Project 365 - January 29, 2021

 Good Shabbos 

Growing up, I spent almost every Friday night at my Nana and Pop-pop’s house so that we could have a traditional Jewish dinner. And boy did we eat!!

Dinner always started with gefilte fish and matzoh on a  tiny plate. The next course was a tiny plate of sweet and sour meatballs that were probably smaller than a 1/2 inch wide in a tomato-based sauce and a small slice of challah. 

After the plates were cleared and washed, out came the soup bowls, with the two handles, one on each side of the bowl, with chicken soup, carrots, celery and thin egg noodles. 

The reason we didn’t get full is because all the plates were quickly removed and washed and dried and put away before the next course was served. 

Then, out came the broasted chicken (boiled in the chicken soup and then roasted in the oven to ensure that it was not only toasty and brown but juicy!).   The sides ranged from noodle kugle and candied carrots to boiled and parsley potatoes and a salad. And of course more challah. 

After dinner there was also a dessert. Sometimes it might be honey cake made with thick and dark buckwheat honey.  Other times it might be sweet rice pudding or baked rice pudding. My mom loved to make a noodle kugle topped with corn flakes and orange zest.  

The entire meal lasted for at least four hours. So if my pop pop went to temple we would start dinner at about 7 pm when he came home. It was a treat to stay up that late!  

My mom and I lived down the block, so if I fell asleep, sometimes she would just leave me there and get me in the morning. 

It’s just how we rolled as a family before she remarried. I loved those years. 

Flash forward to today and I had the urge for chicken soup. It won’t be quite a tradition Jewish dinner because my daughter wanted tortillas for dinner, but at least I have my soup!!