Do you put out a very elegant shabbos meal?

Chickensoupprof

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 3:43 am

I'm alone with my husband...
I put on China, and few glasses

Menu is: Smoked salmon or salmon cakes ( I make everything myself because we don't have a kosher store or so)
chickensoup
kugel with meat..
And homemade challa

Day I eat mostly out at the sluchim.... Sometimes I do make cholent but I don't like cholent...

amother

Dodgerblue

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 3:51 am

we have nice corelle.
usually Friday night
challah
salatim and a big green salad
chicken soup and some sort of pasta
chicken
2 kugels
sometimes a hot veg
dessert

day meal we have
challah and salatim and a big salad
chulent and the kuguls from Friday night
dessert

LovesHashem

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 4:03 am

We also don't do as much "shabbos food" because I don't like "frum foods".

Me and DH don't like gefilte fish or liver. I won't touch kugel of any kind. (apple kugel is usually apple crisp and is acceptable). I don't like cholent or kishke or farful or Deli roll.

When I go to others shabbos day I often have anxiety there won't be much for me to eat. As kugels, cholent, and kishke can often be a main course.

We try to eat a larger salad/dip course. Salads are good for you. This is how many Israelis do shabbos and it's a lot healthier than the things served in the main course. For many the salad course IS the main course and people go all out with salads and veggies and all sorts of that kind of stuff.

amother

White

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 4:10 am

Chickensoupprof wrote:

how do you make salmon cakes?

amother

Emerald

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 6:34 am

During the week I barely make dinner- 1 pot meal style is a good night. Otherwise might be scrambled eggs and pita.

Shabbos means at least 2 courses and at least 3 separate dishes at the main course.

mommy12

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 8:18 am

We have a white tablecloth covered with plastic. China for everyone at night, paper plates during the day. Store bought challah, chicken soup with veggies, noodles, and matzah balls. Chicken, vegetable, easy side dish like potatoes.

Lunch is cholent, sliced fresh or canned vegetables, whatever is in the food box for the week that we can have on the Shabbos table, chicken nuggets or mini hot dogs for the kids.

Super duper basic. Way back when we used to have company it would be much nicer, but for us I have no need to do that. My kids are picky eaters so this works for us.

rainbow dash

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 8:30 am

I set my table with a white tablecloth and plastic ontop. We use real china and shabbos cutlery, shabbos cups with napkins. Challah board, knife, fancy liquor cups, napkin holder.

Friday night
Challah
Mayo
Tomato dip
Salmon cooked
Chicken soup
Noodles or balls
Roast Chicken
Potato kugel
Sometimes also rice kugel
Salad
Sometimes compot

Day meal
Fish, cooked salmon, smoke salmon
Tomato dip, mayo
Eggs
Chilent
Kiska
Potato kugel
Salad
Sometimes potato salad
Sometimes coldcuts
Sometimes compot
Leftover chicken cold

amother

Cyan

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 8:34 am

LovesHashem wrote:

We also don't do as much "shabbos food" because I don't like "frum foods".

We don't make any of that stuff, ever. It's usually extremely unhealthy, and it's not tastier than other options, so what for? (thinking of kugel, gefilte fish, lots of the oily or sugary salatim, that type of thing. Cholent can be healthy in certain cases).

amother

cornflower

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 8:39 am

amother [ Goldenrod ] wrote:

Can someone explain the dips?
People over 50, did they exist when you were a child?
They didn’t exist in my house or any of my friends. (Or DH’s)

But now, apparently, if you don’t have dips you are not really frum.

Israeli homes have always had dips. Americans adopted this custom in the past few years, although most of their dips are mayo-based as opposed to Israelis who actually have dips that are nutrient filled Wink

amother

Forestgreen

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 8:46 am

amother [ Goldenrod ] wrote:

I guess you don't have any sefardi friends then. My in laws are over 50 and they make the same dips their parents made back in north africa. They're delicious so I make them too!

amother

Cyan

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 8:51 am

amother [ cornflower ] wrote:

A lot of the Israeli dips are traditionally full of oil or sugar.
Today though people try to make them in a healthier way.

amother

Ivory

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 8:54 am

LovesHashem wrote:

This is me 100%.

Chayalle

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 10:04 am

My family is not huge eaters, but I always set an elegant table with china, stemware, etc....

I serve basics - challah, dips, fish (salmon), salad, (portabella, purple cabbage, etc...), chicken soup (matza balls or noodles), chicken (sometimes meat, if we have company), potato kugel, lukshen kugel, apple crumble. All homemade (including challah and dips).

lunch - challah, dips, fish or eggs/liver (not both or we are done!), deli salad, chulent, potato kugel, fresh fruit dessert (like pineapple or melon).

I usually bake something for Shabbos, like babka, cake, cookies, etc....

LovesHashem

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 10:06 am

amother [ Cyan ] wrote:

A lot of the Israeli dips are traditionally full of oil or sugar.
Today though people try to make them in a healthier way.

We stick to pesto, tomato dip, tchnia and roasted garlic. I don't like plain mayo on bread. And we try to do non mayo based salads. Like cucumber salad in vinegar, morrocan carrots, coseslaw with a little soy sauce and vinegar and seasme oil, and other salatim.

Sometimes we buy herring. I like to make my own pickles herring but the herring packages are awfully big for two people.

We don't buy salatim. The bought stuff doesn't taste nearly as good and it's full of junk.

amother

Purple

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 10:09 am

amother [ Sienna ] wrote:

What is unhealthy about cholent?

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.

thunderstorm

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 10:10 am

amother [ Goldenrod ] wrote:

I’m not even 40 yet and dips wasn’t even a thing when I was a child. It started becoming a thing to have tomatoe dip and some people had techina also when I was in high school. By the time the year 2000 came around it started picking up in popularity. After a few years the variety increased and more companies started selling them. My kids don’t even know what it means to eat challah on its own. They were born into the dips trend.

amother

Lavender

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 10:10 am

Dark brown leather tablecloth because it matches my chairs
Dishes by one meal and nicer plastic by the other since we don't have enough real dishes for both meals. Before I had a dishwasher it was plastic by both meals.
No glasses by either meal because they break.

Night Meal:
Challah with 1-2 dips
Chicken soup
Chicken
Rice and/or potatoes and/or potato kugel (depending on how busy the weeks was and how many guests we have)
string beans and/or roasted vegetables
A sweet kugel - only if we have guests
Desert (usually cake or ice cream)

Day Meal:
Challah with dips
Salad
Chulent
Potato kugel from the chulent
Grilled chicken or deli
Kishke - sometimes
Desert (usually cake or ice cream)

amother

Goldenrod

Wed, Jan 13 2021, 10:13 am

amother [ Forestgreen ] wrote:

I guess you don't have any sefardi friends then. My in laws are over 50 and they make the same dips their parents made back in north africa. They're delicious so I make them too!

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.