Mishpacha staff shares their best tricks for short Fridays

Done by Thursday

I really try my best to have as much as possible done by Thursday night. I try to finish washing and putting away laundry by Wednesday so that on Thursday I can focus on Shabbos prep (the laundry can wait patiently in the hamper). We set the Shabbos table on Thursday, and I do the bulk of my cooking Thursday night. Whatever I like made fresh, like chicken and roasted vegetables, I’ll prep on Thursday night, so all I need to do is stick it in the oven on Friday. Since potato kugel is also best fresh, but can’t sit in the fridge overnight once it’s prepared, I make it on Thursday and overnight it.

I have cleaning help on Friday so the floors get mopped and the bathrooms are clean. Our family’s goal is for my husband and boys to go to shul early to learn and for me to try to light ten minutes early as a zechus for Eretz Yisrael, our soldiers, and the hostages. Keeping that in mind helps push us.

Esti Vago, Family Table production

Child Labor

Each of my children has a different job that is their responsibility — like putting tissues in the bathrooms. Having these tasks off my head makes such a difference!

Dasi Sin Shalom, production operation manager

It’s a Wash

My main thing is I shower before the kids come home from school (I’m lucky — here they finish at 2:30, after chatzos).

I put all the cholent ingredients into the crockpot on Thursday. Friday morning, before the kids go to school, I pull the crockpot out of the fridge, pour water between the liner bag and the crockpot insert, and plop it into the base. It cooks on high all day, the kids have some before Shabbos, and then it goes on low for Shabbos.

Also, my kids have Erev Shabbos jobs — the older two mop the kitchen and breakfast room floors and the middle ones vacuum and empty bathroom and bedroom garbage cans. This really does take a load off. (And, as I learned when I got married and my husband started mopping the kitchen floor, their spouses will be so grateful!)

Rachel Bachrach, deputy editor

No-Bake Fridays

I like to have fresh cake and cookies for my family on the long Friday nights during the winter season. I’m pretty fast in the kitchen, and I know that I can get a cake mixed, baked, and cleaned up very quickly, so I have this real urge on short Fridays to just pull out the mixer and pull together a cake or some biscotti. But I also know that it’s probably the yetzer hara at work. So I took on this kabbalah: no baking after Thursday night. The first time Friday hit last winter and I had no cake baked, I almost gave in and pulled out the mixer, but then I remembered that I had some babka in the freezer and pulled that out instead.

Shana Friedman, executive editor

Straight to the Blech

I’ve found that some things can go into a foil pan and straight onto the blech or plata and cook through until the seudah (salmon comes out delicious this way, so do sweet carrots).

(This is permissible in certain conditions, consult a Rav for proper guidance.)

Rachel Ginsberg, associate editor

Early Does It

I dread short Fridays. You wake up and basically, it’s time to bentsh licht! I work on Friday (from home, so that helps) so no rest for the weary! I do all food shopping on Thursday as well, and cook what I can at night. I try to get up early on Friday morning to do some more cooking before the emails start pouring in.

Nina Feiner, sales manager North America

Take a Nap

I like to nap on Friday afternoons after everything is done — yes, even on a short Friday! — so that gives me a push to be sure everything is done by two.

Chava Lipszyc, production

Keep It Simple

Simple meals are the key for me. I cook everything besides soup after work on Fridays, unless I have guests. If I’m making challah, I put the dough up before work and refrigerate it. Then when I get home, I take out the dough to bring it to room temp, bake my salmon, season and roast some chicken, roast veggies for the Friday night seudah, put up a cholent, boil some eggs, grill a London broil, braid and bake the challos, chop up some herbs for salad dressing, and call it a day. The prep time takes under two hours, and any time I get derailed it’s because I am hoisted with my own petard — I get sidetracked by some new experiment that nobody wants or needs on a Friday afternoon. I don’t bake cakes or cookies on a regular basis.

The real secret (to everything, not just Shabbos prep) is amazing and reliable cleaning help, who I try to always remember to thank Hashem for, and who goes home with a piping hot challah of her own, so it’s always worth it for her to come.

Michal Frischman, US chief of staff

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 917)