My mind, and the places it goes

This week, we're home for dinner and out for lunch. Our original set of guests (new neighbors and their two-year-old son), for whom this menu was originally tailored, had to cancel on us, but by then mabfan and I were in the mood for fleishigs (meat) (which I had planned due to the new people factor). And thus we have same menu but different guests. Our new guests are three folks with whom we've been friends for a while.

And the menu is:

-- Grape juice & challah
-- Gefilte Fish a la Jen (though she says it's Meir Green's recipe)
-- Brisket a la lcNlc with potatoes and carrots (but no onions due to guest allergy)
-- Pasta salad to be brought by guest
-- Broccoli-rice casserole from a recipe I mostly made up
-- Brownies (recipe from dancingdeer but without the peppermint or cocoanut)
-- Cookies from the same bakery where I got the challah
-- Coffee and/or tea for those that want

So today is the 48th day of the Omer (that's six Sylvester McCoys and a Colin Baker, for those of you counting along at home). Which means that the holiday of Shavuot starts tomorrow night. And thus, I have been planning food. Not *making* food yet, but at least planning:

We are in for three meals (two with guests, one just us) and out for one (all hail the shul luncheon).

General:

-- Challah for three meals

Main dishes:

-- Mexican lasagna
-- H's cheese pie (an obvious Shavuot dish)
-- Quiche
-- 2 Mac and Cheeses (for the meal that will include four adults and five kids under the age of 10)

Other stuff:

-- Veggies for slicing
-- Blintzes to accompany one of the meals with guests

Guests:

-- First dinner: no one

-- First lunch: two adults, three kids

-- Second dinner: two or possibly three adults

-- Second lunch: At the shul

All of the groceries are bought, and I will do cooking tonight and tomorrow.

Tonight begins the last of the fall holiday sweep, Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. I will be offline from this afternoon through probably Monday morning.

So far, I have gotten a lot accomplished for the holiday. At T -not quite two hours, I have the following:

-- Challah: done
-- Roasted garlic for the challah: done
-- Honey butter: butter softening so I can mix in the honey
-- Corn chowder: done
-- Lasagna: in oven
-- Honey glazed ginger carrots: done
-- Corn kugel a la ALB: done
-- Brownies (mint-and-chocolate glazed?): brownies done and cooled; toppings to be done soon

And I posted everything for my work deadline, too.

So, Shabbat shalom and chag sameach to those who are celebrating, and everyone should have a good weekend!

mabfan had his wisdom teeth out yesterday, so the theme of this week's Shabbat meal is "relatively easy to eat." We're alone for dinner and have one guest for lunch. So, here's what I made or am making for the meals:

Tonight

-- Challah and grape juice
-- Corn chowder
-- Ice cream for dessert

Tomorrow

-- Challah and grape juice
-- Mixed berry soup (recipe from The Moosewood Cookbook)
-- Baked ziti with three cheeses (recipe from Epicurious)
-- Cheese pie (recipe from introverte)
-- Baked squash (method stolen from beckyfeld)
-- Ice cream for dessert

At this point (T = Shabbat -4.75 hours), everything is made but the cheese pie and the berry soup.

ETA: At T = Shabbat -3 hours (5:07 PM), DONE!

So, here's how the weekend happened:

Friday

-- Worked from home
-- Had morning doctor's appointment
-- After work, finished food for dinner (did most of cooking on Thursday, but was afraid there wasn't enough food, so added a dish at almost the last minute)*
-- Set up for Shabbat dinner and Shabbat in general
-- Sent mabfan off to shul (he had yahrtzeit for his mother on Shabbat) about 10 minutes after he got home from work
-- Lit candles just a few minutes into the 18 minutes
-- Set table and then read and waited for guests to arrive
-- Guests came in waves, until all eight of us (including mabfan and the two friends meeting him at shul) had arrived
-- Dinner filled with fun conversation and followed by Settlers of Catan
-- Eventually, sleep

