What We're Cooking for Shabbos: 2004 - 2006

[bloviatrix]

I am flying to London tomorrow for a week and will hopefully be able to post Shabbat meals when I return to normalcy. What ever that means.

←

Please let us know you're back home and safe.

Dinner last night was:

Borscht

Baked salmon with chipotle mayo and bread crumbs

Zucchini coins sauteed in butter

Shells tossed in a pignoli-herb sauce

Strawberry Rhubarb Fool

Instead of challah we had sourdough bread. Strawberry lemonade to drink.

We were invited out for lunch.

[Swisskaese]

Hi Everyone,

I am safe. David was at a tube station waiting for a train when the explosion occured. Thank G-d he was not near any of the bombings. I couldn't reach him for 1 1/2 hours and was worried sick, but he finally got in touch with me in the middle of my meeting via Skype Instant Messaging. I love technology!

On a food note.....

We spent a nice Shabbat at friends in Hampstead Heath. They served the following:

Chicken Soup

Chopped Liver

Roasted Chicken

Roasted Potatoes

Broccoli

Watermelon and Pineapple

[Comfort Me]

Michelle: I am glad to know you are all safe, Baruch HaShem.

As many of you already know, my mom passed away a week ago after a very long illness. And while we still mourn for her, there was considerable relief that her suffering was over and a firm belief she had moved on to a better place. We got to spend some really meaningful time with my brothers and their families and then returned home to finish sitting shiva at home, where we were cared for spectacularly by our friends and family.

That said, I can't wait to cook for myself again. I find the cooking to be very therapeutic.

This Friday our synagogue is having a community dinner -- a "Slow Food" Shabbat potluck. I went back and forth about going, but finally decided that spending time with our community is immensely comforting and a Shabbat dinner isn't a party, so it is ok to go. I am going to make Paula Wolfert's 7 hour green beans, as I love spicy foods and I've always wanted to try the recipe and see if the beans really do keep their shape. (And I am probably one of Ms. Wolfert's biggest fans!)

My son has an 8-year-old friend staying with us for Shabbat, so for lunch we are going stay home and have cold poached salmon with a spicy roasted tomato viniagrette, cold boiled potatoes, deviled eggs, blueberry buckle, and homemade blueberry ice cream.

I am so looking forward to Shabbat and the change of pace, the peace, and the renewal it brings. Shabbat is really a miracle, isn't it?

[bloviatrix]

Friday night's meal was a greenmarket inspired dinner.

Young Garlic Soup

Chicken "schnitzel"

Ratatouille

Blueberry Pie

Sesame Pugliese, basil mayo. Seltzer to drink.

Lunch was a chef's salad.

[jaynesb]

Using Bloviatrix's thyme crust again. This time/thyme, I didn't have fresh so I used some dried stuff. The tart is kind of made up. Some shredded mozzarella topped by carmelized leeks then some roasted sliced butternut squash and zucchini along with more cheese sprinkled in. It still didn't look quite right so I beat up some egg with a bit of cream and poured that over so it's kind of gratin-ish. No idea how well it will work out.

Side dish is a lovely tomato salad with cut up orange, yellow, and red cherry tomatoes. Some sliced sundried tomatoes (I rinse off the oil with boiling water so they plump up a little bit.) Also some chiffonaded (spelling?) basil and lemon zest. The drizzled balsamic, olive oil, S&P. It's got great colors and bright flavor. I've been a bit fancier with it and made a sliced layered arrangement but this is just quartered tomatoes. (Found recipe years ago in a tiny cookbook called "The Inspired Vegetarian")

Shabbat Shalom everyone.

jayne

[bloviatrix]

Things are looking so good at the greenmarket, I planned tonight's dinner to highlight my purchases.

Sweet corn and potato vichysoisse

Tomato and mozzerella tart in a thyme-garlic crust

Blueberries and whipped cream

Bread will be either Tuscan Rustica with basil mayo. To drink is mint ice tea.

We invited some friends to join us for lunch tomorrow as they just got back from being out of town. Lunch is:

Borscht

Chef's salad with smoked turkey breast, pastrami and corned beef

Chicken paillards with a cornmeal-chili crust

Green Bean salad

Sorbet - blueberry and apricot.

We'll have a pugliese as bread. And to drink Galil Mountain Rose Galilee 2004.

[Swisskaese]

We are in the middle of packing to move to our new apartment and I threw my back out! It is hell getting old.

