Holidays that center around food are my favorite, no matter which culture may be their source. Passover is no exception, and I’ve spent a good portion of my day today making dishes for tomorrow night’s seder. (Yes, I know, there’s that whole thing about being liberated from Egypt, etc., but be honest: what are you looking forward to more? The hours you’ll spend trying to get your kids to pay attention to the story even as you consider just how quickly you can skim over the Plague of the First-Born so that you satisfy religious obligation without giving your preschooler nightmares for a year? Or the gefilte fish, the matzoh ball soup, the brisket and the flourless chocolate torte that will follow?)

I’ve stolen a few moments away from the kitchen as my raspberry coulis cools (that’s for the chocolate torte) to write this post. So far, I’ve made four—yes, four—charosets for the seder. (For the uninitiated, charoset is a mixture of apples, nuts, wine and other stuff that symbolizes the mortar the Hebrew slaves used between the bricks they were forced to lay in Egypt.) I made a traditional charoset for the seder plate itself, but for dinner, I like to branch out and create different versions for everyone to taste. My favorite thus far is an Iranian charoset that includes bananas and cardamom; you can find the recipe at the Cooking Light website by clicking here.

New for me this year is a recipe I stumbled across on a blog called Mac & Cheese for Charoset truffles. The recipe seemed too bizarre to pass up. The results were impressive, and I had trouble finishing the truffles without eating every other one I prepared. I should note that I modified the recipe as presented because I didn’t have enough dates and I thought any charoset recipe ought to include apples in some form to be genuine. So I added approximately one-half cup of dried apple nuggets to make up for the date deficiency. As Mac & Cheese advises, you can vary the recipe in many ways to achieve a result that works for you.

Well, I’m done here. There’s a pot of raspberry coulis in the kitchen calling my name. If you’re Jewish (or if you hang out with Jews), enjoy the seder—especially the food.