It's Friday so I am typing fast

 Anyone who knows me knows that I am a 

material girl. No, not like Madonna, but I am a girl of material culture.

The other day I used this napkin at breakfast. This napkin was sewn by my friend Esther. using this napkin isn't quite as much fun as spending an afternoon with Esther but using this napkin reminds me of many meals eaten together, long conversations and rummaging through thrift stores together. This object holds decades of memories for me.

This cracked teapot  matches my parents' dairy set from my childhood. I loved that set of dishes which is no more. I had found this particular teapot at my local thrift and used it until it was too cracked to use. My husband purchased a replacement and I have used it for several years. Last week my bottle of rosewater jumped from the pantry shelf and murdered the teapot. I was pretty sad.

eBay found the answer to my despair. Not it isn't another of the teapot pictured above. I went back to another childhood memory.

This is a Hall Aladdin model teapot. We had a couple of Hall teapots not for company usage, but for the tea you might drink at lunch.  This is the best balanced, easiest pouring teapot that I have ever used. I usually drink a pot or two of tea during the day and each time I pour myself a cup, that perfect engineering just gives me joy.

These sorts of every day  tea pots tend to get hard usage and we have gone through several over the years. I will enjoy this teapot until it befalls an accident.

So now on to Shabbat Dinner. It's a baking week.

I probably could have put in a bit more time on the first knead. the dough is a bit shaggy here.

After resting during the rest of my cooking tasks and my workout it was time to form the loaves.

I learned from my friend Alan that rolling out the challah dough improves the texture by a massive amount. I figured that would mitigate any issues with the initial under kneading.

I sprinkles cinnamon, allspice and the very last bit of coffee hawaij my son had given me as a gift. Then i rolled up the dough into a tight spiral and then cut the roll in half and braised the two rolls together.

Before baking I egged the challot and topped with poppy seeds.

My youngest is joining us so I went a little wild.

I made chicken wings in a mustardy, vinegary smokey sauce.

You will just have to imagine the meatballs.

I also made a chicken.

This is red chicken made with (mostly) red spices, smoked paprika, cayenne, sumac, cumin, black pepper and dried lime powder.

We will have kasha as our grain and broccoli.

When we were growing up, my father used to sing this song to my mother. It is about a Rebbetzin, a rabbi's wife. the song is very tongue in cheek. Sometimes my mother was amused and other times she was annoyed by my father singing it to her.

And since this post seems to be all about memories... for your Shabbat pleasure this sentimental song from my childhood.