Weekend Hospitality

Sukkot (Fall 2011) Dinner (15 people attending, big eaters all!) California Garlic Soup Spaghetti and Meatballs Coca Cola Chicken Carrot salad Cucumber Salad Brussels Sprouts Lunch - 19 Grilled meats Grilled fresh Cajun Chicken Grilled peppers and zucchini Roast potatoes Israeli Salad Green Salad Breads and Condiments It is traditional in Israel to grill on holidays, even for the orthodox jews.  This is our first attempt at following this custom.  Wish us luck and a happy holiday to all!

Here are our menus for Rosh Hashana 5972 (2011).  All of our meals are booked and we look forward to spending time with our friends and family.  Counts after the meal are the number of people expected to attend. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year. Wednesday Night - 17 New year signs Trout Salmon + Sauce Leeks Beets Carrots Pumpkin Dates Black Eyes Peas Celery + Peanut Butter + Raisins Apples and Honey Hungarian Goulash Roast Chicken Noodles Cake Lemon Freeze Thursday Lunch (out at friends) Thursday Dinner - 17 Cold Cuts Cold Cajun Chicken Sesame Noodles Salads Honey Cake Ginger bread + Ice cream Friday Lunch - 15 Salmon Cheese Plater Lasagne Tofu Broccoli Kugel Cup Cakes Apple Cake Shabbat Dinner (out with friends) Shabbat Lunch - 20 Kebabs and Techina Cajun Jumbalaya Mushroom Chicken Broccoli Kugel Couscous Salads Apple Cake

The family is each doing their own thing this weekend.  There is a bar-mitzva in Jerusalem for the youngest and an event that the wife is running with the help of a few of the other boys. I'm off to visit an old college buddy (that's old college, not old, college) in Bet Shemesh. Have a great shabbat! I'm bringing along one of my favorite noodle dishes. Sesame Ginger Noodles Makes a lot of noodle Cook two pounds of spaghetti noodles, drain and set aside. Mix together the following ingredients: 3 Tbsp canola oil 3 Tbsp sesame oil 1 tsp crushed red pepper 2 Tbsp ginger, finely chopped or minced 3-4 scallions, chopped, whites and greens 1/2 cup soy sauce 3 Tbsp vinegar 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar 3 Tbsp sugar Mix the ingredients until the sugar dissolves and pour over the cooked noodles.  Mix well to spread the sauce and chill the noodles for 4-5 hours.

Nice week.  I hit the triple 16 birthday.  Now I feel older.  Hard to believe I've been around this long, but I am reminded of it at work every day.  I'm definitely the grampa of the group. The other new of the week is that the Hebrew University finally agreed that I had fulfilled all of the requirements for a Phd.  It took them more than 10 months to review my thesis, which would have been painful if I hadn't been working already.  So with that past me, I am now recognized as a Doctor of Philosophy.  Of course, my diploma will not arrive until the graduation ceremony next May! I had fun in the kitchen today.  We are trying our one course meals for Friday night.  We usually have a smaller number of guests for dinner, so its nicer to have a simple meal.  I started out thinking about a soup and ended up making Yellow Curry Chicken (see recipe below).  Then a friend brought over some mushroom barley soup, so we'll use a s...

Once again into the blogging fray.  Quiet weekend with everyone back in school or wherever they are  now spending their time.  This weekend, I decided to marinate my chicken breasts.  Its easy to do and adds flavor.  I used two different marinades: olive oil, lemon juice and herbs, and soy sauce, garlic, ginger, vinegar and dark sesame oil.  The trick here is to let is sit and not be in a hurry to cook it off.  I marinated them for about 4 hours, but overnight would work also. The other trick I used was to make roast chicken using a commercial salad dressing as a glaze.  In this case, honey mustard salad dressing on a split chicken.  I can't recall the last time I cooked a chicken without first removing the backbone and laying it flat.  My feeling is that by making it flat, the chicken cooks more evenly. We continue the experiment with simple one disk meals for dinner.  Some of my children are tired of chicken soup, so my wife m...

Holy readers, it's been almost three months since my last post.  I've been working at a new job and finding balance in my life.   Many thanks to a few readers for pestering me to keep writing.  I do appreciate the motivational help. My wife suggested that we try for a very simple meal on Friday night instead of the full blown orgies of epicurean wonders that I usually attempt.  We tried it last weekend and we will try it again tonight.  We are aiming at single bowl meal with soup, salad and a starch.  It is surprising how filling a few bowls of soup are and we really don't need all the fancy  calories twice on Shabbat. With the beginning of the school year, we also begin to invite families once again for Shabbat lunch.  This weekend, we have a reasonable size group of 18.  Four of them are below 10, but still, its a crowd. Both the chicken recipes come from a cookbook called "The Spicy Food Lover's Bible".  It has relativ...

Next week is Israeli Independence day!  I'm looking forward to celebrating with friends and family.  This weekend is rather quiet, with no guests for dinner and 7 guests for lunch (which is small for us). I'm trying out new dishes.  For the stir fry, I used Celery Root (celeriac).  Its different, but I hope it tastes great.  Here is a picture I took of the prep work.  The items are Red Bell Pepper, Carrots, Celery Root, Zucchini, Onions and Garlic.  I marinated the chicken in Dark Sesame Oil, stir fried it, removed it from the pan and then stir fried the vegetables.  Mix and serve with fresh green onions for tomorrow lunch. The other cool dish was Ground beef and Spinach.  Saute a minced onion, brown the beef with the onions until it is no longer pink.  Add a bad of thawed chopped spinach, garlic, 1 tsp red pepper flakes, a beef bullion cube and a cup or two of water.  Simmer until the water is mostly evaporated.  Looks gre...