Cooking for Two Weeks/Shabbatot, Purim in Shiloh

Ever since our house emptied of kids, and I've had jobs that kept me out in the evenings, or coming home without time to prepare dinner, my Shabbat cooking is for the week.

This week, we'll have very few regular evening meals, between my book club, a grandchild's birthday party and Purim. Here in Shiloh, Purim is a long two day holiday, a third day of food change if you count Ta'anit Ester, The Fast of Esther. We celebrate two days of Purim, so next Friday is also Purim, and Gd willing the kids and grandkids will be coming to eat a festive Purim Lunch. That doesn't leave me much time to prepare for the immediately following Shabbat.

So, I cooked a bit more than usual yesterday of chicken and moussaka/meatloaf (using ground turkey) and froze half of it.

This is in the freezer already, made in a double pan.

The two smaller containers are now frozen for next week. 

I'll have to find time to make side dishes before Shabbat, probably after the Thursday night's Megillah reading, which will be our third out of four.

Many people wonder why we in Shiloh have been instructed by the rabbis to celebrate both days. Other Biblical Cities, like Jerusalem only celebrate the second day, Shushan Purim. But even though we are in the same location, which is agreed by Biblical scholars and archeologists alike, the fact that for centuries Shiloh was deserted probably changes its status. Our local Chief Rabbi Elchanan Bin-Nun, in this year's Purim instructions has stated that although we still must celebrate both days and make the blessings only on the first, we should have strong kavana, spiritual intentions recognizing Shushan Purim as our Purim. Maybe in the near, or more certainly distant, future we in Shiloh will be instructed to drop the first day of Purim and only celebrate on Shushan Purim.

After decades of living in Shiloh, since 1981, we've gotten used to a Two Day Purim. It's certainly a lot easier than having two Pesach Passover S'darim. There are no travel restrictions on Purim, and one can be extremely creative in terms of menu. Having two days for the feast gives a lot of flexibility for family and friends. When we host, we have a choice of days, according to what our children prefer. The most difficult of the Purim logistics is making sure to hear the megillah four times.

Have a Truly Joyous Purim

Chag Purim Same'ach

Attractive, Easy to Make Healthy Shabbat or Anytime Food

Bake and serve dishes are favorites for my Shabbat Menu. Here are a couple of Attractive, Easy to Make Healthy Shabbat dishes you may like. I'm vague about quantities and ingredients, because I don't measure, and I also don't obsess about having specific ingredients. That's my approach to cooking:

• be flexible, spontaneous
• don't obsess

When I have an oven, not something I take them for granted*, baked vegetables are on the menu. I have a variety of bake and serve oven pans, so that even the simplest of baked vegetables can look very fancy.

The photo on the right shows "orange vegetables," baked with just a bit of cinnamon and oil. On a "bed" of onion slices, no need to cut exact anything, I placed carrots, sweet potatoes and pumpkin in that order. I bake them in a medium oven, heat from the bottom, until they look baked and are soft.

Tonight's main course is pretty much a "one pot meal," besides being "bake and serve." It doesn't include any carbohydrates, so if you eat carbs, have them on the side with salad.

I layered onion and squash, maybe eggplant, too, on the bottom of the baking pan. I used chopped/minced turkey (500 gram, just over a pound) with onion and a small 100 gram container of tomato paste, plus garlic.

Spread the turnkey on top, with a large spoon and then, as you can see, top with fresh tomatoes. I then added just a spoon or so of vegetable oil and then baked it in a medium oven, heat on top, until it drew from the sides of the pan.

You can substitute ground meat, beef, chicken or a combination. Consider it a version of a meatloaf or musaka.

Cooking should be enjoyable and creative.

Shabbat Shalom UMevorach

Have a Peaceful and Blessed Shabbat

*During the year before our kitchen was renovated, we didn't have a functioning oven.

