Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Shnitzl Story

Things you need to know to understand this post:
1. Shnitzl is the Hebrew tern for fried chicken cutlets
2. The first nine days of the Jewish month of AV are days of mourning over the destruction (almost 2000 years ago) of the second temple, culminating in the fast of Tishe B'Av.These nine days are called "the nine days". (This year Tishe B'Av falls on Monday night to sunset Tuesday.)During the nine days, one does not eat meat, except on Shabbas (sunset Friday to sundown Saturday).
3. I usually do not have any cooked meat in my freezer. I do not cook in bulk, generally, and use up leftovers in a day or two.
* * *
Before the nine days I considered carefully what type of meals I would cook for the two Sabbaths which would fall in the nine days. Not wanting leftovers (which could not be eaten during the week) I finally decided for the shabbas that fefl a week ago to cook beef, and for this last weekend to make shnitzl. Everyone in the family loves shnitzl, but I prepare it rarely, due to the high caloric count that it has. I knew that with shnitzl there would be no leftovers.
A week ago, there were some leftovers after shabbas, so grudgingly I froze them.
Friday night this week we had baked chicken, which, since I made slightly small portions, got finished without problems. The shnitzl for the morning meal was in the back of the fridge, hidden from the eyes of my teenage sons.
In the morning, I was carefull not to put the shnitzl to warm up too early. I was afraid that if I did, Ricki might swipe some, and we would be a bit short. So finally at 10:30 am I went to the fridge, in order to extract the meat.
It was gone.
5 out of 6 portions had disappeared, explaining the crumbs i had noticed that morning on the counter top. Ricki had polished off nearly the entire amount.
Amazingly, I had that frozen meat from last week to fall back on, although Ricki got a real earfull from everyone who had been anticipating a rare treat.

And of course all that fried food did nothing good for Ricki's digestive system, but I think it better to stop here.....

2 comments:

Batya said...

I have a friend with lots of sons who take after their father who EATS A LOT. She can never cook in advance Even if well wrapped and frozen the food disappears.

klik said...

Why don't you bake the shnitzel?
Prepare as frying, just tightly covered on a pan smeared with a a bit of oil.
Tastes almost the same!