A Taste of Sukkot
Hello dear readers,
Sukkot is always such a joyous holiday; it’s even right there in one of its alternate names, zman simchatenu, the time of our happiness. But am I the only one that sometimes gets another feeling lurking below the surface? A kind of holiday exhaustion, after two days of Rosh Hashana and Shabbat Shuva and Yom Kippur, and then a whole other week of holiday? One way that manifests for me is in the food, and in the planning of menus. Each time we have to make a festive meal: challahs, soups and salads, chickens and beef, fish and a vegetarian option, side dishes, desserts – whew! But it’s not just the quantity, it’s also the desire to not recycle a menu. Everyone loves chicken soup, but even I think there’s a limit to how much chicken soup I can eat in a one-month span! So what do you do?
One answer is to just keep doing what you’re doing, and if your kids complain about the food being the same as Rosh Hashana, well, too bad. Another answer is to just not cook any sukkot meals. One option is to get yourself invited out to every meal. (Not a strategy I can get behind one hundred percent; I don’t mind being invited out for some of the meals, but sometimes I just want to eat in my own home). A third choice is to go to a kosher sukkot vacation, where the meals are delicious, varied and always taken care of for you. However, if you do want to inject some freshness into your menu routine, try some of these options:
1. GLOBAL MENU SUKKOT. Most of my meals have a traditional menu: chicken soup with noodles, schnitzel, gefilte fish, and foods of that nature. But one interesting way to mix it up is to go global, and prepare dishes from all over the world. Last year for lunch on the second day of yom tov, we had an international sampler: We made wonton soup, tofu pad thai, salmon sushi, biltong and chicken curry. We also had a jar of marmite from Australia, but no one ate that. I’m not sure if it would be easier to make a sampler menu like this one with dishes from different cuisines, or just one menu all from one cuisine. Let me know if you try, and how it goes!
2. SALAD BAR. My daughter and I love salad bars! It’s healthy and customizable. For some reason, though, we never do it at home, we just make a big salad. But this can be a fun meal to make and relatively simple. Prepare a few proteins – salmon, grilled chicken breast, tuna salad, make sure you have a few dressings -vinaigrette, Russian, garlic – and then give everyone a big bowl and get to work!
More soon,
Ariella
It’s okay to let someone else cook the meals sometimes. Contact Leisure Time Tours at 718-528-0700 to plan your trip.