"Short Week" Before 3 Day Rosh Hashanah Weekend

Today's a busy day for us, so I can't be in the kitchen much. Gd willing we'll be home with enough time to boil water and heat the food for Shabbat. Family fun, bli eyin haraa.

I generally cook all the week's meat and dinner food for my husband when I cook for Shabbat. Since over the years I've had many jobs that kept me out dinner time, he had gotten used to heating up his dinner.

This week Rosh Hashanah begins Wednesday night, so there are only three, rather than five evening meals to worry about. That means I have to prepare less food for Shabbat and the week. That's a relief.

Shabbat Shalom UMevorach

Have a Peaceful and Blessed Shabbat 

Summer Treat, Cold Brew Coffee

Last summer I discovered a new coffee-making technique, Cold Brew Coffee.  Apparently, there are a number of ways to do it, anything from tying the coffee grounds in a clean cloth (like for cheesemaking) or piece of stocking, just make sure there's no detergent, thing for holding tea leaves in water or French Press. Since I have a nice big French Press, that's what I use.

Today I finally drank some.

At first it looks like the coffee will be too light.

But in the morning after a nice stir, you can see that it brewed perfectly while sitting in the refrigerator.

And it tastes absolutely delicious. 

For Shabbat's cold coffee, when it is forbidden to use a filter, I simply perc a nice large quantity, and when it has cooled enough. Then I pour the coffee into glass jars to put in the fridge. That way it's ready and waiting for me in the morning.

And I'll let you in on one more little coffee secret. You don't need hot water to make instant coffee. Stir it in cold water; add your usual sugar/milk plus a few ice cubes, and you'll be surprised at how good it can be... That is of course if you have an instant you like.

Delicious, Attractive, Easy Turkey Breast and Veggie One-Pot Meal

Last week when I was shopping in Rami Levy I saw that they had a special discounted price for Turkey Breast, so I got a package. It weighed just under a kilo, meaning just over two two pounds, 2 lbs.

One of the great things about the Turkey Breast is that there is absolutely no waste. No skin, bones or globs of fat. It's like buying a good piece of fresh fish filet for a fraction of the price, at least here in Israel where fish can be very expensive. According to the experts, turkey is healthier than chicken or beef, and has more natural flavor than chicken according to most people.

So, I took out one of my baking dishes and filled it with all sorts of vegetables and topped it with pieces of the Turkey Breast, which I cut with my poultry shears, and then placed some large whole mushrooms.

Vegetables:
onion, carrot, sweet potato, zucchini, pumpkin, garlic and mushrooms

I poured on some oil and lightly covered with foil, stuck it in a hot oven and baked until the turkey had changed to a light/cooked color.

I served it for Shabbat Lunch, and it heated nicely on the electric food warmer. We had three guests, and everyone loved it. Even though we all ate plenty of it, there is still some leftover. Of course, it wasn't the only food I had served. I made a large tossed salad, rice and an additional vegetable dish which had eggplant and Jerusalem artichoke, among other things.

From now on I will look for more Turkey Breast to buy when on sale and keep it in the freezer.

Coffee Kapora...

As you all know, I've been making my Shabbat coffee in advance when I'm hankering for cold coffee Shabbat morning. Yesterday, Friday morning, I perked a nice big pot of coffee, let it cool and it filled two jars, one to the top, and the other a bit less. I knew that would give me more than enough coffee for Shabbat and figured I could drink the rest tomorrow morning/Monday.

So I started with the less full jar and had a nice mug full which perked me up and poured the rest into the mug for my second, but there wasn't enough. So I took out the other jar from the bottom shelf of the door, and somehow it just slipped out of my hand and dropped just a few inches, and... you guess it... crash!

It was all over the floor, my nice strong, delicious perk-me-up coffee... Splash! So, I mopped it all up, best as I could, and very carefully collected the glass and placed it all in the garbage and the pail of wet things to be laundered, and made do with a different sort of coffee, which I'll blog about tomorrow morning.

