Matzoh Ball Soup

I had my own Seder for Passover this year. It was potluck style, but I provided the matzoh ball soup and the dessert. I made my own broth and matzoh balls. To make the broth, I put a whole chicken in a pot, along with the detritus of various vegetables that I've been collecting. Make sure that you remove the innards from the chicken. You can put them back in, but you want to make sure you get rid of the paper that they're wrapped in. Also, whenever you prepare veggies, you should set aside the parts you don't use, like the carrot peels, onion peels, ends of the celery, etc. Put them in a bag in the freezer, and then when you need to make broth, you're all set! For the broth, add salt and pepper to the water, and then let it simmer for a few hours. Once it's done, throw out the vegetable detritus, put the chicken aside (it should basically be falling apart), and pour the broth into tupperware.

If you're going to eat the broth immediately, try and skim off as much fat as possible; otherwise, put the tupperware in the refrigerator to cool. The fat should solidify at the top, and then you can just skim it off. Make sure to save it! You'll need it for the matzoh balls.

To make the matzoh balls, I followed the recipe from Smitten Kitchen, but instead of refrigerating them for 30 minutes I let them sit out for 20. I doubled it, which made 15 decent sized matzoh balls.

I would suggest waiting until the water is ready before shaping them, because letting them sit in the bowl while I waited for the water to boil meant that they stuck together a bit.