It’s so nice to be back with all of you!  The holidays have been wonderful, but I have to be very honest and say that I’m really glad that I’ll be able to get back to my regular weekly routine.  Particularly the way they fell out this year, it’s been a marathon for three weeks of cooking, cleaning, cooking, cleaning, etc.  And my sleeping schedule is totally out of whack, along with my baby’s – this morning I didn’t fall asleep until 4 am.

Four of my kids volunteered to help out at the synagogue on Sunday to prepare a communal meal (served yesterday for lunch) for 120 people.  Except for the chef who also volunteered, they were the only people who were able to take time out of their schedules to help out – it’s such a busy time for everyone.  We weren’t planning to attend the communal meal, because after a busy morning at shul (synagogue), we wanted to have a quiet family meal together.  The kids just helped out because they like to.  But the night before, the person in charge of organizing it found out that we weren’t planning to be there, and told my dh they really wanted us to come, and were waiving the fee for our family. 

So we agreed – the kids were happy with that idea! – but then when the time for the meal rolled around (for which two of my kids spent another hour helping set up), there wasn’t a table where we could sit together as a family; they had all been half taken by smaller families.  It’s not my idea of a holiday meal to have my family scattered in a large crowd over three tables, so we decided to head for home.  And we had a very nice meal, in spite of the particularly strong disappointment of a couple of the kids. 

Last night, after the holiday was over, the man who organized it told us how disappointed they were that we didn’t stay, and that we were welcome to take home any of the food that was left.  There were a bunch of pans (9×13) of beef stew, as well as a couple of stuffed peppers and another of rice, so we took six pans of the stew, one of peppers, and one of rice.  Oh, and two pans of chicken – I almost forgot that because it went straight into the freezer.  We’ll have one tomorrow night for Shabbos dinner. 

They were so glad that we were taking it; I think they felt badly that my kids did so much work and didn’t get to taste anything they had prepared, plus it was really nice food so of course they were glad that it would be used (though I know they would have looked for people to take it, they wouldn’t have let it get thrown away).  Usually I wouldn’t know what to do with so much stew, since I don’t have room in my fridge or freezer, but you know that now that I’m an avid canner, I’m not limited by those petty considerations anymore! 

I couldn’t believe how meaty the stew was – each pan was mostly meat chunks with a few pieces of carrots and potatoes (the opposite ratios of how I make stew, lol!), and the gravy, which didn’t look so appetizing when cold.  I put the meat, carrots, and potatoes into a large pot and added water, leaving the gravy behind (you’re not supposed to can things with gravy or flour, because the thickener can prevent heat from being properly distributed when being canned), and it was amazingly good when it was heated up and thinned down.  So far I’ve canned seven quarts, and have another batch of quart jars heating on the stove heating up right now, along with a big pot of the stew, and I think this will finish the stew off. 

When ds15 went to shul this morning, he was told again how disappointed they were we didn’t stay, and urged to take any leftovers.  Ds told them we did take some, but they found a couple dozen hotdogs to send him home with that we hadn’t noticed the night before.  I’ll do something with those next week – I have a bunch of hot dog recipes on one of my recipe pages (I think I told you how I section my recipe notebook into pages with nine recipes per side) so I’ll see what will look good.

For dinner, we’re having the thick meaty gravy mixed with rice – I think everyone will enjoy that; there are still plenty of little pieces of meat in it.  My fridge was stuffed last night with pans of food, but I’m working my way down to being able to see some space when I open it up!  🙂

Avivah