There's a joke I've heard circulating for years that goes something like this:
"I'm great at making dinner....reservations!"
There are definitely versions of this joke (about the Jewish American Princess and putting down one's wife) that I'm not a fan of, but there are versions of this joke I enjoy and make me laugh.
And this week, that's just what I wanted to make for Shabbat dinner - RESERVATIONS. Or at least order-in food. Over the last week and a half I prepared and cooked for the holiday of Pesach including hosting dinners of 22, 13 (seders 1 & 2), 11 (Shabbat) and 11 (2nd chag), not to mention the other meals for our family of 6. So, I decided to give myself a break
and not try to make everything from scratch. Sure, in the end I'm making the challah (of course!) and I'm going to steam some green beans, make a box of "favorite rice" (aka rice vermicelli)
and a box of brownies
(with added chocolate chips),
but I bought the main dish and everything else is low key.
So, how does this fit with Parshat Shemini - well, because it's all following the laws of kashrut. This parsha details the kinds of meat, poultry, and fish we can eat. And we will be following those rules. We do every Shabbat, but this week, we'll talk about it at dinner, about why my husband and I both chose to follow these rules more strictly than we did as children. Inspiring conversation and learning about the parsha is what Parsha-inspired menus is all about. And giving myself a break, well that's a good lesson for my kids to learn too.
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