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Forum -> Yom Tov / Holidays -> Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh, Fast Days, and other Days of Note
Do you put out a very elegant shabbos meal?
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amother
Cyan


 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 10:14 am
amother [ Sienna ] wrote:
What is unhealthy about cholent?


It's usually full of barley and wheat (empty calories) and beans which have been cooked for 20 hours (so I don't know how many nutrients are left) and sometimes all sorts of weird sausages (full of junk). Sure the meat has protein, but I don't know if all the other calories are worth it. (Also I wonder if the protein breaks down after being cooked for a day? I don't know).
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amother
Purple


 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 10:24 am
Sausages are unhealthy and don't belong in your crockpot overnight. Cholent is unhealthy if the ingredients are unhealthy. Same as the salatim. Talking about empty calories the thing that bothers me about dips is that my kids eat tons of challah when I serve them.
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LovesHashem




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 10:24 am
amother [ Goldenrod ] wrote:
So my apologies. You are correct, I don’t have any Sfardi friends and I am embarrassed to admit that I am very self-ethnocentric.
I am a NY/NJ person and when I look at dips, I am just seeing overpriced unhealthy mayonnaise and more mayonnaise with added salt and sugar.
Either it is brilliant marketing plan by a mayonnaise conglomerate or someone found a cheap way to get their family to fill up on challah and like everything else, it exploded into something which is now expensive and a must have.


You got to get invited out at a sefardi or Israeli seudah. I wrote what dips we have and real dips are homemade. The store bought stuff is disgusting. Even techina, it tastes to artificial and strange.

When you come to Israel I can hook you up with some real Israelis. Real Israelis don't OWN mayo.

Seriously. If you go to a store to get Tuna in a sandwich or a salad it will be mayo-less. Unless you live in a Anglo area. When I first moved here and my friends saw me putting mayo in my tuna they gave me such an odd look. LOL

They were so so confused and grossed out.
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amother
Red


 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 10:45 am
Lace table cloth and real dishes & cutlery.
Fake flowers in a beautiful vase.

Hot homemade challa
Hot Haddock fish
TCP salad
Coleslaw
4 Dips
Soup
Potato kugal
Chicken/lamb
Fruit compote
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amother
Natural


 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 10:51 am
I don't know if it's elegant but it is nice. I serve fish sometimes, then soup, a main or two, and 4 side dishes, dessert and a fruit platter afterwards because we linger at the table. I always have flowers and only use disposable dishes when I am exhausted. But I think it's individual. For me this creates the shabbos that I need. I remember one shabbos when my mother had just died after a long hard illness and I was too exhausted to move and just made my favorite soup and homemade challah, but served it nicely. Other than literal halacha I think it is important to do what feels right and makes you feel shabbosdik.
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amother
Floralwhite


 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 10:57 am
amother [ Cyan ] wrote:
It's usually full of barley and wheat (empty calories) and beans which have been cooked for 20 hours (so I don't know how many nutrients are left) and sometimes all sorts of weird sausages (full of junk). Sure the meat has protein, but I don't know if all the other calories are worth it. (Also I wonder if the protein breaks down after being cooked for a day? I don't know).


Barley is a particularly rich source of fiber, molybdenum, manganese and selenium. It also contains good amounts of copper, vitamin B1, chromium, phosphorus, magnesium and niacin. Additionally, barley packs lignans, a group of antioxidants linked to a lower risk of cancer and heart disease. The beta-glucans found in barley have been shown to reduce “bad” LDL cholesterol by binding to bile acids.

Who puts wheat in cholent?

Beans are also very healthful.

Truth be told, I rarely make cholent. But in moderation, there's nothing wrong with it.
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SixOfWands




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 11:09 am
Nope. Not elegant.

We use real dishes -- sometimes Corelle, sometimes my "everyday" china (an old inherited set that has seen better days). I can't be bothered with my good wedding china unless we have guests. Our everyday flatware, not silver. The wineglasses are crystal. A cloth tablecloth.

No flowers on the table.

Friday night is some type of soup. It used to be chicken, but DH isn't that fond of chicken soup, and now that the kids are older, they're willing to expand the repertoire. So split pea, white bean, black bean, corn, mushroom barley, etc. Then usually some type of beef, potatoes, and a veggie. No dessert, no one wants it.

Shabbat lunch always has a big green salad. Sometimes there is herring if someone else picks it up, but I hate herring. Rarely gefilte fish. Rarely salmon. Two mains, the leftover beef and chicken cutlets. Potatoes and farfel. A veggie. Maybe 2 if there's any left from Friday night. Fresh fruit.