Stay tuned...

Cold Coffee Update AOK for Strict Sabbath Observers

I've blogged about my successes and raves about Cold Brew Coffee, so easily prepared at home. But as great as it is, I still had trouble with it on Shabbat. I can't use the French Press filter/plunger on Shabbat, so using that entire apparatus is then problematic.

So, since I have really enjoyed having cold coffee on Shabbat, I decided to do something else entirely. A few hours before Shabbat, I made myself a nice big batch of perked coffee, using the Israeli Elite Turkish in my stove top percolator. Then when it cooled sufficiently, I poured it into a glass jar, actually  two, one large and one small, since I made that much. And then this Shabbat I just poured it into my mug, added the usual milk and sugar, and had great coffee!

No Carb Lasagna

OK, I admit that it sounds a bit like an oxymoron, since we all know that lasagna is basically a pasta dish in which you layer the large pasta pieces with anything from vegetables to meat. But the main course I made for tomorrow's lunch, aka Shabbat morning, sticks to the layering, but instead of pasta, I used vegetables. You can also consider this a version of moussaka.

So, for the simple instructions, I simply layered the bottom of the baking pan with eggplant. Then I added the chopped meat mixed with tomato paste, chopped onion, garlic and an egg (for easier mixing.) Then I topped it off with squash.

Yes, it's that simple. I baked it until you can see the meat leaving the sides of the pan and smelling great. This heats very easily and can also be frozen.

This is really easy to make, and as you see, with a bake and serve pan, I'm saving on dishwashing, muss and fuss.

This can be called a fancy meatloaf, too. It's all in the labeling...

Meat for Meatloaf, Moussaka, Lasagna etc:
Can be doubled, tripled, halved etc, of course.

• about a pound and a third- I used 600 gram- chopped meat
• 1 medium onion, cut into small pieces
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup tomato concentrate  (of course you can use fresh, but I was in a rush)
• generous sprinkling of  granulated garlic (of course you can use fresh, but I was in a rush)

Yes, it's that simple, very healthy and always delicious. Beef is tastier than ground chicken IMHO, but some people prefer chicken. If you can get ground turkey, that's good too. 

I don't buy packaged ground meat, of any type. I watch the guy grinding it in the machine, since the packaged usually has additives and junk.

The Shabbat Food Warmer Cooks!

This post may make absolutely no sense to someone who doesn't "keep Shabbat" in the Orthodox Jewish way. Sorry. But if you have one of these electric food warmers, then you still may find this post useful. 

A food warmer/platta is a low heat electric surface which is not usually meant for cooking. It comes in handy when you need to keep food nice and warm, but don't want a flame underneath. It's safe for ceramics and other materials which will explode on a cooking flame. A friend of mine, who's a potter, instructs people buying her clay dishes not to put them directly on a hot surface. They can take the heat if the heating or cooking surface starts off cold.

On Shabbat we're not supposed to cook, so if we heat up food to serve at a Shabbat meal we can't do it on a direct heat surface. I have a collection of metal objects like that round one in the picture which goes on the "platta," heater. The water stays all the time, since it already boiled up before Shabbat, before I put it on there.

There are many people who put the cold food directly on the platta on Shabbat insisting that the heater doesn't get hot enough to cook and/or that the metal surface is the "extra layer" between the heating elements and the pot.

On Simchat Torah, a holiday when it's permitted to cook, I put most of the pots and baking dishes directly on the platta. Today and last night when I took them off they were boiling/bubbling. That proves that the heating elements are hot/strong enough to cook, so I firmly believe that we must use something between the pot and the platta.

Nice Ice and...

I'll start with the "and..."

The family gets a mazaltov on the birth of a baby girl to my youngest and his wife. But since the kids don't like me to blog about them, that's all I have to say right now...

This week's 52frames had a very summer friendly theme, "Ice." I used frozen coffee in the shape of a heart.

