Food Friday–Thinking about Thanksgiving

First take a moment to admire these perfect looking challot.

I was not responsible for their beautiful four strand braids. My older son was. For this, I thank all of you who pay taxes in New York state. These beautiful braids were brought to you thanks to the many years of Occupational Therapy that my son was mandated to have by the state. The fact that he can also button his shirts and write  are also due to the wonderful therapists who worked with him.

 

I am also forever grateful to Maureen Galvin, the special educator who identified my son as someone who needed O.T. help back when he was four years old.

My friend Jacqui insists that she would be satisfied with a Shabbat dinner consisted only of my challah. But she is not eating this meal ( but her son will be a guest tonight). others of us think that a good Shabbat dinner needs more than just challah.

We will be having a two day soup. The matza ball dough is in the fridge and the matza balls will simmer in this tomato and chicken bone soup. This is a highly unrefined soup complete with bones that will melt in your mouth.

We can all pretend that we still live in the shtetle when we eat this soup.

I made a batch of idiot chicken with herbes de Provence and lemon juice.  I also made some spicy eggplant.

Marinated vegetables. If I stir the vegetables every time I walk past them they will be perfect by the time we eat.

I’m also planning for Thanksgiving. One of the guests where we are going for Thanksgiving is a vegan. I am plotting about how to make a pumpkin pie without eggs.  I have already mastered a pretty decent pie crust.

So I made a sweet potato pudding  ( we can also call this a kugel) as a side dish for a dry run  for the pumpkin pie. I thought that a starch…like corn starch could stand in for the egg.  I hadn’t any on hand so substituted  white flour.

I realized today that although I write about food and cooking a whole lot…this is probably not the best blog to just find a recipe and follow it. I realize that this is a bit more like cooking with your mother, where by hanging around you slowly get all of the facets that make a dish really good.  This is how my kids have learned how to cook. ( Even the one who claims to have minimal interest in food can produce a meal.)

So here is today’s bit of cooking wisdom. Bake bread with…

It’s a high gluten high quality flour. If you can find their bread flour, so much the better.  You can find it at Whole Foods in the neighborhood but it is insanely expensive. A trip to a suburban Walmart meant that I got to bring home this treasure. It’s now half gone.

 

Shabbat Shalom!!!