Challah, obviously. No dips.

It would be different with guests.
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amother
Royalblue


 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 12:44 pm
As a newlywed I was enchanted by silver and crystal and elegance and sophistication. Today, simplicity and ease of maintenance are more entrancing, since I'm the one who has to create all that sophisticated elegance and clean up after it. I'm trying to get my adult children to take my silver, but it's not working. They're not in love with polishing, either.

We use real dishes. Corelle, not china, not that it makes much difference other than Corelle is so thin I can keep service for 16 in my cabinet. Nor do I think party plastic isn't elegant, but I'm horrified by the recurring expense, the waste, and the environmental consequences. I got rid of our elegant pewter salt shaker in favor of a plain glass one because unpolished pewter just looks like lead. Polished pewter isn't as pretty as silver, so why waste the energy polishing it? I got rid of our stemware in favor of juice-type glasses, too. They're less likely to tip over, are easier to store and more likely to survive being put in the sink. I no longer have to prove how grown-up and sophisticated I am by using stemware for wine or anything else.

Tablecloth--plain white, not because of tradition but because white goes with everything and can be bleached should the unthinkable happen. The unthinkable doesn't happen, though, because the cloth is covered with a heavy-duty plastic protector, not those dreadful disposable dry-cleaner-bag things sold in frum stores. There are those who consider plastic covers to be an indication of peasant ancestry, but IMHO a naked tablecloth with faint old wine stains on it is hardly palatable, let alone sophisticated and elegant, and who has the money to keep replacing tablecloths every time they get a spot on them? I'll keep my immaculate plastic-covered white cloth, thank you.

Otherwise the table is pretty plain. It's not that big, and any ornamentation means less room for the food. Fancy napkin folds are another "extra" I picked up when newly married and dropped over the years. Never used napkin rings, which are just a silly affectation, clutter up the table when you start eating, and are one more thing for people to fidget with. Occasionally we have a vase of flowers, but since these block your view of the person sitting across from you, the flowers get moved off the table once we sit down to eat.

As for food, I try to serve it attractively but no longer spend hours of my life torturing vegetables into resembling floral arrangements or famous works of Renaissance art . Cake slices arranged in a pinwheel on a plate or a scattering of pomegranate seeds atop a mostly yellow-and-orange fruit salad is about as artistic as I feel like getting.

I don't think you can call any food elegant. Eating is a very inelegant activity if you think about it, and if you look too closely, rather unattractive. What makes a food "elegant" or not is its expense, rarity and presentation. "Smoked salmon" is elegant when served on silver and garnished with capers; "lox" on a bagel with a schmear is not, and a century ago it was poor people's food. Today, it's too costly to be poor people's food, which is why it's sometimes served on silver garnished with capers. But it's still just smoked fish.
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amother
Pumpkin


 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 1:07 pm
amother Royalblue, are you a writer?
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Chana Miriam S




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 1:14 pm
amother [ Purple ] wrote:
Sausages are unhealthy and don't belong in your crockpot overnight. Cholent is unhealthy if the ingredients are unhealthy. Same as the salatim. Talking about empty calories the thing that bothers me about dips is that my kids eat tons of challah when I serve them.


Sausages made of meat and salt are not unhealthy
Agree they should not be cooked in crock pot overnight
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jd1212




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 1:23 pm
Hashem_n_Farfel wrote:
Meh.
White tablecloth with plastic on top

The candles are on one end of the table
Fake flowers in the middle
Regular fancy plates. I guess that what y’all call China lol.
Bakery challah from Korns (we get the mixed challah. The BEST.)
Gefilte fish and salmon
Dips

Soup with noodles sometimes I have matzo balls

No meat or chicken just kugel and farfel
(Idk how to make chicken)

Shabbos day

Same challah as above with dips
Fish and salmon again
Then cholent


If knowing how to make chicken is what’s stopping you, I’m happy to give you a ridiculously basic recipe. Chicken thighs on the bone, two per person, drizzle honey, shake salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika on top. Bake uncovered in a 9x13 on 350 for 90 min.
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amother
Linen


 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 1:27 pm
andrea levy wrote:
Sausages made of meat and salt are not unhealthy
Agree they should not be cooked in crock pot overnight


What’s your definition of unhealthy...? Look at this link. https://www.nutritionix.com/food/beef-sausage

300 calories per link, 28 grams of fat, 11 of which is saturated. Sausages, hamburgers, etc., are fatty meats correlated with heart disease and weight gain. One of the worst.
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Zehava




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 2:02 pm
Boring Hungarian here.
Homemade challah, mostly store bought dips, cooked fish, chicken soup, chicken bottoms, potato kugel.
Fish and cholent for the day meal.
Mostly serve on elegant plastics with real cutlery and glasses.
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amother
Royalblue


 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 3:17 pm
amother [ Pumpkin ] wrote:
amother Royalblue, are you a writer?


