter, will lead a discussion of his book from 10:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. May 4 at Oakland Mills High School in Columbia. The programs are free and open to everyone. Information: 410-730-6044.

When I need to go to a happy place in my head, I invariably wind up at my Bubbe's Sunday night table, which always featured lokshen (noodle) kugel. The noodles were just a good excuse to add raisins and almost every dairy product in her fridge. It was the ambrosia of my youth. She served this every Sunday night, except during Passover, when noodles cannot be used. Food plays a huge role in the observance of most Jewish holidays. Apples and honey are eaten on Rosh Hashana, potato latkes and jelly doughnuts on Hanukkah, hamantaschen on Purim.

Detainee treatment talk set Alberto J. Mora, a retired general counsel for the Navy who challenged U.S. policy on the treatment of detainees held in the war on terror, will speak tonight at Goucher College. Mora's lecture, titled "American Cruelty," will discuss the shifts in government policy that led to the use of harsh interrogation methods. Mora is the 2008 visiting scholar of the Roxana Cannon Arsht Center for Ethics and Leadership at Goucher. The 8 p.m. talk in the college's Merrick Lecture Hall is free, but tickets must be reserved by calling 410-337-6333.

If you can get past its maudlin passages and political simplicity, Live and Become is perfect fare for Passover. It tells the tale of a contemporary exodus. In 1977, the Falashas, Ethiopian Jews, began migrating in great numbers to flee persecution from a Marxist-Leninist regime. In 1980, they won the covert support of the Israeli intelligence agencies and military, who smuggled them into Israel. In 1984 and '85, the Israelis initiated Operation Moses. Eight thousand Falashas moved on foot to the Sudan, where enormous Hercules transport planes, operating under a cloak of silence at a military airport near Khartoum, airlifted them to Israel.

Why is this vacation different from all others? Passover commemorates the Israelites' escape from slavery, but for some Jews, the weeklong holiday has come to mean toil they would just as soon leave behind. Instead of cleansing their houses of all leavened grains, unpacking dishes reserved for Passover and cooking traditional meals at home, an increasing number choose to pack their bags and spend the holiday at hotels, international resorts and on Caribbean cruises. This week, about 150 people are relaxing at the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center in Reisterstown, the third time conference staff have offered a Passover program.

When Methodist clergy and congregations around Baltimore have questions about Jesus' Jewish heritage, they can turn to their conference rabbi. The Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church appointed Rabbi Joshua Martin Siegel last year to help put the Jewish roots of the Protestant faith in context through Bible study and demonstration. The Jewish observance of Passover begins at sundown tonight. Siegel will lead a seder, or commemorative feast, for a Methodist congregation in Hyattsville as it celebrates Holy Thursday.

An environmental discussion set April 9 The Howard County Citizens Association invites the community to join in a discussion about protecting and improving the environment at 7:30 p.m. April 9 at the Howard County Conservancy's Gudelsky Center on Mount Pleasant Farm, 10520 Old Frederick Road, Woodstock. Susan Lower, a science teacher at River Hill High School, will talk about "Climate Change: Individuals Can Make a Difference." Local organizations will provide information about their environmental programs, and members of the Howard County Commission on the Environment and Sustainability will attend.