It was “all hands” in as Linda Ariel and Susan Rosenblatt assisted Chef Sarita Eisenberg in cooking for our MESH guests – making chicken with barbecue sauce, coleslaw and roast potatoes. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Sarita Eisenberg
MESH Report Jan 11, 2022
It was frigid outside but warm – even hot – in the Shomrei kitchen as Chef Sarita Eisenberg prepared 20 meals with assistance from Shirley Grill and Susan Rosenblatt and special thanks to Lou Hammerman for doing the shopping.
Macaroni and Cheese …. Perfect Together
Around Thanksgiving, I kept seeing articles for Thanksgiving meals that included a side dish of macaroni and cheese. As someone who does not think that cheese and poultry belong together in the same meal, that sounded awful. But it did get me thinking about mac-n-cheese. So here are some recipes that I’ve accumulated over the years. Continue reading
Chicken on the Grill
Our grill sits on our deck and we use it most of the year, but particularly in the summer. We started to grill a lot when we purchased our first gas grill, over 30 years ago. So much easier and quicker than cooking with charcoal.
Having a gas grill came in handy when we redid our kitchen and were without a stove and oven for 3 months. We do have a funny story about that, though. Usually I buy fresh chicken, but this one day I was using chicken that had been frozen. It wasn’t quite defrosted so I left it on our dining table for a bit. When I came back an hour later, the chicken was gone and there was Donny, our little dachshund, in the corner of the living with just a bit of bone still hanging out of his mouth and a bulging tummy. Seems that he had managed to jump onto one of the chairs and then on to the table to get the chicken. No grilling that night. We ordered in. Continue reading
Welcome to the Board of Trustees, 2021
Yasher koach to the 2020-21 Board of Trustees. Special thanks to outgoing board members Dawn Berman, Marc Chalom, Shana Rubin and Allison Task.
Welcome to new board members Adam Dembrow, Lynne Rubin, Sarita Eisenberg and Michael Sag:
Adam Dembrow, Trustee (term expiring 2022)
My wife Sarah and I, and our kids Lily (11) and Eitan (8), just passed our fourth anniversary of living in Montclair, and we’ve been part of the Shomrei community since we moved here. I have particularly been enjoying the group study sessions led by Rabbi Greenstein of Pirkei Avot and the Zohar. I’m excited to join the Board of Trustees and am looking forward to working with the community that I’ve found so welcoming. Continue reading
2021 Annual Meeting Report
The 2021 Annual Meeting of Congregation Shomrei Emunah & The Annual Meeting of the Shomrei Emunah Cemetery Association occurred on Monday, June 28, 2021. Members voted on a number of items including the budget and election of new members of the Board of Trustees.
Results of the meeting:
- 2020 annual meeting minutes were approved as submitted.
- Adam Dembrow, Sarita Eisenberg, Lynne Rubin and Michael Sag were elected to the Board of Trustees.
- Special thanks to outgoing board members Dawn Berman, Marc Chalom, Shana Rubin and Allison Task and to the Moving Forward Task Force.
- The 2021-22 budget was approved as submitted.
- 2020 Cemetery Association meeting minutes were approved
- Elections of Cemetery Association officers was held.
2021 Annual Meeting Package which includes reports from President Miriam Haimes and Director of Education, Heather Brown and Cemetery Association president Carol Katzman.
Plain and Not So Plain Chicken
The silver lining to the pandemic has been that our son and daughter-in-law (Moish & Charissa) ― who used to get together with friends every Friday ―are, instead, coming over every week for Shabbat dinner. This past week, Charissa commented that she never cooks chicken herself, partly because she doesn’t like the thought of handling raw chicken but also because she doesn’t know how to cook chicken.
Did I say that the menu every week is always chicken? Lou grew up having chicken for dinner every Friday night for Shabbat. When we were married, I decided to continue that tradition. However, whereas Lou’s mom made chicken the same way every week, I wanted to vary what I served – hence I have a very large number of different chicken recipes. So here is an excerpt of the chicken chapter of the family cookbook I am compiling. I’ll start simple with some roasted chicken recipes … Continue reading
Letter from the President – May at Shomrei!
Editor’s note: This message was originally emailed to the congregation on April 26th.
To the Shomrei community,
It’s almost May in Montclair and Shomrei has a lot of plans for Shabbat services sprouting and about to come to life! A few weeks ago, I wrote to you that we were reviewing the responses from the Shabbat Services Survey and working on various options. I am really excited to tell you about our plans for May. We will be gathering in person outside each week and will continue to Zoom and stream so that those that are unable or uncomfortable with in person gatherings can still be part of our services. We are also working on our plans for June when we expect to begin some indoor services. As we come back into the building, I want to remind you that this past year we installed new air conditioning with upgraded filters and improved air flow. We will also continuously review safety protocols to ensure that we are following required guidelines.
Letter from the President – Shabbat Survey Results
Editor’s note: This message was originally emailed to the congregation on April 14th.
To the Shomrei community,
I wanted to send a note about the recent Shabbat Survey results and our next steps. First a huge thank you to Sarita Eisenberg for doing the heavy lifting regarding the survey and collaborating with the Ritual Committee to develop the questions and to tally and summarize the results.
We received 93 responses across a wide range of age groups including families with preschool, elementary school and older children as well as adults across all the age ranges listed in the survey. I am very pleased with the cross section of responses.
Overwhelmingly, respondents were comfortable with outdoor services. We did have several respondents who would also be interested in indoor services.
Starting with Starters
Back in September at the start of the (Jewish) new year, I started a new project – compiling my recipes into a book for my daughter and daughter-in-law. The project posed several challenges – many of my “recipes” were just scribbled suggestions of ingredients while some were not written down at all. Still others were actual recipes that I had found over the years – except that I didn’t follow any of them as written and had not noted down my modifications.
So …. I have embarked on a year-long (or possibly longer) journey which involves making each recipe and writing down the ingredients and directions for all the items I cook. In addition, at the request of my daughter-in-law, I am taking pictures so that she knows what the finished recipe looks like. Continue reading