#30before30 – Shabbat Dinner

I’ve lived in my condo for almost 7 years, yikes! Every Friday night I go to my parents’ house for Shabbat dinner.  We are not religious but there is a rule in my house that everyone MUST be at Shabbat dinner every week.  When I was young I hated the requirement, as I’ve grown I’ve come to appreciate the tradition.

So, as part of my #30before30 challenge, I decided to have my whole family (ok, there are only 6 of us) to my condo for dinner.  Every week at my mom’s house we have soup, salad, main dish and desert, almost all of which is homemade, so I set the same standards for myself.

It took me all week to prepare everything from setting the table to buying the groceries to doing the actual cooking, but I prepared a homemade 4 course meal all by myself.  My parents were in charge of bringing wine and challah, that’s it.

We had squash soup, salad with green pea sprouts and tomatoes with a balsamic vinaigrette, chicken in a wild mushroom sauce served over gnocchi with green beans with caramelized onions and walnuts on the side.  For dessert, we had champagne and “sticky bun” bread pudding.

I actually killed 2 birds with one stone tonight, as another item on my #30before30 was master bread pudding.  I’m not a huge dessert person because I don’t really like chocolate.  However, I love bread pudding.  I once had an insane bread pudding with crackerjacks at the restaurant Kitchenette in Montreal and fell in love with the dessert.  I just had to figure out how to make a really awesome version myself.  My version is part cinnamon bun, part bread pudding, absolutely delicious.

Dinner was fabulous as my mother would say, everyone enjoyed the food, the wine and the company.  For those of you who know me, when I tell you that my mother said she was impressed, you can only imagine.  My mother is an expert dinner party maker and her seal of approval is like receiving a Michelin star! Check out the pics of the table, the food and my family!