No. I'm a big talker, and writing is just talking in print.
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amother
Oak


 

Post Wed, Jan 13 2021, 10:21 pm
amother [ Wine ] wrote:
Always use china. If we are alone its a much more basic shabbos.
Alone:
Table set with real silverware and china and glasses
Basic menu
Challah (always white and ww)
4-5 dips. Usually homeade sometimes bought
Salmon
Sprouts salad (sliced salad with sprouts as base)
Soup with veggies, noodles usually, and different types of croutons
Main is usually chicken or meat a veggie and a starch
Dessert depends on week. Sometimes ice cream in cone with sprinkles, sometimes a cake wtvr I have

During day:
Challah
dips
Cholent
Eggs from cholent
Kugel usually overnighted or in cholent
Either shnitzel or leftovers from friday night
Salad
Usually veggy
Dessert

If guests:
Set table with china and silverware and glasses but put out chargers, napkin rings, fancier napkins
Basic meal I change it up.
Challah (white and ww)
Dips- however many I have usually anywhere from 4 to 9 homeade
Fish. Two kinds of salmon
Sprouts salad
Soup. Croutons noodles matza balls veggies
Main
Chicken, meat, roasted potatoes/sweet potatoes, rice, veggies
Dessert

Day meal basic menu I change it up
Challah
Dips
Pulled brisket in wrap bowl
Liver (chopped and not but homeade) and eggs (from cholent)
Cholent
Overnight kugel
Grilled veggies
Shnitzel
Grilled chicken
Hot Pastrami
Deli meat
A few salads
Dessert


Wow!! I would love to come to your house for shabbos!!
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SixOfWands




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jan 14 2021, 4:54 pm
OK, so you guys convinced me to try something new for Shabbat this week. For the day, we'll have a first course of salad, with challah and DIPS. Yes, you're getting me to try dips.

Then cholent, and maybe chicken.

If my family rebels, I'm blaming youse all.
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amother
Green


 

Post Thu, Jan 14 2021, 5:31 pm
Regular Chabad, BT parents, both sides, Ashkenazi.
White tablecloth, candlesticks on one end of the table on a glass tray. Most weeks, there is a small vase of flowers. I use simple but elegant ivory plates, rose gold silverware I got as a gift, glasses, paper napkins.
Embarrassed to say it's been over a year since I've polished my silver.
This is what this week's menu will look like for the two of us:

Night
Homemade Challah
Cesar salad
Chinese eggplants with techina
Guacamole (maybe)
Matbucha
Chummus
Red pepper salmon
Chicken soup served with yellow croutons
Chicken Adobo over rice (we're not usually hungry at this point so most of it gets reheated for melave malka)
We don't usually do desert, but I bake something every week (cake, cookies, rugelach)

Day
Challah
Same salads
Same fish
Cholent
Maybe dessert
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amother
Sienna


 

Post Thu, Jan 14 2021, 7:38 pm
amother [ Purple ] wrote:
I was just going to ask the same.
Beans and barley are both top choices of nutritionists. I put in a lot of chopped onions and fresh garlic. You can leave out the potatoes or sub with sweet potatoes or korean yams. What makes cholent unhealthy is putting in a lot of fat or barbecue type sauces that are full of sugar. I never use those. Some of the salads loaded with oil, mayo, sugar and honey are much less healthy than the cholent at our house. Since my friends shared their salad recipes I know to stay away from them.

Definitely
My cholent isn't unhealthy at all.
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DREAMING




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jan 15 2021, 12:17 pm
SixOfWands wrote:
OK, so you guys convinced me to try something new for Shabbat this week. For the day, we'll have a first course of salad, with challah and DIPS. Yes, you're getting me to try dips.

Then cholent, and maybe chicken.

If my family rebels, I'm blaming youse all.


You may find you need more challah 😉
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saw50st8




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jan 15 2021, 12:31 pm
We always use china, crystal and silver. We serve our kids on them from a young age. We use a white table cloth with a heavy plastic.

Food is variable depending on the week and season. In the summer, we don't do soup. Our meals themselves are not necessarily elegant, but we serve more types of dishes.
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