Two Shabbat dinners

I was tapped more than a month in advance to host Shabbat dinner the first week in August for the scholar in residence giving the lunch'n'learn the following day.

I ended up making:

• grape juice and challah ((it turned out rather well, thanks to the heat and humidity (I guess that's something in their favor), and how close to Shabbat the loaves ended up getting baked, so they were quite new)
  
• roasted garlic hummus, garlicky carrot pickles, beet pickles
  
• turkey meatloaf
  
• green salad with Boston lettuce, grape tomatoes, cucumber, corn, basil, lime juice, and olive oil
  
• roasted "ratatouille" (eggplant, zucchini, onion, green pepper, tomato)
  
• brown rice with wild rice, diced lemon, minced kale, a huge bunch of minced scallions, and hazelnuts
  
• vegan chocolate cake, red grapes, Taza chocolate

This past week, I hosted a bunch of people who'd been at NHC this year. Restrictions in play: no meat, no rice, no potatoes, plus a last-minute guest couldn't do much with certain kinds of vinegar (luckily there wasn't too much; it was too late to amend the menu by that point).

• wine and challah (it turned out fine, but not great like last week's)
  
• caramelized onion and balsamic hummus, sauerkraut, and garlicky carrot pickles
  
• cucumber-jicama salad with avocado and lemon
  
• roasted eggplant and tomato
  
• mac and cheese (made with shells; instead of the seasonings for the cheese sauce in the recipe, subbed in low-brow mustard, smoked paprika, and TJ's salt substitute 21 Seasoning Salute, which turned out quite well - I want to remember to do that again)
  
• butter pecan ice cream, chocolate cake (same base recipe as the previous week, but using the eggs in the recipe instead of subbing in applesauce, plus tossing in some Taza chocolate with coffee nibs in it), red grapes