Jerusalem Dinner

Since 2002, our family has participated in many of the activities from a book called "A Christ-Centered Easter" by Janet and Joe Hales from Deseret Book. There are many options listed, and we don't do all of them every year, but we pick several each year. Since the first time, though, it was clear that we would always do the Jerusalem dinner. Our kids love it. We don't serve the same foods every year, but we always sit on the floor, and each year we acquire a few more varied items to help make the meal look more authentic.

Here's the feast:






After a long time preparing and waiting, we are finally ready to eat!



First, everyone listens as mom reads about the symbols of the Passover meal as we pass them around...



Coree dips her parsley in the salt water before eating it.



Ritual foods of the Passover. Clockwise from bottom left: Haroset (fruit and nut mixture, symbolizes building materials used by Israelite slaves to build Egyptian cities), Maror (romaine lettuce symbolizes the initial sweetness of their welcome to Egypt, but the bitter aftertaste represents their enslavement), Zeroa (lamb bone, symbolic of the Paschal lamb sacrificed for the initial Passover), Karpas (parsley dipped in salt water symbolizes the Israelites new life of freedom), Beitzah (roasted egg symbolizes the roasted offering given at the temple before its destruction), 3 Matzot (form of unleavened bread that represents Israel's abrupt escape from Egypt). These are very brief descriptions...I would recommend reading more about the because there is a lot more detail.

Some closeups:



Lamb and Barley. Yum!! Recipe is in the book.



Lentil soup. Soup-er Dooper! Recipe is also in the book. We make it some years (like this time) but we have also purchased lentil soup some years. It's Troy's fave.



Homemade Hummus. This isn't on the list...but they do point out that the list is not all inclusive, so it could possibly be authentic to the time. I don't know...but I DO know it's nummy and goes great with the other foods, so we include it.



Brownie kept inching closer and closer.



Olives, dried fruits and nuts



Grapes...of course!



This is the Haroset from the Passover foods. It is SO good. It's chopped apples, almonds, pecans, dried apricots and dates, with some grape juice mixed in...and finely shaved cinnamon stick to represent the straw in the brick mixture.



Like our authentic Welch's bottle? We're still looking for a better container...same with the honey bear (we need Grandpa Jim to replenish our honey in the comb supply for next year!) and the Corelle mugs. It shouldn't be hard to find something better (and cheap) over here.

It's funny that we started this tradition while Cliff was on deployment, and he was deployed the first 3 Easters that we did this...so when he was finally home, it was like he was a guest at our dinner. It was fun to show him what we do. It was sad not having him here this year, but at the same time, it was familiar to us.

The first year, we did this on Saturday, and had a regular Easter dinner on Sunday...but this actually took over our Easter dinner. Who really likes ham, anyway? This is something we look forward to all year, and I'm thrilled to have found such a worthwhile tradition that stuck!