Food Friday- Welcome Home edition

This is my older son’s first Shabbat at home in nearly two years. As per our family custom, he chose the guests and the menu.

Of my three kids, he is the one who loves food the best. My daughter is an adventurous eater. This son though likes to figure out how flavors are built up and layered in a dish.

He wanted to make the chicken. it’s funny what he chose to make is the chicken I grew up eating nearly every Shabbat of my childhood. It’s chicken sprinkled with Lawry seasoned salt.

My son had wanted me to make roasted vegetables, but he realized that it is really too hot to make them. They need several hours in the oven. My son was kind enough to wait until cooler weather for that Shabbat favorite.

Instead I am serving his second choice, two kinds of eggplant spread.

A spicy tomato laced one. I made it with a few dried chili peppers. it has a nice buzz of heat.

I also made a blander smoky babaganouj or how it is known in Israeli supermarkets “Eggplant with Mayonnaise”.

One of our guest is making a carb. we will find out what she made when she shows up. she also made a blueberry pie, because my son loves blueberries and they don’t grow in Israel. Our friend has carried pounds of dried of blueberries when she visited our son in Israel.

My son asked me to make an ice cream ( non dairy to go with our meat meal) to go with the pie. I suggested nutmeg flavor because nutmeg pairs so well with blueberries. my son loved the idea. We then had the sort of conversation I had not had since he left, about how to create the mouth feel of a dairy ice cream without milk or cream.

Neither one of us likes the beany taste of soy milk. Coconut milk has too much flavor that would over power the nutmeg. We decided to try almond milk.

The end results tastes good, but is a little ugly. If I were making this flavor commercially I would add food coloring so it would look a bit less distressing.

I used the wonders of photo editing to improve the color. In actuality, the color looks more like poorly washed t-shirts.

I also wanted to show you the Hispanic store brand of dried hibiscus so if you wanted to look for some you would know what to look for. this package set me back $2.50.

This is the fancy spice store version.

This cute package set me back $12.00. The buds are prettier, but I don’t know if the quality of the tea is that much better. Either way, I’m set for the long hot summer.

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Connecting with the past

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sarah in nyc

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