Supper Club V: Jewish Soul Food
If it's a new year, it must be time for me to host Supper Club again! For my fifth episode of Supper Club, I had a very clear idea of what the theme would be almost as soon as I was finished hosting my Leg of Lamb extravaganza. I knew I wanted to do Jewish soul food. What, exactly, that would mean was up in the air for quite some time, but after some consultation with my family I soon came up with an excellent menu filled with dishes that I had never made before.
However, it was clear that I was going to need some help putting this meal together. While I'm sure that I could have called on some of the members of Supper Club to assist with prep, I decided that I needed a true expert, so I bought my sister, the amazing tigerlily_blue, a plane ticket to Cleveland for Hanukkah. To use a baseball analogy, this would be like the Indians calling someone up from AAA and him being the next Babe Ruth. With her able assistance these thirteen guests were very well fed:
gieves & darlox
Carol & John
Alex & Cynthia
ayb2 and Brent
indy_was_here & stampinmak
Toby & Maureen
Sara (tigerlily_blue's friend)
With a bunch of work over two nights and a full day, not to mention one borrowed slow cooker and a healthy dose of the Smitten Kitchen cookbook, we were able to prepare the following delicious courses for their dining pleasure:
Opener
Home Made Gefilte Fish
Sweet Course
Mildred's Fruit Stew as Made by Barbara
Fig, Olive Oil and Sea Salt Challah
Soup Course
Indian Matzo Ball Soup
Main Course
Brisket
Winter Roasted Vegetables
Dessert
Honey Cake
Aunt Eleanor's Mondel Bread
Notes
Although Manischewitz wine would no doubt have been more in keeping with the theme, I refused to spend my money on that dreck so we got a couple of nice cabernets instead. I did buy some Kedem grape juice for those who opted to abstain from alcohol but didn't want water. A few brave souls also tried the Slivovitz plum brandy that I inherited from a friend who got an extended trip to Israel courtesy of a Fulbright.
The cost was the full $20/head because I spent every extra penny on wine. Although I expected that we wouldn't have much in the way of leftovers, enough guests left with plastic containers full of food to indicate that I am in fact terrible at estimating food quantities. Oh well, better too much than too little, right?
Props to Cynthia for bringing over wine glasses, and to gieves for bringing some folding chairs. Sara helped set the table and provided Tulip distraction. A big shout out also to my friend Erin who let me borrow a second six quart slow cooker (because one wasn't enough). My mother found me copies of the Mondal bread and Fruit Stew recipes.
Coming this week: all the recipes and detailed dinner details.
EDIT - got the soup course and the sweet course in the wrong order as outlined in the comments; I've corrected this.
However, it was clear that I was going to need some help putting this meal together. While I'm sure that I could have called on some of the members of Supper Club to assist with prep, I decided that I needed a true expert, so I bought my sister, the amazing tigerlily_blue, a plane ticket to Cleveland for Hanukkah. To use a baseball analogy, this would be like the Indians calling someone up from AAA and him being the next Babe Ruth. With her able assistance these thirteen guests were very well fed:
gieves & darlox
Carol & John
Alex & Cynthia
ayb2 and Brent
indy_was_here & stampinmak
Toby & Maureen
Sara (tigerlily_blue's friend)
With a bunch of work over two nights and a full day, not to mention one borrowed slow cooker and a healthy dose of the Smitten Kitchen cookbook, we were able to prepare the following delicious courses for their dining pleasure:
Opener
Home Made Gefilte Fish
Sweet Course
Mildred's Fruit Stew as Made by Barbara
Fig, Olive Oil and Sea Salt Challah
Soup Course
Indian Matzo Ball Soup
Main Course
Brisket
Winter Roasted Vegetables
Dessert
Honey Cake
Aunt Eleanor's Mondel Bread
Notes
Although Manischewitz wine would no doubt have been more in keeping with the theme, I refused to spend my money on that dreck so we got a couple of nice cabernets instead. I did buy some Kedem grape juice for those who opted to abstain from alcohol but didn't want water. A few brave souls also tried the Slivovitz plum brandy that I inherited from a friend who got an extended trip to Israel courtesy of a Fulbright.
The cost was the full $20/head because I spent every extra penny on wine. Although I expected that we wouldn't have much in the way of leftovers, enough guests left with plastic containers full of food to indicate that I am in fact terrible at estimating food quantities. Oh well, better too much than too little, right?
Props to Cynthia for bringing over wine glasses, and to gieves for bringing some folding chairs. Sara helped set the table and provided Tulip distraction. A big shout out also to my friend Erin who let me borrow a second six quart slow cooker (because one wasn't enough). My mother found me copies of the Mondal bread and Fruit Stew recipes.
Coming this week: all the recipes and detailed dinner details.
EDIT - got the soup course and the sweet course in the wrong order as outlined in the comments; I've corrected this.