Your C.H.A.G. Shabbos Resources Guide courtesy of the Yom Tov Planning Center

I'm using the acronym CHAG for Shabbos as well because in some ways, you can call Shabbos a Chag/Holiday. The difference between Shabbos and a Holiday is that Shabbos comes whether we make any effort or not. A Holiday is a day that we are responsible for sanctifying- the ancient courts decided what day the holidays would fall out. Shabbos comes whether we are ready or not!

Cuisine

I've asked experienced Challah bakers what mixers they use to make their kosher challah recipes and here's their list:

It is between the:
Bosch Mixerand and Magic Mill.

Both machines are most popular here in Baltimore amongst challah bakers, because you can put in an entire 5lb bag of flour. I recommend you get the Bosch Mixer only because I know it, use it, and really like it.

The only thing I know about the Magic Mill is that it is very heavy. That's good in some ways though because when it is on and mixing it doesn't budge on your countertop. And I don't think it has all of the attachments that a Bosch has.

We have the Bosch and love it you can make about 5lbs of flour in each batch. That's about 15 cups of flour. We sometimes quadruple the recipe, freeze the extra dough and then bake a batch before Shabbos.

Again, to make your kosher challah recipe in bulk, you have to get a machine that can hold 5lbs of flour. I made the mistake of trying to get my Kitchen Aid to make that much and it started smoking and broke.

To be honest, my husband actually makes the challah. But I did the research on getting the Bosch, so we are a team :) He's the baker and I'd rather be the...candle stick maker or shopper or something else.

He loves the Bosch because he can dump in an entire 5lb bag of flour. We are a family of convenience.

(I also recently donated our large bulky food processor and got the food processor attachment that fits right onto the Bosch here at this link: www.stacksandstacks.com

If you want, you can get your Bosch Universal Series Kitchen Machine - MUM6622UC with the blender attachment too. I am going to get the blender attachment next since my machine didn't come with one. I can't wait to get rid of my bulky blender.)

Kosher Challah Recipe I

• 2 packs yeast
• 2 packs egg beaters (4 eggs equivalent)
• 10 cups flour
• 3/4 cups sugar (substitute splenda, stevia )
• 4 tsp salt
• 1 cup oil
• 2 cups water
• 2 tsp vanilla
• add water and flour as needed

Mix ingredients and form into ball. Place dough in oiled bowl. Cover bowl and let rise. Punch down, let rise more.

Take challah without a bracha. Form challahs, bake at 350 for an hour.

How do my challahs come out looking so big?)

You may not think there is anything to our challah baking secrets.

For us though, our challah baking has done a 360 since we've implemented these couple of challah baking secrets. It's been a long effort getting our healthy spelt challah to come out with the perfect consistency, not to hard, well risen, fluffy, and sweet.

Here they are:

1. Special oval baking pans- Once we found these oval baking pans, our challah forms came out looking professional!

See how the sides of the pan are narrow, causing the dough to be pushed up and to rise right over the pan. We braid it, stick it in the pan, and then cook it. Don't they look great?

2. Canola oil- Whole spelt tends to be heavy and dry. My husband uses a lot of canola oil to keep the challah soft. You'll see the recipe below and how much canola oil is called for.

He has actually quadrupled the recipe to make about 15 cups of flour. You can do that in a Bosch Mixer

Here's the basic recipe found in the Meal-lean-i-yumm cookbook- one of my favorite cookbooks! Mealleaniyumm! (All That's Missing Is the Fat

• 3 1/2 cups spelt flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 TB active dry yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 1/8 cup lukewarm water
• 2 TB canola oil

1. Combine flour, salt, yeast and sugar into a large bowl. Add water and oil. Beat until combined then nead the dough until smooth, about 5 minutes. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes, until doubled, Punch down and shape into a loaf. Place into loaf pan. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 400F. Place 1 cup of water in the oven with the bread another challah baking secret. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes until done. Brush top lightly with water. Remove from pan and cool on a rack.

Slatkin edits to the recipe-My husband quadruples this recipe which gives 14 cups of flour, and then he makes another batch!

Here's the math for the quadruplement.

• 14 cups of flour
• 6 tsp salt
• 4 TB yeast
• 4 tsp sugar (we use brown rice syrup so he adds a little flour due to the extra liquid)
• 4 1/2 cups of water
• 8 TB of canola oil

Jewish Life Organizing tip- By the way, challah is wonderful when the dough is frozen and is taken out to rise again before baking. Say you have time to make the dough on Sunday or Monday, freeze it after it has risen and then defrost it on Friday. Let it rise again and then bake it on Friday. There's nothing like the smell of challah being made on Erev Shabbos :) I think also Kabbalistically it is good to bake challah specifically on erev Shabbos.

My Findings about Shabbos recipes
I think one of the reasons why Shabbos preparations often feel so hard is that we forget the very important rule: Keep it simple!

Who said we have to make stuffed miniature mushrooms or tri color kugels? Perhaps you really enjoy doing that, and if you do gezundt a heit!

If you want to cook more exciting meals, Madeline Binder's Family Recipes.

I personally don't make 10 ingredient vegetable dish. Steamed broccoli is wonderful. Steamed cauliflower, asparagus, kale, collard greens, they are delicious! And, a heck of a lot quicker and healthier than kugel.

And a starch? How about rice. Throw in slivered almonds and raisins, or mexican rice seasonings. A starch, protein, vegetable, soup, what else?

Dessert. How about baked apples? Baked pears with strawberries on top? A smoothie.

Again, these are food items you do not even need a recipe for! You can make these very quickly.