Saturday

-- Up early for shul
-- Really enjoying shorter walk (with significantly less hill) to shul
-- mabfan and I sponsored kiddush in honor of his mother's yahrtzeit, and people thanked us for the extras (red peppers and clementines) we had
-- Home for lunch after shul
-- Very brief nap
-- Back to shul for Mincha and Shalosh Seudot and Ma'ariv because mabfan was the speaker at Shalosh Seudot
-- Home after Ma'ariv, with two potential events to attend
-- In the end, decided to attend neither event. Instead, unpacked some more boxes of books and relaxed.
-- Sleep relatively early for a Saturday night, but we needed it.

Sunday

-- Up around 8:30
-- Unpacked more boxes of books. We most likely need additional bookcases (this is not particularly a surprise)
-- Out to Harvard St. to do errands and then meet a friend for lunch
-- Birthday party for friends' one-year-old daughter
-- Out to Lexington for dinner with relatives. Discovered on way from Alewife to house in Lexington that there had been illness in house earlier that day. Decided to not have dinner in Lexington.
-- Returned to Brookline and had dinner at Rubins, as mabfan was in the mood for chicken, and our place is set up milchig.
-- Home after dinner
-- Got things ready for going to work on Monday
-- Watched some TV
-- Cursorily watched Superbowl (mostly for commercials)
-- Sleep after end of game

*Final menu for Friday night dinner was: roasted garlic to go on challah; starter of black bean and chocolate chili from Moosewood; main course of Mexican Lasagna, introverte's cheese kugel, and vegetable stew from Moosewood; dessert of chocolate chip cookie bars and vanilla ice cream.

Lunch, up to four guests (three so far confirmed), weather predicted to be 86F and partly cloudy.

-- Challah with olive oil, zaatar, maybe roasted garlic

-- Gazpacho

-- Baked shells in cream sauce with cauliflower (recipe from On Top of Spaghetti)

-- Bill's Swiss Cheese Vegetable Medley (recipe from mabfan's former coworker)

-- Another veggie? Another starch?

-- Dessert of some sort

Or, the return of the menu skeleton:

-- Grape juice
-- Challah
-- Stuff to put on challah: olive oil, zaatar, maybe roasted garlic
-- Starter of some sort (is it too whatever to do corn chowder as a starter?) Corn Chowder
-- Baked ziti
-- Veggie of some sort (marinated cauliflower salad, maybe? maybe ginger and garlic broccoli?) Ginger and Garlic Broccoli
-- Dessert (either chocolate chip cookie bars or, perhaps, chocolate carrot cake. Or, if I'm feeling ambitious, both.)

Made last night:

-- Dough for homemade challah

Made today:

-- Challah (formed and baked)
-- Chicken soup with matzah balls
-- Turkey
-- Stuffing (well, dressing, since it's outside the bird)
-- Cranberry-apricot chutney
-- Steamed broccoli
-- Mashed potatoes
-- Pumpkin pie (2)
-- Brownies

And now it's about 10 minutes to candle lighting, and then I'm going to collapse.

Have a good weekend, all!

Shabbat dinner menu

-- Grape juice
-- Challah with olive oil and zaatar
-- Roasted garlic
-- Curried lentil soup
-- Honey ginger-glazed carrots
-- Mushrooms Stroganoff (with added non-meat)
-- Mexican brownies

No guests for dinner; guests for lunch. Menu very similar for both, so here's the basics:

-- Challah and grape juice
-- Gaspacho
-- Santa Fe Bean Salad
-- Spanish Rice
-- Post-Modernist Strawberry Shortcake (name courtesy of elul_3)

As things to have with the challah, I'll be putting out roasted garlic and olive oil and zaatar. There will also be honey, since we're having a couple of newlyweds at our lunch table (there's a minhag (tradition) to serve honey with the challah for the first year of a marriage).