Then on Thursday afternoon we found out that another friend was going to be in the hospital for Shabbat to give birth to her first child - and her husband and mother would be joining her too. We of course offered to deliver Shabbat dinner and lunch for the next day. Now we were up to 18.
I made my menu and shopped accordingly. The menu was pretty simple and so I didn't see any great need to get started too early. Luckily I ended up with a great kitchen helper, because little did I know my day was about to just get crazier.
I spent my morning and a nice part of my afternoon dropping someone off for a dr's appt and then waiting for quite some time for him to be ready. By the time I got home and really got to my cooking it was about 3:00 pm. Then I got home and started to cook.
At about 5:00 my husband told me that he had just received a phone call that a couple from NY and their daughter were going to be in Norfolk for Shabbos as their flight to NY had landed here due to weather. They would be staying in a hotel and would love to have food prepared to go. Now I was cooking for 21. I took a deep breath in and asked Levi if he could please go buy some takeout containers because at this point I was prepping food to go for 12 people (my parents had also asked for food to be packed up because they planned to stay home Friday night). So Levi ran to buy the containers and then he called me to say that another plane had been grounded in Norfolk and that two girls from Monsey would be spending Shabbat with us. Now I had a grand total of 23 Shabbat guests - some in my home and some eating in homes, hotels and hospitals.
I looked at the food I had prepared and was still preparing and starting to panic and decided that maybe I should add some foods to my menu. I quickly looked through my fridge and found a giant bag of broccoli that I proceeded to stir fry and then I remembered that I had a container of mushroom-zucchini kugel I had frozen a few months back. I quickly defrosted the kugel and warmed it up and finally had a rounded out menu with enough food for everyone. (Lesson learned - sometimes freezing those leftovers can be a really good idea!)
The day spun out of control as Levi stopped at the airport to pick up the two girls and then brought me the containers which I quickly started to fill. Then he dashed back out the door with boxes of food for my friend's family and then off to the hospital 20 minutes away to deliver food to my other friend. Luckily my mom and the guests staying at the hotel were able to come pick up their dinners.
Levi returned with a few minutes to spare before Shabbat. I checked that everything was ready and then lit my Shabbat candles. I opened my eyes and marveled at how lighting my candles and bringing in Shabbat suddenly brought peace and tranquility into what had been a wild and hectic home just a few minutes earlier.
Here is the recipe for the Mushroom-Zucchini Kugel which I was able to just grab out of my freezer :) This original recipe comes from the Bina Cookbook: Spice It Right by Estee Kafra, I make the recipe with a few small changes - which is the way I am posting it.
Mushroom Zucchini Kugel
3 eggs
1 cup oil
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsps salt
1 tsp baking powder
4 zucchini
1 onion
24 button mushrooms
1 clove garlic
Pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, mix eggs, oil, sugar, salt, baking powder and flour. The batter will be sort of stiff. Grate the onions, zucchinis, mushrooms and garlic in a food processor fitted with a grating disc. Add grated veggies to the mixture in the bowl. Sprinkle in black pepper. Mix well. Coat a 9 x 13 pan with Pam and pour the batter in.
Bake for at least two hours - the top will start to get crispy. The kugel will cset after it is removed from the oven and has cooled. This kugel takes a really long time to bake but is well worth it!
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