But I do realize that some of you want fancier foods and that is why I recommend Madeline's cookbook.

I'm also a big fan of delegating and outsourcing. If baking Challah is a chore for you, get it elsewhere. Rachael's Star-K Heavenly Challahs- Chocolate, chocolate chip...she's sending me one this week and I cannot wait for it!

Halacha

My List:

1.Snacks
2. Shabbos robe
3. Hot Plate/Blech
4. Hot water pot

These comforts make Shabbos easier for me even on Friday afternoons during crunch time. I hope they help you too!

Let's get started.

1. Snacks- I always make sure I have snacks prepared on Friday for Shabbos. That way the kids can be occupied with a little baggie in shul, or Friday night while I'm busy with the other child.

I put up a pot of popcorn. It's such a fun cozy snack and I so look forward to curling up with a bowl Friday night after my husband has gone to shul.

I use a regular pot, greased with olive oil. I first put in 1 kernel of popcorn, cover it. Wait for that one to pop. When that kernel pops, I add all of the other kernels, about 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels.

I let it sit covered in the pot all Shabbos. My 3 and 2 year old both have a bag or 2 of it, in shul, after naptime, for dessert at lunch. And it's pretty healthy.

You don't have to use popcorn, we sometimes make hard boiled eggs to have for our Shabbos snack.

You can pick a snack your family likes and make enough of it to last over Shabbos. Having a snack ready-made without needing to think about it on Shabbos, is a way to make Shabbos easier.

2. Shabbos Robes- Shabbos is a time that we seem to be changing clothes a lot. Friday afternoon we get into Shabbos clothes, Shabbos morning, after our nap, etc.

You may already know about "Shabbos Robes". For women and girls, these cushy robes are made to look like a beautiful dress (sometimes even a gown).

I always wore a Shabbos robe and now my 3 year old wears one too.

And the Shabbos robe makes our life so much easier, think about it: Friday afternoon instead of me wondering, what is my daughter going to wear this week? I tell her, go put on your Shabbos robe. Shabbos morning, while she is playing before shul she puts on her Shabbos robe. Lately, she wears it to shul every week. We come home, have lunch, take a nap and when she wakes up, it goes on again.

If guests come over in the afternoon I don't have to worry that us girls are dressed nicely, we put on our robes!

If you don't think it is nice to wear a robe on Shabbos, just wear it when you are lounging around, not to shul or at the table. You'll see, it is very handy to jump out of the shower and change into.

And some of them look even fancier than your complete Shabbos wardrobe! Make shabbos easier on yourself by getting the women and girls in your family a Shabbos robe.

3. Hot food on Shabbos- Most of you know that you cannot heat up food on Shabbos. There are lots of laws regarding "blechs" and ways to heat up food on Shabbos.

Many people just serve cold chicken and the only hot dish is in their crock pot. I also have a crock pot soup, but it is not the only hot food I have!

I have a hot plate, or a "plata".

I don't have to worry about covering the knobs, or keeping my gas flame on all Shabbos with a metal piece on top.

I don't have to shift around food to decide which gets the hottest.

My food all sits on the plata that is plugged into a regular outlet, and the food gets VERY HOT. I always have hot food on Shabbos and I don't have to program a "Shabbos mode" in my oven (I do have that but this is a lot easier)

We used to have a smaller hot plate from Target with a knob, but we always had to cover the know and it was really too small, and on top of that it broke!

So this hot plate made in Israel, really makes shabbos easier for us because we like hot food and don't have to worry about covering knobs or flames going out.

4. Tea and Coffee-I have an instant hot water dispenser that I leave on all week long. We've never had a problem in 6 years of our pot being on all week long and all Shabbos too. It's delightful not to have to fill up an urn and take it down after Shabbos, we always have hot water.

I have both the very large one and the miniature one, my husband takes it to his office so he can always have hot water.

We are big tea drinkers if you couldn't tell and there's nothing we love more than after Friday night dinner having a cup of tea and being cozy on the couch.

I'll keep you posted with more of my Shabbos comforts that make Shabbos easier.

Let me know if you have any of your own Shabbos creature comforts by filling out this form below!

Aesthetics

The following are some suggestions for how to improve your shabbos table.

• Start by looking over what you have and begin grouping them into colors. Is all of your cookware white? Put the white together and find your next color. What about your glasses? Include those in the color scheme, I bought beautiful blue glasses at the dollar store!
• Find a second color scheme in your cookware/serving ware. Perhaps you have a lot of chrome or silver, put it all together so you can see what you have.
• Begin working with your 2 colors, maximizing their potential by using several items on your table in those colors
• Practice setting your table with the 2 colors. You'll find that a 3rd color pops up. See how those colors work.
• Once you have a 2-3 color scheme that you like, think about whether there are other serving pieces you need to complete your Shabbos table.



For example, I didn't have a Mayim Acharonim set for a long time. Now that I know my table colors are red, gold, and blue, I picked up a single use tea pot in those colors (from Target!) and now use that for mayim acharonim. Here's a picture of pieces from the pattern I use:





I also use a challah tray in the matching pattern from Target.

How about some nice chargers? You've seen them around, especially around the winter holiday season.

• Put away pieces that do not fit into your color scheme, or start all over by creating another scheme!
• White and the metallics (gold, silver) are somewhat neutral and sometimes don't count towards the 2-3 color limit, unless they really stand out. Play around with your shabbos table until you love it, and go to table-settings-with-pictures.com for more ideas.





Guidance

Shabbos Perfectly Organized-The Ultimate Solution to Finally Getting Shabbos Organized and Shabbos Audio Download- NOW FREE! Get it here:
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