Food Friday

For the first time in a while, I made all of Shabbat dinner. Actually, let me correct that. My older son made the mirepoix that is in the meat balls. He made so much that I have a Zip-Lok in the freezer with  the left overs ready to make something else taste extra yummy.

Costco has been selling kosher ground turkey at really great prices.  I don't particularly like the taste of ground turkey. It also has a horrible slimy texture when raw. A mirepoix, a paste of cooked onions mushrooms and celery cooked with a bit of salt, pepper and white wine, gives the not very meaty turkey a much meatier taste. This time though, I used actual beef rather than ground turkey. I know that eating poultry is better for you than eating red meat, but ground beef is just tastier. I figure that the mirepoix can just make a good thing, the yummy beef, better.

It felt good to be kneading the challa dough after a month of not doing it. My son did a really wonderful job with the challa that he had baked. I love the moment when the dough goes from being a mess into a coherent lovely dough. That, and it feels really good to work my arms and shoulders in that slow hard way that a good batch of challa dough does.  I can't understand why people would choose to use a bread machine. For me, most of the joy of bread baking is not from the eating, but from the making.

My daughter is making a big salad, we are eating cherries and strawberries for dessert. Two terrific guests are joining us.

Tonight is my father's second yarhzeit. It feels really appropriate to be cooking, and especially, making challa. I suppose that if I had planned to make this meal more like how he used to cook, This would have been a potato kugel, or kasha with varnishkes instead of potatoes roasted with cracked pepper and lemon.

I will be leading part of services tonight. If you are there, sing loud, in memory of my father, a very loud davvener.