Shabbat dinner

[magid]

In the end, we were six, the most people for Shabbat dinner in far too long. I spent most of Friday afternoon cooking, with brief bouts of straightening, laundry, and trying to fiddle with the computer (it looks like the keyboard is indeed the source of the problem; I should try to get a new one today if I want to be able to type as well as use the mouse when at home).

What we had for dinner:

• The wine was a white one I picked up at the Butcherie on a whim, the bottle still at home so I can update this sometime with the name (ETA Gamla White Reisling, 2004). It was very nice, whatever it was. After that was done, we finished the half-bottle of red I had in the fridge (ETA Verbau Merlot, 2000), and most of another bottle of some red Teal Lake wine (ETA Shiraz, 2002). I was too focused on hosting (and hydration with actual water) to have any of the reds, but it seemed that the white was most liked.
  
  The challah this week had white and whole wheat flours, plus buckwheat flour, flax seed meal, and multigrain flakes. I didn't add rye, because I don't have much left and I'm saving it for a loaf on Tuesday. The first rise was while I was at work, and it more than doubled. I'd figured out my plan for optimal oven use (always having two things in at once), and it wasn't yet time for the bread, so it got a second rise before being braided. It looked fine going into the oven, but the dough 'broke' oddly in the oven, and was flatter than I wanted. I'd tried a hot oven for the first 10 minutes to get a better crust, but that didn't seem to make a difference. Perhaps next time I'll try the higher heat and steam, though neither have done much for me individually. Anyway, the bread wasn't pretty, but it tasted fine, which was what mostly counts.
  
• For putting on the bread, I put out hummus, the thick Israeli kind, technically with pine nuts, but I think those had already been eaten from that container. I'd thought about making a black bean dip as well (black beans and salsa put through a blender or food processor), but by the end of the afternoon, my back and knees weren't happy, and that was one of the first things to go. I also put out a plate of za'atar, extra sumac, and olive oil, mixed together. I first tried this at the Roman restaurant on the Cardo, in the old city of Jerusalem, and I've adopted it: dipping is fun, and it's easy to prepare, while I can vary the herbs in a pinch and it's fine.
  
• Last Sunday I'd gotten chilled at the tomato festival, because it was pouring and I was wearing light clothes. Which is why I ended up buying potatoes, leeks, and a butternut squash, for making soup. Then I got more potatoes and leeks Wednesday, so I made up more soup, and combined it with the end of the previous soup. So there were touches of butternut squash, and some onion as well as the leeks, but mostly it was leeks and potatoes. I'd added some salt, but not enough. And it wasn't quite as lovely in my still-warm kitchen, which was taking longer to cool down that evening, since the oven had been on all afternoon. I think everyone liked it, though.
  
• This was the first time I roasted cubed beets, rather than roasting them whole and peeling them. I scrubbed them welll, cubed them, then added slices of carrots. I'd already put olive oil and some onions on the tray. Some black pepper went on top (to balance the sweetness of the root vegetables). They came out well; I'm going to do them that way again. And I didn't get any magenta on my white T-shirt :-)
  
• I didn't want to admit what the yellow stuff was in the tomato salad, knowing one person would be unlikely to try it, and I was right. Everyone else thought the combination of tomato and watermelon worked fine, especially with lots of feta, chives, and a bit of basil and black pepper. I'd forgotten that some people shop supermarkets year round, so the farm tomatoes got lots of appreciation.
  
• I started with an onion and a crushed clove of garlic, then added a bunch of red chard and all the beet greens. Once they were cooked, I added pine nuts, and rolled that mixture into puff pastry and baked it. If I hadn't been using feta elsewhere in the meal, I might've added that, or farmer cheese. Other options for next time include raisins or some hearty mushrooms. This current incarnation was fine, but needed something more.
  
• dill pickles
  
• I baked two diced zucchinis with some onion, and sauteed a red pepper and an orange pepper with yet more onion. I oiled a casserole, and baked rounds of polenta for a while. When I flipped the slices, I put slivers of "Israeli grating cheese" on (a hard, dry cheese, not unlike Parmesan, but a bit more pungent), and topped that with the vegetables. They went back into the oven until serving. Next time I think I'd do a bit more cheese.
  
• Well, banana bread, sort of. I used this banana-applesauce bread recipe I found online.
  
  • 4 ripe bananas
    
  • 1 cup sugar
    
  • 0.5 cup applesauce
    
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
    
  • 2 eggs
    
  • 1 tsp baking soda
    
  • 1 tsp baking powder
    
  • 1 tsp salt
    
  • 2 cups flour
  
  Since I had 6 bananas instead of 4, I one and a halved the recipe. Except that I kept the sugar at one cup, didn't add any vanilla (I don't have any just now), a bit more than doubled the applesauce, and used some cranberry-rhubarb applesauce I'd made last fall.
  
  It came out pretty well, and has kept excellently.
  
• chocolate lentils
  
• dried cherries
  
• crystallized ginger
  
• almonds

It made me happy to host :-)

And thanks to Queue for letting me borrow a cup of Internet.