The "crystal look" under it is from sugar. I shot it with my Galaxy II smartphone since my Canon 620 camera is dying or dead. I wonder if I should have had the entire background white sugar.

After taking the picture, I added milk for a delicious summer drink. Since I still have a few heart-shaped coffee ice cubes left, maybe I'll have another cup today.

For the Jewish Sabbath observers who want really good coffee Shabbat morning, I suggest freezing coffee in a plastic cup or ice-cube tray to add to your Shabbat coffee. Just make less coffee Shabbat morning so there's room for the frozen coffee. That way the instant tastes more like perked or from your coffeemaker.

You'd Think I Was Working Full Time, and...

It must be the principle:

how little you have to do fills the day as if you have ten times as much to do

or if you want something to get done, give it to a busy person

I guess I'm getting inefficient, with so little to do. There are still dozens of emails I have neither read nor deleted, and my house is a wreck, and I haven't visited even my most favorite blogs all that much this week.

It's Friday morning, and my husband had to go to work. He does Friday duty every couple of months. That means that I have to go down to shop.

I planned my Start Fresh diet menu, but I couldn't get it to print off. Shabbat is the most difficult, though not for the expected reasons. I generally eat only one real meal. It starts 11am at the latest and is just, when we eat at home, a beef or poultry meal with lots of salad and vegetables. I don't eat cake, but I do adore challah in olive oil. I guess, that has to go, or at least be seriously limited. Early in the morning I drink water and instant coffee. When I go to the "Shiur Nashim," Women's Torah Class, I sometimes nosh and sometimes not, depending on how irresistible the nosh is, and davka, this week it's at the best French baker... Later in the day, I don't have a proper Seudat Shlishit, Third Meal, but I do have salad and whatever, sometimes with techina . At night yogurt and shalva, puffed wheat, but I can cut up an apple instead. So, as you see, just one meal, which doesn't fit the diet plan.

Enough kvetching.

Now for some food for thought. I read this wonderful article about how questions shouldn't be asked on the OU Shabbat page. It's related to the "misplaced" generosity I mentioned in an earlier post. It's hard to know when you're butting into forbidden territory.

Shabbat Shalom

I should have quit after the chopped liver

Friday night, I went to bed feeling pretty sick. I had that "heavy, naughty, shouldn't have" feeling in my bloated stomach.

We're at the time of the year when the days are their longest. It gets dark late, OK, not as late as in Europe or Canada or Southern South America etc. But it gets dark later than my regular dinner time.

That means that our Friday night Shabbat meal, by the time my husband is back from shul, a one minute walk from the house, I'm not really in the eating mood. But I eat. Yes, I'm one of those. Put a plate in front of me, and I empty it, but not into the garbage, and we don't have any pets.

We started the meal with Yaakov's chopped liver. I'm on an Israeli food list, and whenever someone asks where to get the best chopped liver in Jerusalem, there's one answer.... Yaakov. Actually, he's our neighbor and he runs a butcher shop in Jerusalem. Chopped liver doesn't "keep." You must eat it within a couple of days, so no matter how much my husband buys, we must finish it and fast! Certainly in the summer, it must be ingested on Shabbat at the latest. Well, we had a lot of chopped liver and no guests. Half for Friday night and half for Shabbat morning; prayers are over pretty early here.

I had salad with the liver, and I did feel full, but I ate chicken and veggies afterwards anyhow. j What a mistake. That was a bad night.

The next day, I knew what to do. No food after the chopped liver. That was especially, since we sponsored a kiddush in honor of hubby's 60th. I didn't eat much at the kiddush, just a slice of the best Jerusalem Kugel, Rivka's, another neighbor, but she's based here, and some herring and salad. And remember, I had been sick and not eaten much during the week.

Yes, B"H, I did feel better.

Much later in the afternoon, I visited neighbors who said that in the summer, on Friday nights they can't eat the heavy meals and take in (start) Shabbat as early as possible, eating a dairy dinner.