9-2-2011 Shabbat Dinner

We are so excited because tonight we are having our cousins who are visiting from Virginia over for shabbat dinner. We always have a great time when together, and we don't see them often enough. My cousin Robin loves to cook like me, you may remember when I mentioned her around Passover time.

Cooking shabbat dinner is never an easy feat. I have to cook the meal, set the table, entertain my kids, and all the while keep the house clean.

Keeping the house clean and having 2 and 4 year old boys is impossible. I will turn my back for one second, and then they dump out every single toy bin. We had a little incident happen today. I had already set the table with my fine china, silver, and crystal for shabbat.

I was in the kitchen cooking, and I would periodically check in on them. During one of my checks, it appeared as though they had taken all of their toys and embedded them into and all over the sofa. I said, "What are you boys doing?" To which they replied, "we are playing pirate ship."

I took a closer look, and realized that in the midst of the toys all over the sofa, there was also the kiddush cup, 2 china plates, napkins, and several pieces of silverware from the already set table. That is when I near lost it. Ahhhhhh.... Why can't they play nicely and not make a mess? Haha, yeah right!

Here is what we are having tonight:

1. Challah
2. Lawry's Famous Spinning Bowl Salad, recipe below
3. Cabbage Salad
4. Tomato Gefilte Fish
5. Gazpacho with diced avocado
6. Beer Can Chicken
7. Potato Kugel
8. Green Beans with crispy onions
9. Apple Pie

Lawry's Famous Spinning Bowl Salad

In my non kosher days, I used to love to eat at Lawry's Prime Rib. One of my favorite things there was their famous spinning bowl salad. They would bring all of the ingredients to the table and make it table side. The coolest part was how they would toss it simply by spinning the salad bowl. I have tried to recreate the recipe several times, and looked online for the recipe for years, I finally found it! Here it is:

1 small head romaine lettuce, chopped
1/2 head iceberg lettuce, chopped
handful of baby spinach
1 hard boiled egg, pushed through a sieve or cut into very thin pieces
1 can beets, cut into julienne strips
handful of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 C. Sourdough Croutons, recipe below
Lawry's Vintage Dressing, recipe below

In a bowl place the lettuces, spinach, hard boiled egg, beets, cherry tomatoes, and croutons. Pour over some of the dressing and toss to combine.

Sourdough Croutons

1 Small loaf sour dough bread, cut into small crouton size cubes
olive oil
Lawry's salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the bread cubes on a sheet pan. Drizzle on olive oil. Sprinkle with Lawry's salt. Use your hands and toss to coat.

Bake for 12-20 minutes until toasted and crisp.

Lawry's Vintage Dressing

3 T. cider vinegar

3 T. water

2 T. applesauce

2 t. Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 t. dry sherry (I used Kosher cooking sherry)

1 1/2 t. Lawry's seasoned salt

1 t. sugar

1/2 t. paprika

1/4 t. garlic powder

2 drops hot pepper sauce

1/2 C. vegetable oil

Place all of the above ingredients either into a blender, or use an immersion blender. Blend until emulsified and thickened a bit. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

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I hope you have a nice weekend and a good shabbos.

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