The Menu

Shabbos is coming, and so is...

challah
red pepper spread
brisket
sautéed bok choi
orange ginger carrot purée
baked potato with tofu sour cream
stewed okra and tomatoes
coconut custard
pomegranates

And for lunch...

We're OUT! :)

It was a fun shabbos prep time. I got a rather large amount of red peppers from a grocery store that has a discount produce rack. I wanted to duplicate my favorite red pepper spread from Trader Joe's (sniff, sniff), and I DID! It tastes exactly the same and I'm very happy. I just roasted eight large red peppers with oil and salt (at 400 for an hour), then puréed them with a small amount of white wine vinegar (2 T?), two cloves of garlic, and a couple of teaspoons of sugar. YUM.

Then the brisket... It was marked down to $3.50 per pound at the store (nearing its expiration date). I had them open it up at the cash register to make sure it smelled good. It was perfect. :) I did my usual sliced onion on the bottom, 1/2 cup of water, put the brisket in and covered it with garlic salt. Baked it at 250 for 4 hours, then sliced it and baked it for another hour. Best brisket I've had in a long time! Best part - the whole brisket (2.5 lbs) only came to $8.75. It would have been more expensive to have chicken. :) The other best part - I split it with a friend (it was originally a 9+-pound brisket, so we'll both be enjoying some really good, really cheap brisket.

The tofu sour cream is another imitation recipe, and tastes just like the Better Than Sour Cream that's available at the grocery store. Much cheaper to make it than to buy it. I have the recipe posted here.

Okra was from the bargain rack too, but looked very, very fresh. Turned out pretty good! I love that bargain rack. I really should go get a bunch more things from there... but maybe not until AFTER I make peach jam from my 30 lbs of peaches, and AFTER I finally make strawberry jam!

Kroger's got Pomwonderful pomegranates in last week, so I bought three when I was there this week. Really hoping they survive transport to GA as well as they survive transport to OR. We love, love, love pomegranates, and it's the first kind of tree we want to plant here - just as soon as we get those stubborn bushes out!

And the real highlight of it all - two dear people successfully got through major surgery at the same hour on the same day this week. B"H! I'm very grateful that they both did so well.

Good shabbos, all!