What do you serve Friday and Shabbos if you're having guests

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amother

Melon

Sun, May 15 2022, 7:20 am

I must be a horrible host
I serve guests coffee and cake, Friday afternoon

Friday Night
Salmon plated on a bed of red cabbage
Dips served at the table - tapanad, babaganush, garlic confite,

Roast
Stuffed vegetables with ground beef and rice
Rice
Saucy veg
Roasted veg

Fruit
Cake
Icecream
Whatever guest brings

essie14

Sun, May 15 2022, 8:15 am

amother [ Melon ] wrote:

this sounds amazing! Why do you think you're a horrible host?

amother

Jasmine

Sun, May 15 2022, 8:52 am

How do you do this? This looks so complicated and so many steps. Can someone kindly walk me through their week how they pull this off. Do you all have small babies as well?

Dobby

Sun, May 15 2022, 9:06 am

Friday
Chulent
kugel
Whatever I baked that week usually 2 options

Friday night we usually have a bunch of yeshiva guys and a couple
Challah
5/6 homemade dips
Salmon or a meat appetizer
Soup
London broil or roast
Chicken
Kugel
Sweet side
Veggie side
Deli roll or deli rugelach
Something warm for dessert

Shabbos day
Challah
Dips
Salmon
Deli or steak salad
Chulent
Kugel
Leftover sides from Friday night

Seudas shlishis
Challah dips
Salad
Baked goods

It’s just my husband and I and our 5 month old
I usually bake Thursday and cook late into Thursday night leaving challah and a few things for Friday. I work the rest of the week

amother

Fuchsia

Sun, May 15 2022, 9:33 am

amother [ Purple ] wrote:

Are you ladies making this all up? Or is this your dream Shabbat menu?
Seriously, I’m feeling so complexed now. Mad

Don't feel bad. I only do this when we have guests. DH and I both feel strongly that there needs to be a lot and a variety of foods when we have guests since we don't know what they like and it's nice to be generous.

For a guestless Shabbos, I take multiple shortcuts such as serving chicken from the chicken soup and omitting some of the extras like apple crumble, liver, and chickpeas. Every so often even for a guestless Shabbos, I like to get the kids excited for Shabbos so I'll add something different to my basic, easy menu. I might add naval pastrami to the chulent or make russel for Friday night.

amother

Fuchsia

Sun, May 15 2022, 9:49 am

amother [ Jasmine ] wrote:

How do you do this? This looks so complicated and so many steps. Can someone kindly walk me through their week how they pull this off. Do you all have small babies as well?

No problem. I can tell you what I do though obviously different things work for different people.

I shop my groceries Sunday evening for the week. If I already know I'm hosting that week, I shop all the ingredients then. If I end up having guests but I didn't know about it on Sunday, I'll run out again Wednesday morning just for the few extra things I needs (so it's not a whole huge order at a busy time of the week.)

Apple crumble and other baked goods I usually make Tuesday evening together with one of my kids who loves to bake. Shove into the freezer. Apple crumble gets frozen raw, but cake and biscotti get frozen all done. Tuesday evening I also order my fish which gets delivered on Wednesday. If I will be going out Wednesday morning anyway, I buy the fish then.

Regardless I cook my fish Wednesday evening since it stays fresher that way. Wednesday evening I also soak the chulent beans. If I have time, I prepare the chicken soup vegetables and put it in the fridge raw.

Thursday morning is my main cooking time. I put up the chicken soup, the chulent, sautee the liver, make the dips (techina I have in my freezer but the rest get made fresh), prepare the cutlets and let marinate till the next day. Whatever I don't finish before I go to work and before my cleaning lady comes into the kitchen (see below) gets done later in the evening.

Friday morning I make potato kugel, farfel, cook the chickpeas, bake the frozen apple crumble, cook eggs, prepare components of shalosh seudos salad, and then clean up.

Tricks:
I have a cleaning lady Thursday morning so she cleans up my cooking mess. She starts bathrooms and bedrooms so by the time she comes to the kitchen, I am mostly done.

I have a big storage freezer which gets filled up when I have free time on a random Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. Every week I take out from there, the lukshen, kneidlach, challah, and techina. Sometimes I'll even use a cake that was baked in a double recipe the week before.

Supper Thursday night is one pan: chicken, rice or quinoa, frozen veggies all dumped into the pan. Add water and spices. Cover and bake for 3 hours. Takes literally five minutes.

I have a baby who naps nicely nowadays. In the times when he napped for 20 minutes at a time, I didn't host very often.

amother

Raspberry

Sun, May 15 2022, 10:36 am

Well, I work full time, have young kids & am currently dealing with some health issues. So these days I make simple meals that don’t usually require much prep time, as complicated & time consuming preparation is usually too much for me.

