Old favorites, new takes… all in a day’s work

The Man

Shulem Levine, age 28 2 kids, b”H Full-time kollel, Ramat Eshkol, Yerushalayim

The Plan

Friday Night: Store-bought Challah, Gefilte Fish, Hearts of Palm Salad, Garlic Confit, Dill Dip, Avocado Dip, Chicken Soup, Chicken Pastrami Rollups, Rosemary Mustard Potatoes, Broccoli Salad, Mushroom Sauté, Chocolate Cake

Shabbos Day: Store-bought Challah, Gefilte Fish, Dips, Caesar Salad, Cholent, Hasselback Salami, Watermelon

Let’s just start by saying my wife pushed me into this. My first reaction was “No way! Not in middle of the zeman,” but my wife assured me that I (we?) could do this. The instructions we got from Family First said we could make up whatever rules we wanted. So from the outset, we made up to do this without missing seder, including Friday morning. That was our first — and main — rule.

At the same time, if the whole idea was to treat my wife, she couldn’t be babysitting while I cooked, because that would defeat the purpose. So we had to find time that was not yom and not lailah.

I wanted to take the easiest, quickest route possible, so I decided there would be no multistep recipes or complicated equipment that would involve added cleaning. After much discussion, our final list of rules was:

• No missing seder.
• No depending on my wife for babysitting.
• No mixer or food processor (I did use a hand blender for the chocolate cake, and it worked just fine).
• No asking for help from my wife, though she was allowed to offer ;).
• No multistep recipes like first fry, then sauté.

The Prep

In the beginning of the week, I called my mother and aunts to get their best recipes, like broccoli salad and a schnitzel recipe, which I didn’t use. I didn’t sit down to plan a formal menu (though my wife kept asking!), but it was on my mind throughout the week and I figured it out piece by piece, a real kiyum of remembering Shabbos all week long.

I did the shopping in shifts, some on Wednesday night and some on Thursday bein hasedarim. I bought the basics that I get every week as well as some special ingredients that I needed, like pastrami and a salami.

On Wednesday night I made my first dish, a nostalgic flashback to my early childhood — my mother’s chocolate cake, a yerushah from her mother. That was the most important thing to me. The rest of the menu happened late Thursday night.

Before night seder, I put up the soup (something I’ve done many times before) and threw a roll of gefilte fish into a pot — easy enough. My wife helped with salting the soup, but otherwise it was all my doing. Then I made chicken pastrami rollups (recipe from my wife’s aunt), which looked very impressive but required very little work. I put up the cholent (in a foil pan — my wife’s hack), and hasselback salami for Shabbos day.