Shabbat Shuvah- The Shabbat of Return

 I spent a chunk of this week preparing the food that we (and our cohort in their various homes) will be eating after the fast of Yom Kippur ends. I made the food, that for me, tastes exactly like the love that a mother has for her very small and beloved child.

I made Temi Saivetz's sweet dairy kugel known in our family as Cholesterol Death Kugel. It is exactly the right comforting nourishing food with which to end the fast. Because I really love the people I cam cooking for, I

went the extra step and also made the noodles for the kugel. The semolina and eggs come together quickly in a food processor. The hard part is rolling out the dough.

You stretch and pull a tiny bit of dough thinner and thinner. it takes a certain amount of physical strength and a certain amount of patience.  

As I rolled out small lumps of dough into long smooth sheets of noodle I thought about intentionality. During Rosh HaShanah I used my grandmother's machzor/High Holiday prayerbook. My grandmother's machzor is filled with kavanot, prayers of intentionality to focus your brain and your heart before reciting particular prayers.

I thought about those prayers as I rolled out the dough.  I thought about all of the good thoughts and wishes I was rolling into those noodles.

I realized as I was baking the kugel that I hadn't really made enough for everyone to actually fill their bellies. So the next day I began again.

Another batch of noodles and another round of carefully rolling and stretching the dough.

Someone asked me how long it takes to roll out a batch of noodles for a kugel. Frankly, I have no idea. It takes a long time. I roll out the dough with energy that I push from the soles of my feet, through my back and into my arms. 

I thought about how good it feels to put this simple but rich kugel into your mouth after a day of fasting. I thought about each of the people that will be eating this kugel Monday night.

The second Kugel was baked.

The kugel is now carefully wrapped into servings for each household and is in my freezer waiting to be picked up.

Today I made challot for our cohort.

Last week the challot were studded with bits of apricot. This week I got a little fancy with the braids.

I watched a Youtube video on braiding round challot. 

The music of the season rolls around in my head as I work. 

I send you, my readers, and my family these hopes from the closing service of Yom Kippur.

 

And here is Temi's recipe. the kugel is excellent even with store-bought egg noodles.

Pre-heat oven to 325
Put 1 stick of butter into a 9 x13 pan and put into pre heating oven. You can also use just 1/2 a stick of butter to no ill effects
Boil one package of egg noodles in a pot of water
In a blender ( or a mixer) combine
8 eggs ( you can use as few as 5)
4 oz cream cheese
8 oz farmer cheese
8 oz sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla

( My sister adds a 1/4 cup of milk to the custard, I do not)
Remove pan from the oven when butter is melted. Drain noodles. Put noodles in baking pan. Stir. Add dairy/egg mixture and pour over noodles. Be sure that noodles are submerged in the dairy mixture. Sprinkle top of kugel generously with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.  ( cloves are essential)Bake 45 minutes or until the center is done.
You can vary the exact form of soft dairy that you use. Vanilla yogurt, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, ricotta cheese, all work well. Don't try to use low-fat versions of the daily If you want the kugel to taste entirely ethereal, you can beat the egg whites until they are stiff and then combine with the rest of the ingredients. You can also add plumped raisins to the kugel.

Noodles – the unscientific no measure way

Pour some  semolina flour into a bowl

Add eggs one at a time to the flour mix with your hands after each addition

Add eggs until you can form the mixture into a semi-coherent dough…it will be ugly but persevere

Remove the dough from the bowl and knead on your counter. Knead for about ten minutes. This is hard work. You will feel the burn in your biceps but the dough will go from being an ugly hairy mess to feeling smooth and almost leathery.

Cover the noodle dough with the bowl you had mixed the dough in. Go away for at least 20 minutes.

To form the noodles

With your dough scraper or a knife cut off a small lump of dough. Form it into a ball, flatten it a bit, and then roll it out thin.   You might need to flour the counter a bit., or flour a tea towel and roll our dough out on the towel. 

Cut the noodles in any shape that makes you happy. I had the pastry crimper in my tool drawer, a pizza cutter will work fine. One of your kids might have a play-do tool that will work perfectly.

After you cut the noodles, let them rest to dry and then boil them up. They cook really quickly.