Lately, shabbos lunch meals are typically either;

- hotdogs or cold cut sandwiches, with some easy sides like hummus, potato chips or corn chips, cut veggies and/or some fresh salads…etc.

- bagels & cream cheese (I’ll include parve cream cheese if I have guests who don’t want dairy), hummus, chips, corn chips, fresh cut veggies and/or salads, sometimes egg or tuna salad or lox….etc

-chulent if I have guests. My family are not big meat eaters & rarely like chulent. But if I’m having guests and happen to have chulent meat in the freezer, I’ll make some in the crock pot. I’ll sometimes serve with a side of borekas or mashed potatoes (depending what ingredients I have on hand). Plus the usual sides of chummus, chips, salad, veggie slices…etc whatever I have on hand to use up.

For desserts I either get store bought cookies or babka (ie from Trader Joe’s). Or every few weeks/months I get in a baking mood & make a large batch of cookies or cookie bars or cake. I’ll make them in smaller serving pans & freeze them.

Also, I recently discovered I could make banana bread in my bread machine. So this is convenient to make a quick batch of yummy, healthier banana bread to serve.

Also, if I don’t have time to make or buy actually challah & am running low in my freezer, I’ll make bread in my bread machine for shabbos. It’s not pretty like oven baked bread, but still tasty and super quick to make. Through ingredients in the machine, press a button & 3+ hrs a fresh loaf of bread.

amother

Dodgerblue

Sun, May 15 2022, 10:40 am

amother [ Fuchsia ] wrote:

You start cooking your chulent on Thursday? Do you keep it on low the entire time?

amother

Floralwhite

Sun, May 15 2022, 10:44 am

amother [ Jasmine ] wrote:

How do you do this? This looks so complicated and so many steps. Can someone kindly walk me through their week how they pull this off. Do you all have small babies as well?

Lol
I always thought when I didn’t have many babies I’d be able to do so much more.
Shouldn’t have counted on it.
At least some years most of my kids were in bed by 7.
Now they are up later then me and need rides until 11 pm. And want to sit and shmooze until wee hours of night. And snack in kitchen.
(I work pretty full time with kids home so night is my time to get things done. That is now also impossible)
I find as my kids get older I have less and less time.
(My kids range now 16-2)

Bec I work Friday every single thing is done thurs before I go to sleep.
Soup is cooking.
Cholent is on counter ready to turn on.

I also like to prep things in advance.
Like I prepare my beans and barley with spices for 6 weeks at a time and freeze. This way just need to add to cut potatoes and onions.

I also gave my cleaning lady help me with peeling. Comes out way cheaper then takeout and her one hour saves me hours of work.

amother

Black

Sun, May 15 2022, 10:52 am

With Shabbat meals like that, how come you all don't suffer from family-wide obesity?
We have much less and still overeat (at least dh and I). Do you eat during the week? Scratching Head

amother

Navyblue

Sun, May 15 2022, 11:07 am

amother [ Black ] wrote:

With Shabbat meals like that, how come you all don't suffer from family-wide obesity?
We have much less and still overeat (at least dh and I). Do you eat during the week? Scratching Head

What.

amother

Fuchsia

Sun, May 15 2022, 11:21 am

amother [ Dodgerblue ] wrote:

You start cooking your chulent on Thursday? Do you keep it on low the entire time?

I sautee the onions and garlic, add the beans and water and spices. Once it boils, I add the meat and let it simmer until the beans are soft and the meat cooked through. Then I put it into the fridge. Friday before the zman I put the chulent on the blech and let it warm up and continue simmering through the night.

amother

Winterberry

Sun, May 15 2022, 3:35 pm

Fuchsia, do you work?

amother

Fuchsia

Sun, May 15 2022, 4:32 pm

amother [ Winterberry ] wrote:

Fuchsia, do you work?

Yes. Part-time.

amother

Tanzanite

Sun, May 15 2022, 4:49 pm

amother [ Dodgerblue ] wrote:

All this for just your family at home? Kah must be a large family!

This is pretty much my menu also on a regular shabbos without guests. obviously I make small portions of everything (aside for the roast on Friday night. we do chicken)

The past month I hosted 2 different family members and they couldnt'get over that I make this menu on a weekly basis with my four little kids and DH. I never thought about it like that. I guess I really am fancy Wink

amother

Dodgerblue

Sun, May 15 2022, 5:15 pm

amother [ Tanzanite ] wrote:

I didn’t even mean fancy, I just meant a lot of food. (A lot of different food, a lot of courses) Lucky family!!

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