Eric,

First of all, you (singular) are not "goyim".  Goyim is plural, and you (singular) are a "goy."  As a male goy, you are a shaygets; your sister is a shicksa.

As you your mother-in-laws dining habits, she doesn't eat pasta during passover because it has (or potentially has) leaven in it, and we are commanded to eat no leaven in commemoration of the Exodus when the Hebes didn't have time to allow their bread to rise. One goes through all manner of gyrations to avoid leaven, and with greater difficulty to figure out how to cook edible food without it.

As I have mentioned, when single in Joisey City I used to eat my standard lunch (ham and swiss) on matzoh during passover, and have been known to exuse myself for eating raisin bran and pizza on the theory that they are flat.  On the other hand, I felt bad one year when I realized halfway through a bottle of beer that this was a no-no.

Which reminds me that I have misled you goyim with my comment comparing sheetrock and spackle to matzoh and maror, and the Hillel sandwich:  maror is in fact bitter herb, normally (in my family of origin) a slice of horseradish, eaten as a sandwich between two small pieces of matzoh; the chopped apples, nuts and wine mix I described is called charoses (if you eat enough, you might get cirrhosis), and tastes MUCH better between two pieces of matzoh.

My coreligionists should be ashamed to have failed to catch me in this grievous error.

Ralph

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