Relaxing Weekend (yes)

After the Thanksgiving holiday, we need a break.   Fortunately, we have left-overs.  Tonight, we have the G families over for dinner.  These two families are probably among our closest friends.  That is a good thing since we will indeed be having leftovers.

We also have a niece and her friend staying with us.  Tonight's dinner will be 21 people.  Just a small gathering!  Tomorrow, we are going out for lunch, so we will get the break that we need.

Because things were too boring, I decided to get immunized for the winter flu and the swine flu today.  One shot in each arm.  Hopefully, I will not feel any side-effects.  After three hours, I'm fine.  I think it is important to get these inoculations, because the alternatives are worse.  I really don't enjoy having the flu.  It knocks me out for about a week.  I am hoping that the flu shots can keep me healthy, or minimally, reduce the impact if and when I do contract one of these illnesses.

On the cooking side, pretty plain food.  We have a two vegetarians, a gluten and sugar free eater, and a bunch of omnivores.  Good thing we have lots of alternatives.

Shabbat Parshat Vayeitzei
Dinner - 21
Mushroom barley soup (with turkey stock)
Parve Broccoli soup
Sweet Chili
Corned Beef
Stuffing (a bit of everything)
Zucchini in tomato sauce
Quinoa
Sesame noodles
Israeli Salad
Cabbage Salad

Post Thanksgiving

The hall, just before opening

Carving staff: taking apart the birds before service

Photos courtesy of B. Gilor

We celebrate our anniversary on Thanksgiving. Its a rather large affair, with about 350 of our friends. We have been having this party for many years, learning from year to year and adjusting as we go. Last night was one of our nicest events. The decorations were wonderful, the food delicious and the company divine.

As usual, the big hit was our sweet chili. Here is a link to the recipe that we posted last year. Same recipe, just a bigger quantity. We made wonderful stuffings this year. The list included:

1. Traditional mushroom, onion and celery
2. Dark bread with garlic and dried tomatoes
3. Jalapeno and hot sausage
4. Pesto and black olives
5. Creamed corn with soy milk
6. Apples and raisins
7. Shredded carrots and onions

The first five were cooked in the birds. They were soft and rich. The last two were done separately in the oven. The crowd certainly voted with their plates, leaving much of the apples and carrot dishes as left-overs. Remember for next year!

I tried brining a turkey this year. I used one cup of salt, one cup of brown sugar, and 2 tbsp thyme to one gallon of water. Soak the bird for 12 hours and then cook as usual. I could not tell the difference. Next year, we will have to do a more careful scientific study. Perhaps three and three.

Out of time!

Boy a re we running late.  Five minutes until shabbat.

I'll post the menu and fill you in on the rest after shabbat!

Shabbat Parshat Toldot
Dinner - 10
Hot dog soup
Beef Burgundy (Julia Child's)
Orange-Ginger chicken turnovers
Red lentils
Zucchini and Peppers
Garlic Meat balls in a wine sauce
Noodles

Lunch - 11
Roast Chicken
Stuffed Zucchini (with beef)
Garlic Green beens
Red Lentils
Roast Potatoes

Winter?

My family woke up today in a bad mood.  Nothing serious, just not the usual patient, cooperative people I usually see in the morning.  My wife says that its the weather.  It has been overcast all day and is now drizzling.  When there is insufficient sunlight, people tend to be less happy and more depressed.

This week we got the news that my son in the army was asked to find a new unit.  We are very proud that he made it as far as he did, but now he needs to look for something new.  Just another bump in the road of life.  On the plus side, we love having him home until he is relocated.  His fiancee is equally happy to have him around.

For some reason, we don't have guests from the seminaries and yeshivot this weekend.  We invited over a family from the community for lunch.  We look forward to a quiet weekend.

With the onset of winter, I'm trying a new soup: Ginger Chicken soup.  The chinese believe that this soup is a cure-all for colds and flues.    It certainly smells good and it so light that I would try it if I had a sore throat (which I do not, thank god).

Shabbat Parshat Chayei Sarah
Dinner  - 9
Ginger chicken soup with couscous
Chinese meat balls (based loosely on this recipe)
Stir fried chicken
Rice

Lunch - 15
Kol Dulce Con Carne (beef and cabbage)
Garam Masala Pargiot (dry rub and sauteed)
Naked Shnitzel (no bread crumbs)
Mashed potatoes
Stir fried zucchini
Cole Slaw

Quiet on the eastern front, excitement in the west

Our house is very quiet this weekend.  We were invited out for dinner, and we have no guests for lunch!  Oh the travesty!  We will just have to make do with our own company.  Its clear and bright outside with highs in the mid eighties (around 30 for the metric crowd).

In the west (Cleveland to be exact), my brother's son is celebrating his bar-mitzvah this weekend.  Great excitement, many guests and highs in the low 60's (low teens).  Most of the US family will be there to cheer him on as he reads from the torah, gives a short speech and eats tons of good food.   I'm sorry to miss it.

On the cooking front, I went out to see Julie and Julia with my wife and our friends this week.  I really enjoyed the movie.  Julia Child was a larger than life person and the movie captures that quality.  The food scenes were great and I even learned something (mushrooms brown better when you don't crowd them).

So, this weekend, I only made one meal.  Meatloaf for the wife, stuffed chicken breasts for me.  The meatloaf contains nice browned onions and mushrooms (thanks julia), lots of parsley and a cup of red wine.  It smells great.

The chicken breasts started life in my refrigerator as schnitzel, flattened breasts split in half.  I (my son), pounded them thiner using a rubber mallet.  Be careful not to pound too thin, as the meat just falls apart.  Then I made a stuffing of sautéed mushrooms, browed onions (see a theme here?), rice and chives from our garden.  I sautéed the rice with another cup of red wine until the wine was absorbed.  The color and flavor were really nice.  Put a couple of tablespoons of stuffing in each chicken breast and roll them up nicely.  Brown and place in a covered over-proof dish with some chicken soup.  Cook covered for 30-40 minutes.  They look wonderful, the wine gives the stuffing some color and the browned chicken outside looks very nice.

Add some roasted fennel, sautéed cabbage, plain rice and an israeli salad and we have way too much food for just the 7 of us.

Oh well, we'll be thinking of my nephew and our family in the US of A.

Shabbat Parshat Vayeira
Lunch - 7
Meat loaf
Stuffed Chicken
Roasted Fennel
Sautéed Cabbage
Rice
Israeli Salad