Weekend Hospitality

This weekend marks a new beginning for me.  I've taken a new position as CTO of a young start-up. Sunday is my first day and I'm really excited about the opportunity.  Its like they said in the movie Full Metal Jacket: "Travel to exotic, distant lands (Tel-Aviv), meet exciting, unusual people, (my new cohorts and team members) and make the coolest, fastest product in the market!"  Ok, so I took a little liberty with the quote, but I'm still stoked! This weekend, we celebrate the passing of Passover.  Bring on the noodle, bread and flour based products. Shabbat Parshat Kedoshim Dinner - 7 Chicken Soup Spaghetti and Meatballs Zucchini Curry Green Beans Lunch - 11 Deli Roll Corned Beef Roasted Yams Israeli Salad Rice

Ah, more meat, more potatoes.  A real man's holiday and it lasts 7 days!  What could be better expect perhaps additional cholesterol medication. Not many guests for this weekend.  Dinner is 10 and lunch will be our basic 7.  I usually cook Atkin's friendly dishes, so passover is not a big deal.  On the other hand, I also serve starches as sides and that's much harder. Here's something fun to do. I use a real lamb shank for the seder plate.  We don't eat it that night, but we do present it as a remembrance of the holiday service more than 2000 years ago.  (That's a really long time).  So what do with the shank once the seder is over?  Today, I sliced the meat off the bone, cut zucchini and onions on a mandolin and stir fried it all together.  It smells wonderful and will taste great tonight. My wife has a tradition of making parve ice cream on Pessach.  We all enjoy it as dessert after our meals.  This year, she experiment...

This week has been cleaning week.  One of my responsibilities is the oven and stovetop.  It took me about 6 hours this years to get it clean, but I am very proud of how sparkling clean it is.  Amazing what good chemicals will do to stainless steel. Our house is ready for passover. This weekend we are each kosher for pesach food, but with the addition of kitniyot.  So, be prepared and awed by my pre-passover menu!  It a bit short because we are eating a friends for lunch. Here is the recipe for Meatballs and Zucchini the way I made it today. 2 kilo zucchini, cubed (1/2 inch cubes) 6 cloves garlic (halved) 1 large onion diced 1 kilo ground meat 3 eggs Parsley 1 tsp oregano ground pepper, salt Salt the cubed zucchini in a colander and let sit for at 30 minutes.  Wash the zucchini and let sit. In a pot, add 2-3 Tbsp oil, and brown the garlic.  Remove from the oil and add the onion.  Saute until soft.  Add the zucchini and cook cove...