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Monday, November 24, 2008

A glimpse at short Fridays here in TRLEOOB*

Mother in Israel recently blogged about her techniques for getting everything done on short winter Fridays.

Here are some of the things that work for me:

Baking: I try to get all of my baking done by Wednesday. Most cakes and cookies freeze very well, and so there’s no reason not to make them in advance. Also, I almost always make a double recipe when baking, which means we don’t have to bake every week.

Kugels: I also find that some kugels freeze well, and I try to make these in advance and freeze. [Suggestion: When making potato kugels in advance, bake them only halfway and then freeze. The kugels don’t even need to be defrosted when it’s time to finish baking them; they can go straight from the freezer to the oven on Friday afternoon. (We’re going to be using this model for the bar mitzvah IY”H.) Hat tip: My mother (Thanks, Imma!)]

Chicken: I clean and spice/marinate the chicken on Thursday afternoon/evening. It then sits in the refrigerator overnight, and I put it in the oven 1.5-2 hours before Shabbat (depending on the specific recipe).

Soup: As a minimum, I put all the ingredients (except for the water) in the pot on Thursday. Occasionally, I add the water and cook the soup on Thursday as well. Otherwise, the pot sits in the refrigerator overnight, and I add the water and cook the soup on Friday. (I always make soup in a big pot and freeze the extra in plastic containers.)

Cholent: I check the barley and beans on Thursday, and then let them soak [covered] overnight. Also, I peel and chop the onions and store them overnight in the refrigerator. I do everything else on Friday morning (including peeling the potatoes).

Fish: I don’t make this too often, but when I do, I prepare the onions, carrots, and spices on Thursday and store it all in the refrigerator overnight.

Salads and other side dishes: Ideally, the vegetables get washed on Thursday, and then I take care of chopping etc. on Friday.

As you can see, in general, I do much of the prep. work on Thursday, but then I leave the actual cooking for Friday. The advantage to this system is that there’s less pressure on Friday, but much of the food is still cooked fresh right before Shabbat.

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* As our long time readers are well aware, TRLEOOB=”The Real Life Equivalent of Our Blog”.

3 comments:

  1. so now you need a long thursday....
    SPYYZ

    ReplyDelete
  2. An even simpler way to do the cholent is preapare it all in the crockpot including the barley, potatoes and all spices and even the water. Let it sit in the fridge thurs pm and just plop it in the crockpot on friday morning.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SPYYZ -
    :-)

    MII -
    Thanks for the inspiration.

    Anonymous -
    I used to do that all the time. But about a year or two ago, we got a new crockpot which doesn't really fit into our refrigerator...

    ReplyDelete

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