Rosh Hashannah celebration. 9/19/20

Tonight we celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Since we have been basically in lockdown for months now, we have decided to celebrate in some way all the holidays available to us. At least it means getting the three of us around the table together, some planning (which is always fun), and a different menu than usual. Here are pictures from the evening—

Now that we have lost all this weight, we like to show off a bit in some pictures.

Mary and John both down over 50lbs.
Just Mary

We make and eat traditional foods. Sarah makes a round challah and I make autumn soup which is a bowlful of traditional foods – apple, pomegranate, squash. I also make a salad with another traditional food, golden beets. Part of our celebration is the rather odd tradition of making puns out of the traditional foods. It leads to many dad jokes and much hilarity.

Round challah
Autumn soup
Golden beet salad

 

A Sephardic New Year’s Celebration. 9/10/18

Last year I discovered that for Rosh Hashanah there can be more than apples and honey. The Sephardic celebration has a whole array of symbolic foods. This year we try to combine them into a cohesive side to our main event which is Instant Pot braised boneless short ribs with vegetables and mashed potatoes. Sarah also takes the traditional challah and makes personal-sized onion and poppy seed rolls.

Plate with symbolic foods and rolls

On the plate are butternut squash with pomegranate seeds, dates stuffed with goat cheese, the ubiquitous apple, pickled green beans with cannellini beans, spinach, and our interpretation of a ram’s head – hard boiled eggs made to look like heads. The rolls came out a little on the pale side but were delicious nonetheless. Here’s a look at the inside.

Interior of roll

If all these foods are not enough, John makes delicious boneless short ribs in the Instant Pot and I mash up some potatoes.

Boneless short ribs, mashed potatoes, carrots, butternut squash cubes with pomegranates, spinach and a onion and poppyseed roll

We have such fun telling jokes and making puns about the food. (This is apparently part of the tradition) and wish each other a happy and sweet new year!