There’s nothing like a batch of cinnamon balls to welcome the Pesach festival. And what has just emerged from my oven is nothing like a batch of cinnamon balls. I have baked what can only be described as cinnamon frisbees. Still, they taste like cinnamon balls and are a pleasant accompaniment to the tea break I’m currently taking from my Pesach chores.
Even though I’m sitting down at my desk for a minute or two, I’m still thinking about cleaning. I have before me a booklet entitled “Sano housekeeping tips 2009”. The range of cleaning products now available from the Sano company is quite mind-boggling – and I’m a sucker for most of them. Who could resist the Sano-Sushi Professional microfibre cleaning cloths in yellow for thorough cleaning, pink for general cleaning, blue for glass and screens and orange for light scrubbing and wiping? Not me, that’s for sure. And I’ve got a variety of different sprays to go with them, not to mention a vat of the ubiquitous bleach or “economica”, as it is called in Hebrew. Economica is employed so liberally at this time of year that whole country smells like an indoor swimming pool.
The Sano booklet helpfully illustrates the harmful pests one might find in the home and I think I might have most of them. Just to be on the safe side, I made a beeline for the insect repellent section in the supermarket the other day. As Sano advised, I bought sprays suitable for each specific pest; roll-on to apply on my skin; mosquito-repelling tablets to plug into the wall, and cockroach-repelling floor cleaner.
The booklet contains advice as to how to avoid attracting pests in the first place. Prominent among them is to ensure that there are no food residues around the house, so tonight when we check for any errant chametz, I’ll also make sure there are no cinnamon frisbee crumbs under my desk.