Rosh Hashana cooking update

Challah: finally decided to rise; two loaves now braided and rolled. (Yes, Rosh Hashana has round challot -- but you make them by making long braids then rolling the braids. The challot which are not braided but just rolled into rounds are for Sukkot, not Rosh Hashana)

Soup: Cooked for six hours, smells wonderful. Now to let it chill overnight which means that I'll be able to just pick the excess fat off the top before reheating.

Honey cake: cooling in bundt pan on rack. Not really wanting to come out of the bundt pan, and rather sticky and undercooked.

My main problem with baked goods is underbaking. I have this tendency to cook things until the eggs reach safe temperature but not much longer than that. So they end up really gooey.

This isn't so much of a problem for my gooey cheesecake or my gooey brownies (which tend to be eaten with a spoon instead of with fingers), and I don't know that it will be that serious a problem for honey cake, either. Maybe we'll be eating it with a spoon, but that's not really that bad, is it?

Tomorrow: make stuffing, cook veal, make spatzele, cook green beans, boil potatoes for soup, defrost store-bought kreplach. I wanted to make kreplach on my own, but that got cut for time.

Rosh Hashana cooking update.

Okay: soup still smells really, really good. I let it cool off on the stovetop overnight, and it's still warm.

Honeycake smells wonderful, but I think I've got to work out better ways to grease bundt pans. It's not coming out of the pan. At all. Not even close. Not even THINKING about coming out of the pan. Oh well, if we have to, I'll serve it as a bread pudding and just SCOOP honeycake with a spoon.

I shaped the challot last night, and put them in the oven to rise.

They're FRIGGIN' HUGE!!!!! Okay, they started rising just fine. They're currently both larger than my head. HUGE!!! The two of them take up most of the oven.

We've got a picture, but it's on film, so it will be quite some time before we develop it, put it to CD, and get it up here so you all can see it.

Okay, should shower now and start cooking.

Rosh Hashana cooking update

First, let me state for the record that helpful cats aren't.

Honeycake put up a valiant fight, but was eventually unmoulded, and is currently in the fridge on a plate covered with tinfoil.

Challah is baked, beautiful, and smells great.

Soup veggies and soup chicken have been removed from the soup; soup is ready to be heated and served.

Spatzle is made -- tastes good, but I made them too thick, so they're too tough. Oh well -- if I was going to screw something up, I'm glad it was the spatzle.

Rice for soup is in the rice cooker.

Stuffing is made.

Stuffing is stuffed inside veal roast. Unfortunately, the veal roast didn't actually unroll. . . I thought I'd untie the roast, and unroll it, and there would be a nice oblong piece of meat I could spread stuffing on and re-roll. Nope -- it just sort of fell into a bunch of odd-shaped chunks that HAPPENED to be vaguely round when tied together in a particular way. So I stuck stuffing in between the bits, and we'll see what happens. Browned the roast on all sides, poured some chicken stock over it, and threw it in the oven.

Still to do: defrost frozen kreplach, steam string beans, set table, chop up apples for apples and honey, pour wine, &tc.

Rosh Hashana cooking update, final.

Food is on the table. Looks wonderful. Yes, we took pictures, but we take pictures on this stuff called "film", which goes through various chemical changes when exposed to light, and needs to go through a chemical process before the pictures -- called "photographs" -- can be shown around. We're hungry, and ready to say kiddush. It's about five o'clock here, services start at seven, so we've got time to say kiddush and brachot, eat, change, and head out.

Gut yontif, chag sameach, l'shana tova u'mitukha, and happy new year everybody!!