Food Friday- Zei gezunt edition

A cousin we all love a whole lot has just moved to New York for grad school we are delighted that she will be nearby and even happier that she is joining us this Shabbat.

Our larders were pretty bare. it was time to make a trip to Costco. I made the trek yesterday. One of my favorite thing about living here in New York is how instead of just living with " my own kind" I am cheek by jowl with all sorts of people. 

Part of that joy of cheek by jowl-hood is in the foods we eat. A Jamaican born babysitter once brought home a fruit from home that she bought from one of the pushcart fruit guys on the street. She called it Genep and it is a variety of citrus, it's about the size of a cherry with a big seed and not much fruit. We buy it every year when it is in season. We turn dried hibiscus blossoms into tea in the summer. My kids used to have me buy yogurt in sabor Latino. The shea butter sold in tubs at the cola dollar store keeps our skin soft. Spicy pastes from Korea and China and Latin America keep our food tasting lively.

Each time you go to Costco, there are employees at the door checking the items on your receipt against the items in your cart. As the young man with dreds was going throughmy cart, I casually said  I have a whole lot of Kosher meat in there."  He marked my recipt, turned to me and said "Zei Gezunt!". Every time we used to say goodbye to my grandmother we used to exchange our Zei Gezunt's, Go in good health.  i was just so touched.

So our gezunte Shabbat dinner includes, chicken with lime and  cayenne, made by my son.

This was a challah baking week. There are no photos this week .

I made roasted Brussels sprouts. Most of us like them with a bit of char on them.

My husband does not so we set aside some char-free ones for him.

I was so happy that our cousin was coming for Shabbat so I baked a cake.

It's a citrus cake, orange and lime with a layer of brown sugar and lime filling inside and then drizzled with a lime and brown sugar syrup. The cake itself is a 3 egg cake, faked and baked in an 9x13 pan, cut and sandwiched with the vaguely jam-like  filling. It's really tart and should be a nice finish to tonight's dinner.

Shabbat Shalom!