and then there were seven: last shabbat of 5772

I have begun the habit of inviting everyone over to kindle the candles each Shabbat and I've been surprised to get a few takers. Hardly anyone is observant in this group, so it's nice to share a little piece of Shabbat beauty with others. This Friday, I'd decided to add in an offer for a Shabbat meal since most of our group had chosen to visit Tel Aviv for the weekend. I should've realized a simple truth that my roommate Sarah so eloquently pointed out to me, "if you offer food, they will come" (I love how relevant A Field of Dreams is even now).

There ended up being seven of us left behind for the weekend, and I know this because all seven of us showed up for the Shabbat meal. It ended up being a pot luck of sorts, with me bringing stove top macaroni and cheese, others bringing salad, sliced watermelon, apples and honey, lemonade, potatoes, etc. It was quite the meal! We actually had so many people there that we couldn't possibly all gather in my humble apartment, so we set up our meal in the lobby of our floor - right in front of the elevators. We've been told on several occasions that Israelis are an innovative people, so I think we're doing our part to fit in.

We started the night with kindling the candles, saying kiddish, washing our hands, and saying the motzi, then we dug into our respective dishes with the enthusiasm one would expect from this group. Shabbat is my favorite part of the week, but I even surprised myself with my excitement over preparations - I can't explain how much it mean to me to gather together for the meal. We even swept up the lobby for the full presentation. In short, it was Shabbat as it was meant to be.

As a side note, the stove top macaroni and cheese was quite delicious - especially after we added all the good stuff like garlic, cumin, Moroccan paprika, and spicy (it has a name, but I can never remember it). Perhaps I'll start posting recipes here as well, as it's been pretty fun to experiment with our meals and what products are available to us here. So far, no meal has been boring. I even used the left over challah this morning to make challah french toast. It was surprisingly tasty substituting honey for the vanilla extract and the syrup.