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Tired and Full

Rosh Hashana is past us. For some reason, I never felt relaxed during this years services. There is a lot going on in our family, and we hosted a large number of guests for meals. All told, I felt like I was moving from prayer to meal to prayer to meal for two straight days.

The company we had was nice and for the first time in many Rosh Hashanas, we didn't screw up any meals. Our guests ate and were satisified. YEAH!

We on the other hand are like wet rags. The thought of another meat meal is almost too much. One of our neighbors (god bless their house) invited us for dinner tonight. It will probably be meat (as opposed to dairy), but just being in a different environment should be a nice break.

Tomorrow, we break the mold. We are serving fish and dairy for lunch! This is a bit strange for me, since I seem to focus on making meat dishes, but sometimes you just got to change. Some time ago, I received a deep fryer. It feels like feast or famine. Either I'm using it all the time, or it sits idle. This weekend, it was busy.

I don't like fish. Actually, I don't like fish bones. The taste of fish is nice and sushi is one of my favorite foods, partially because it has no bones! So if we are serving fish, its probably salmon or cod filles. This weekend, its both. We love beer batters, so I made a beer batter for the cod and deep fried them as half portions. This should give people more of an option if they don't like it.

Once you have a batter and deep frier, its party time! Everything goes into the frier. Today, it started with onions. Wonderful, crunchy onion rings. Then zucchini. Dip them in the batter and drop them in the frier. They don't come our crunch, but they are very good. At that point, I ran out of batter. Next time I'll make a double batch so that I can play some more!

I should mention that we have four young ladies staying with us this weekend. Not only are our neighbors wonderful for inviting us out, they also included our guests!

The difference between the two noodles and cheese recipies are that the "How to cook everything" approach is to use more butter, less cheese and to season the milk with bay leaves. Both recipies are easy and simple to make. Since we are serving it tomorrow, I didn't bake them. They are all cooked and will just reheat on the hot plate tomorrow afternoon.

We had some pumpkin that my wife bought for Rosh Hashana, but that got lost in the refrigerator. I baked it in the over, pureed it and then added garlic, olive oil, parsley and a bit of orange juice. Its not like the sweet pumpkin pie filling. Its somewhat sharp and smooth.

Shabbat Shuva - Parshat Vayeilech
Dinner (OUT)

Lunch - 14
Noodle and Cheese - Better Homes cookbook
Noodle and Cheese - How to cook everything
Salmon
Deep fried Beer Batter Cod
Guacamole
Green Salad
Brown Rice
Pumpkin Savory
Ice Cream for Dessert!

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