Food Friday

Tonight we are eating beef. 

The cut is called  Shank Kolichel. I have only seen this name for a cut of meat at kosher butchers. I assumed that it is meant to be slow cooked. So I did, in a sweet and sour tomato sauce, think the sauce one eats with stuffed cabbage.

I also made rice.  I assume that all of you know what rice looks like. Although I added a couple of cardamon pods to the rice because they make the rice taste fancy with little to no effort. The vegetable portion of our meal is a package of frozen teeny okra that are being heated up with olive oil and spices. 

For reasons I don't understand, but probably having to do with baking challah for Shavuot I had only one challah in the freezer.  The second loaf on our table tonight will be one of these rolls that I baked last night.

The leavening agent in these rolls was a fat slice of home baked bread. These rolls have a great texture thanks to about a cup of cooked bulgher wheat. They are chewy and make for really pleasant eating. 

Our dining room normally lives a busy life. During the week my husband and I both work from the dining room.  Friday nights and on Yom Tov the space reverts to being a proper dining room These days, it also serves as the room we are most likely to Zoom from. 

Friday night services begin at our synagogue via Zoom at 6:30. As I got the dining room table cleared off for tonight's dinner I began thinking about how my mother would deal with having her dining room being the backdrop for Shabbat services. My mother of course would set up a Shabbat tableau or as the shelter magazines these days would call a "tablescape".

So, I channeled my mother .

What you see starting from the bottom layer is my cousin's yellow tablecloth circa 1972, layered with her mother in law's embroidered  card-table cloth. The challah cover was a gift from our buddy Allan and was a circa 1920 give away from a charitable organization based in Jerusalem. The telegraph address of the organization is helpfully printed on the bottom in case you get a giant urge to send them some cash right now (OK they have been defunct for more than half a century). The kiddush cup was given to my husband from his synagogue on the occasion of his bar-mitzvah and the candle sticks are pewter and were purchased by my in-laws on a trip to Scandinavia.

Shabbat Shalom!