Unfortunately, we have a guest who invited herself for Shabbat in the middle of our mess.

We are having:

Halibut Nuggets with Hazelnut Crumb Crust

Peas

Basmati Rice

Nectarine Tarte Tatin - I spiced it up with Ras al Hanut and Brandy

Shabbat Shalom Everyone.

Edited August 5, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[jaynesb]

Swisskaese,

Anybody who invites himself/herself to someone's home while the person is moving should probably expect to be help to help finish up the freezer contents.

Good luck with the move.

Challah (I've been playing around with the recipe from Home Baking by Alford and Duguid. I added some honey though. My family likes the flavor from the long cool rise.)

We are having an eggplant/swiss chard casserole with slow roasted tomatoes and garlic. (Tom Colicchio's method). I had eggplant rollatini in my head but no ricotta in the refrigerator. I'm layering the eggplant though. I don't feel like rolling things up.

Dessert will be zucchini bread (I'm trying the recipe that Bloviatrix recommended from Food and Wine.) My mother handed me some zucchini from her garden so I'm making a double batch and will bring her one loaf.

Shabbat Shalom everyone

jayne

[bloviatrix]

We are in the middle of packing to move to our new apartment and I threw my back out! It is hell getting old. 

Unfortunately, we have a guest who invited herself for Shabbat in the middle of our mess.

←

I hope you have some good drugs for the back. If not, drink some wine with dinner. As for the guest -- what the hell? That's just chutzpah. If anything, you should be invited out.

Dessert will be zucchini bread (I'm trying the recipe that Bloviatrix recommended from Food and Wine.) My mother handed me some zucchini from her garden so I'm making a double batch and will bring her one loaf.

←

I hope it turns out well. The last time I made it -- it was completely raw in the middle. I think it's because I forgot to add the baking soda. When it cooks through, it's really quite tasty.

[bloviatrix]

It's hot. I don't want to use my oven a whole lot. And Blovie requested meat for both meals because of the upcoming nine days. So tonight we're having:

"grilled" skirt steak with an ancho-garlic spice rub

dilled potato salad

roasted corn and black bean salsa

apricot-cardamon sorbet, inspired by Russ Parson's column on fruit ice creams in this week's LA Times.

Dalton rose to drink.

[Swisskaese]

I can't say it was the happiest of Shabbats....

We are moving next week to a new apartment. Back is back to normal.

We had the following:

Trout stuffed with sage, garlic, rosemary and lemon

Rice with mushrooms

Green Beans

Binyamina Emerald Reisling

Passion Fruit Cheesecake

Shabbat Shalom everyone

[bloviatrix]

I've been computerless for the past week and a half as both of our computers blew their hard drives at the same time. Anyway, this past week we had....

Baba ganoush. This is a new recipe I tried out of the Gil Marks book. So good. I'm never buying the pre-made stuff again!

Corn and potato vichysoisse - the dairy version. With buttermilk. And butter.

Red snapper with a carrot-sherry cream sauce

sauteed zukes

Peppermint ice cream (that I made earlier in the week) with chocolate chips

Hibiscus, vodka, and seltzer - our new favorite summer cocktail. Sesame pugliese.

[Swisskaese]

The last Shabbat at our old apartment:

Roasted Chicken with carrots, garlic, onions, pears and thyme

Rice

Brussel Sprouts

Dalton Shiraz

Hope everyone had a Shabbat Shalom.

[jaynesb]

Back from almost 2 weeks in California... Definitely hard to come back to all this humidity. It hit us as soon as we walked out of the airport.

Last week, we were with my sister in Berkeley, CA. I offered to help out with cooking for Shabbat. She was originally going to do her shopping at a local grocery store but then decided that I'd really enjoy seeing the Berkeley Bowl.

What an amazing place!!! All you guys who live out there are really lucky to have it. (I'm sure you know that already though.) We picked up tons of stuff. (She was restocking her kitchen after returning from a 2-month trip to Israel and South Africa so she had almost no food at home.)

We (well, really I) made some of my usual things plus extra because I had no idea how much food we'd really need. Lots of lemons were used. (I couldn't resist... she's got a tree!!! Maybe it's a requirement because everyone we visited had meyer lemon trees.) I also learned how hard it can be to do food prep on a counter that is too high... (The funny thing is that my sister really doesn't do a lot of cooking but she decided to do a special height counter!)

