I Welcome(d) The Shabbat Queen, Part 7

Firstly, we must have a shoutout to Dolls and Dana for taking good care of me over Shabbat despite the fiery soreness that characterizes my throat and the burning in my ears. On that note, if you're a Jewish doctor in Washington Heights who feels like performing a strep culture on me and writing me a script if I'm positive, I would be beyond appreciative. Secondly, I must thank The Golden Haired Girl for....

- introducing me to the godlike pleasures of wine which is 'Late Harvest,' and therefore amazingly sweet and delicious

-making homemade whole wheat challah!

-baking a delicious chocolate-banana cake

And thanks to The Tent-Peg Wielder and Mum for coming by and providing us with delicious red grapes and plums.

(And hurrah for Fudge, who helped somebody!)

On that note, I must begin with a mention of failure. Yes, all good learners must admit failure sometimes, and my failure stems from not realizing that the illegal pilot light in my oven makes the oven temperature ridiculously hot. Thus, this baked sesame- cornflake chicken is slightly charred around the edges and this was most saddening.

Then we had Chicken Paprikash, which is awesome:


And pasta (because the way it works is that you serve the Chicken Paprikash + Sauce on top of the pasta)- the pasta's really golden, by the way- the flash of my camera made it look white and pale:


Then eggplant slices with a tomato-based sauce:


Gazpacho Soup (one of many types- this one is no-blender style):


And then comes something I am actually really proud of. This is based on the Mozzarella Basket offered at the restaurant Noi Due. The Mozzarella Basket is very delicious and looks like this (obviously the presentation is beautiful)-


As you can see, exquisite, right? But the measure for me at any restaurant is whether or not I can make the dish. If I can make it, it's generally not worth paying for. Anyway, I realized I could make my version of this dish. I don't have a mold for the dough, so I used what I had at my disposal (aka my hands + puff pastry dough) and created appetizers for everyone which I have dubbed 'Trenchers.' They may not look as lovely, but they taste exactly the same...except, of course, I created a meat version of this dish rather than one incorporating mozzarella.


Ten points if you can guess what type of meat I used. As a hint: I walked into Key Food and asked for an unsliced portion of this meat and the lady (who is lovely) looked at me as though I were an alien. See, I'm so spoiled at Romanian; we can ask for this sort of stuff whenever we want and everyone sees it as perfectly normal. As she wrapped up my meat, she informed me that no one had ever asked her for this item unsliced before.

New Yorkers of Washington Heights, that is pretty sad. Where's all the creativity gone? You only cook with sliced meat out of plastic packages? Humph.

And on that note, I must go polish off the grape juice from Havdala that my roommate shall not drink.