Shabbat Shalom

Earlier today I was reading La Dolce Diva's blog. She wrote about hosting a Shabbat dinner for some friends of hers. It got me to thinking about the fact that we rarely have a special Shabbat dinner anymore. To all of you non-Jews, a Shabbat dinner marks the beginning of our Sabbath. There are some rituals and special blessings that go along with the good eats.

I decided that it was high time for us to start having Shabbat dinners again. Sabina and I got to work cleaning up the house and preparing the meal as we cleaned. We put a roast in the Crock Pot early this morning. Around 1:00 we started the challah since it needs a lot of time to rise. (two separate times)

After putting the challah away to rise, Sabina and I set the table to get that out of the way. I had to search high and low for both candles and candle holders. When I placed them on the tables Sabina asked me "Are we having a romantic dinner?" I knew right then that it had been too long since our last Shabbat dinner!

Around 3:30 or so, Sabina and I punched the challah dough, kneaded it some more and then braided our challot.

We then set it aside to rise. Then we moved on to the roast which smelled amazing. I took it out of the pot and shredded it Ropa Vieja style. YUM! Around 4:00, we began the challah baking. The challah was ready by 5 and we sat down to start our Shabbat meal.

Sabina was an active participant in the blessings before we ate and an active participant in eating the food too!

We had a great day prepping for this meal and eating it. As I sit here typing, I am wondering how I can try and make sure that we have our Shabbat dinners more frequently on Friday evenings. It was easy today - I didn't have to work. I will just have to give it my best shot.

Shabbat Shalom everyone.