All nine of us (4 adults, 5 kids) enjoyed

grape juice and [purchased] challah

roasted vegetable tart (still enjoying Bloviatrix's thyme crust)

greek-style lemony roasted potatoes

heirloom tomato salad with basil

chickpea salad with parsley and mint

pea pods

rice salad (kind of made-up but vaguely Asian-style soy sauce, sesame oil, mint, basil)

plain spaghetti - this time, mostly for my niece and nephews.

chocolate chip cookies (and some some chip-less ones)

fruit salad

All that stuff was good at room temp the next day since there were a ton of leftovers!

(The tomato salad lost something from the overnight chilling though.)

jaynesb

[bloviatrix]

For the past several weeks we've been either at friends for meals or have had simchas to attend. We're actually out again tonight. But I'm cooking a reasonably nice lunch.

Corn and Potato Chowder

Tomato-Mozzerella Tart

Chocolate ice cream with raspberry swirl for dessert

[Swisskaese]

I am offline at home at the moment.....

We just moved to a new apartment and haven't finished setting up the network.

We had the following for Shabbat dinner:

Roasted Salmon with Apples, Lemons and Rosemary

Roasted Cauliflower

Roasted Potatoes

[Rebecca263]

We had stuffed grape leaves, salad with soy balsamic dressing and challah. I polished off an entire bottle of that blush grape juice.

[bloviatrix]

The good news is got my entire meal done. The bad news is my oven died in the process. Fortunately, I have a toaster oven in which I finished the salmon. Now, let's hope the oven gets fixed this week.

This was the first Friday night we were home in about a month. And we're out next week as well. We're drawing to the close of dairy meals. So dinner was:

Borscht, using golden beets

Baked salmon brushed with basil mayo and bread crumbs

Noodle kugle

Nectarines stuffed with coffee flavored mascarpone

For Shabbos lunch we started with a garlicky green bean salad and focaccia. Then had a large salad with veal and sun-dried tomato sausages, heirloom tomatoes, mixes greens and red pepper.

[Swisskaese]

Still offline at home

We had the following:

Seabass with lemon, rosemary, oregano and garlic

Rice with sauteed mushrooms, garlic and onions

Green peas

Red wine (can't remember which one)

Belgian Gallete cookies

[Swisskaese]

We had the following:

Georgian Chicken (stuffed with rice, dried cherries and pinenuts)

Cauliflower

Rice from the stuffing

Barkan Dry Red table wine

Apple Strudel

[bloviatrix]

It's not enough that I've spent most of the past week cooking for Rosh Hashanah, but I had to make dinner for tonight as well......

Borscht

London Broil in a honey/rosemary marinade

Roasted buttercup squash with honey, brown sugar and cinnamon

Roasted potatoes

Bulgur pilaf

I have no idea what we'll drink. But I need something strong.

Tomorrow's lunch will be a salad with sausage. There's a big kiddush in shul to celebrate sheva brachot so I'm sure we'll indulge.

[Swisskaese]

Tonight we had:

Stuffed butternut squash with mince meat, onions, pinenuts, rice and spices

Green peas

Barkan Vin de Table red

Now I am embarking on the Rosh Hashana preparations.....

Shabbat Shalom Everyone and Chag Sameach

[bloviatrix]

I've got so much food left in the freezer from RH as well as stuff from our pre-Yom Kippur meal. So, I'm going with left-overs....

Chicken Soup

Turkey Breast with Apricot Sauce

Bulgur Pilaf

Roast buttercup squash (this is new)

And since we've had nothing but rain for the past 8 days, I made a big pit of chili for tomorrow's lunch.

[jaynesb]

We've got my in-laws coming over tonight. Hoping the rain holds off until later this evening. (Not that I'm a pessimist but I haven't yet set the table in the sukkah!)

Challah (latest family favorite is the recipe from The Kosher Palette.)

rolls (from my old recipe, quickly made today when I realized the local shops were out of rolls.)

Tuscan bean soup (nice and thick)

vegetable tiella, a comfort-food Italian layered casserole with potatoes, fresh spinach, zucchini with nice amounts of garlic, olive oil, tomato sauce, bread crumbs, and parmesan.

some crunchy raw veggies and olives

Dessert will be a [Carvel] ice cream cake for my husband's birthday today.

Shabbat Shalom everyone.

jayne

[Rebecca263]

That vegetable tiella sounds so good, I wonder, what less expensive cheese we could use in place of the Parmesan? Shabbat Shalom everyone!