Shana Tova!

Shana Tova to our friends and family and the world in general. May everyone have a sweet and happy year!

We started our year by inviting some folks over for dinner for the second night of Rosh Hashana. As is often the case, this gave us an excuse to experiment with some new foods.

Big successes:
We finally made a challah we like! Very exciting. I had been finding it comical how I had recipes from other people whose challahs are lovely but when I make them they were… okay. Finally bucked this trend.
I roasted red bell peppers for the first time and it worked!
The beef was amazing!

Lesser successes but not exactly failures:
The fish. Maybe because we let it get cold.

The full menu:
Harissa-Crusted Tri-Tip Roast - AMAZING SAUCE
Pan-fried fish fillet with rouille - mhew
Round Challah for the New Year (Plain, with raisins, with dried cranberries) - "better than Panera's"
Middle Easter Squash and Couscous Soup - an old favorite
Asparagus with Honey Garlic Sauce - nice
(My Baba's) Koogle - num num
Fresh Corn Salad with Basil - good
Honey Cookies - a little hard and crispy though they taste fine
Pudding: Indian Rice: Kheer - pareve - we added a cup of black rice
Honey and HoneyCrisp apples from a local orchard - the apples are GREAT though pricey

The meal was assisted by some wine from our guests, honey in the comb and yummy apples, not to mention fantastic company.
A sweet way to start the year indeed!