Thanksgiving week

[magid]

Not surprisingly, this week is full of food.

Sunday I hosted an afternoon tea, indulging a desire to make lots of little finicky sandwiches, carefully arranged, some crustless. Lots of time to put the food together, but I was in the mood for it.

Monday I squeezed in a trip to the supermarket between work and gaming, since I had to get the turkey, if I wanted to have any hope of it defrosting by tomorrow. I got a 12-lb bird, almost as small as I wished.

Yesterday I helped a friend recover her chairs (a new pre-Thanksgiving tradition, apparently), and used her food processor to make some cranberry relish (she's also the one with the organic oranges).

Tonight, I've made three pumpkin pies (two for the first dinner, one for the second), two trays of roasted potatoes and onions (for Shabbat lunch), and two trays of roasted cauliflower (for Shabbat dinner). I haven't been as efficient as I would've liked, spending too much time online instead of doing stovetop items while the oven was full. Oh, and there was a chunk of time taken up with acquiring yet more groceries (there's one trip left before Shabbat, to Brookline for meat, and that's it), and cleaning out the fridge.

The one thing that must be done tonight is start the challah dough, so I can bake challot for Shabbat before I turn the oven fleishig with all the turkey permutations. The other pareve dishes still to be made in the oven are a couple of trays of roasted butternut squash with lavender and rosemary, and an apple pie.

Thanksgiving itself isn't so tricky, especially since the menu is pretty predictable. What I'm slightly stressed about are the Shabbat meals I'm hosting, dinner for 6, and lunch for 11 (plus a couple of little kids). I know I have Friday to prepare for them, but there's the whole pareve oven thing, and I'd rather not spend two and a half days just cooking (and eating, of course).

Thanksgiving menu: turkey, stuffing, cranberry relish, roasted butternut squash, broccoli, sauteed red peppers, salad, pumpkin pie, apple pie, cranberry pie.
Shabbat dinner menu: wine, challah, turkey soup, roasted turkey thighs (with either mango chutney, or sour cherries; either is a good choice for using things up), roasted cauliflower, [other vegggies and starches brought by guests, plus whatever leftovers I have], gingerbread pudding.
Shabbat lunch menu: grape juice, challah, turkey meatloaf, roasted potatoes, salad, another vegetable dish, [dessert brought by guests].

Next week I'm taking a break, I think.

Comments

[cellio]

Since all of your Shabbat meals are apparently fleishig, why do you care if the challah is baked in a fleishig oven?

[magid.livejournal.com]

I don't make milchig or fleishig bread. There's actually a halacha about it, that one shouldn't unless there's some way to tell that it's not pareve (a different shape, or a kind that your family knows is always milchig, etc.). I think it's a rabbinic decree, to avoid problems, and it makes sense to me.

In this case, there'll probably be leftovers, which might be eaten with milchigs. And on the purely practical side, I have no fleishig baking trays.

[cellio]

I'v heard the halacha about making it visibly different so you can tell. Actually, I think this halacha covers dairy bread specifically; I don't know whether that means they generalize to fleishig as well or if they assume you'd never make fleishig bread. Personally I would generalize, but I don't know what the rabbis say.

But yeah, parve is better in that it gives you flexibility for leftovers. And baking on foil doesn't work as well as baking on a tray.

[magid.livejournal.com]

You're probably right about the halacha being specifically milchig bread; it makes sense, since so many recipes call for milk. It just made sense to me that of course one would have to differentiate fleishig bread as well. (Hm... using the gravy as part of the liquid?) A lot of my cooking defaults to pareve; I find it more useful that way. I'm always amazed at the two-flavor kitchens (ie not vegetarian or non-dairy-using) in which there are barely any pareve implements, even.

I need new baking trays, so my bread ended up baked on foil on a tray.. but yeah, just foil isn't heavy enough, and the bottom is more likely to burn before the rest is done.

I tried a new shape this week, and while it didn't come out like the picture in food_porn, which was rather like a crown, it does look a bit like a star of David, so I'm pleased.

(Almost everything that's to be cooked today is done. Huzzah.)

[bitty.livejournal.com]

oh damn, the gingerbread bread pudding isn't tonight. *pout* *flutters eyelashes in attempt to get a piece set aside...*

[magid.livejournal.com]

You're welcome to have a piece; the six of us for dinner on Shabbat are... unlikely to finish a 9 x 13 tray of pudding.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

...and i could always swing by and kill off one or two guests if it looked like there wouldn't be leftovers ;)

[magid.livejournal.com]

*confused look*

But the gingerbread pudding would be pre-befores, or whatever you'd call the opposite of leftovers (right-unders?). No need to kill anyone.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

...i'll be right-under this here gingerbread pudding...