This is actually the first night of Passover.  And as you can see, despite what I said about "leaving for vacation", this year it didn't work out timing wise.  Yet, because of my mom's surgery and everyone's schedules-we are so not "going there" this year.  

But I will share some of our meal:  We have the Sedar plate.  It has a roasted lamb shank, horseradish, hard boiled egg, salt water, sprig of parsley, honey and a couple of other items on it all represented different parts of the season.

During this time, we do not eat leavened bread or baked goods.  Nothing with yeast.  Whatever is baked uses matzo flour and potato starch/flour.

For dinner:  We start with matzo ball soup.  Gelfite fish (more or less a fish dumpling served chilled) follows.
The rest of the meal is usually roasted chicken, potato pancakes, green salad (representing Spring), charoses, tzimmes, horseradish sauce and honey cake.  We also serve some fresh strawberries and asparagus.

Charoset is made of chopped apples, chopped walnuts (or other nut), honey and wine.
Tzimmes is more or less a very sweet/savory stew of carrots, sweet potatoes, prunes, dried apricots, apples and pears.  Usually made with some orange juice, honey and cinnamon.

All this dishes try to incorporate the tastes of bitter and sweet for religious reasons.
My column isn't meant to start discussions on how and why different traditions are formed but I do love to include food and it's significance in the celebration-feel free to share your own family's traditions!