Just another Shabbat dinner

Before I clean up from dinner, I have come over to the computer because if I wait, I will forget.

Tonight we had a rather lazy Shabbat dinner. I picked up a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store for $6.99. Seriously, where is the incentive to buy and prepare my own chicken when I can get two meals out of the ready-made ones that are so delicious!? (Well, to be fair, I type with a little guilt. This was not a kosher chicken. I very rarely buy rotisserie chickens for this reason.)

I also made curly oven fries (Rachel announced that she had the longest fry in the world and I think she was probably almost right about that!) and mixed veggies. Add in some challah and you've got a recipe guaranteed to please both an almost-5-year-old ("No, I'm almost 4 and 3/4!" Rachel would say) and an almost-1-year-old.

I lit the candles and blew the match out after the first one because it was burning a little too rapidly for my liking. Then we stopped and had a discussion about whether or not it was ok to light another match when one of the Shabbat candles was already lit but had not yet been blessed. (Yes, we're aware that it's a moot point since we are making use of our electricity and I'm still online. Bear with me. Small steps, right?) I lit a new match from the already-lit candle and that created quite the spark.

After the grape juice and challah, it was on to the meal. Rachel was eager to try out her growing skill at cutting her own piece of chicken, and she didn't once complain about not having enough fries on her plate! (Shockingly, she didn't ask for more fries and I had actually made extra for once. Oh well.)

As we were finishing up the meal, Rachel asked me how they had made the rotisserie chicken. I explained that it had some spices and herbs rubbed on it and then it was cooked. "But what did they do before that?" she asked. I answered that they put on kitchen gloves, washed the chicken and tied the legs together before putting the spices on and putting it in the oven. "But what did they do before that?" she asked.

Not ready to discuss the decapitating of chickens over what was meant to be a nice Shabbat dinner with the family, I deflected her. "Rachel, I don't know because I wasn't there. How about we ask next time we're at that grocery store?" Luckily, that worked for now. I'm not opposed to having her learn that our meat comes from actual animals, but she's a rather sensitive soul and I'm not sure that a more detailed explanation would be beneficial at this time.

Where was Ben during this, you might ask? Ha! He was making excuses to carry dishes back into the kitchen so he wouldn't burst out laughing. At least it saved me some table-clearing. ;)