Your C.H.A.G. Rosh Hashanah Guide courtesy of the JLO Yom Tov Planning Center

Cuisine

The First word in the acronym CHAG is Cuisine. Let’s start with the food.

Planning for Rosh Hashanah in the summer? Believe it or not, I begin working on my Rosh Hashanah plans in July. I wait until after Tisha Bav to actually begin cooking, and all of my meal plans and checklists are written before Tisha Bav.

That’s because I don’t like the feeling of Yom Tov creeping up on me. Especially a holiday as important as the High Holidays. And think of it this way, if you have the “physical” aspect of the holiday all planned out and prepared, you will be able to concentrate on the “spiritual” side of the High Holidays. After all, isn’t that what the High Holidays are all about?

We’ll start with

• When Rosh Hashanah falls out this year
• Tips for planning the Holiday
• What you can do to making planning, shopping, and cooking all of your meals MUCH easier

Rosh Hashanah Dates

If you want to always know when the dates to the Jewish Holidays are, I recommend you get a copy of a program called Chagim. Download it into your computer, pda, phone and always know when the Jewish Holidays are, and when they were years ago or years in advance. You’ll ALWAYS be in the know.

Rosh Hashanah Planning Tips

Here’s what you need to do to get your meals perfectly organized for Rosh Hashanah.

1. Begin thinking about how many meals you need to cook for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur pre and post fast, Sukkos and Chol Hamoed Sukkos, Simchas Torah, and Shmini Atzeres. Sit down and plan your meals through Simchas Torah.

Open up your favorite cookbooks and select recipes that work well together. Recipes that work together not only refer to “tastes” but also to commonly used ingredients. In the following meal plan, you can see that I use similar ingredients for different recipes: such as beets, pineapple, rice, honey, cabbage, squash and carrots.

It is easier on me to chop everything at once, place all cut items into clear Ziploc bags, refrigerate and then assemble into recipes as I make them.

Rosh Hashanah Meal Plan

Here is my Rosh Hashanah 2008 meal plan. Feel free to use it at your own High Holiday Table. I’ve selected my ingredients from a cookbook called “The Heimishe Kitchen”, but the recipes are simple and can be adapted however you like. Email me if you’d like specific instructions on some of the recipes.

Quick Grocery List at a Glance

cherry pie filling

sugar

strawberry jello

frozen strawberries

beets

zucchini

carrots

sweet potatoes

cabbage

bowtie noodles

coconut

whip cream

pineapple chunks

green grapes

mandarin oranges

celery

orange juice

mushrooms

green pepper

scallions

broccoli

fresh ginger

squash

When I write my meal plans for Rosh Hashanah, I really like to use the symbolic foods of Rosh Hashanah and you will see that most of my recipes include the following:

• Apples and honey
• Fenugreek or Carrots
• Leek or Cabbage
• Beets
• Dates
• Gourd
• Pomegranate
• Fish
• Head of Sheep or Fish (except the sheep head!)

I feel that when I cook using the symbolic ingredients, buying them doesn’t have to be another task to complete before Rosh Hashanah. I’m intentionally incorporating them into the meal plan taking away the pressure of “Don’t forget to buy the symbolic foods” and the guilt if I didn’t remember.

Not only will you feel great about using the symbolic foods from a Jewish standpoint, if you love cooking with the fruits and vegetables that are in season as some natural cooks love to do, you’ll be proud to incorporate the season change in your dishes.

I feel that when I cook using the symbolic ingredients, buying them doesn’t have to be another task to complete before Rosh Hashanah. I’m intentionally incorporating them into the meal plan, taking away the pressure of “Don’t forget to buy the symbolic foods,” and the guilt, if I didn’t remember.

Not only will you feel great about using the symbolic foods from a Jewish standpoint; but, if you love cooking with the fruits and vegetables that are in season, as some natural cooks love to do, you’ll be proud to incorporate the seasonal change in your dishes.

2. After planning out all of your meals, fill in this Recipe organizer and keep it with you in your purse. Shop for the ingredients in your Recipe Organizer. (Keep your menu plan in your purse and when you are grocery shopping, look for items on sale. I like to buy my meat during the 9 days since no one is in the butcher shop! This will save you money instead of buying things right before Yom Tov!)

Don’t forget to purchase significant foods of Rosh Hashanah-apples, honey, new fruit, fish head, kreplach, carrots, leeks, figs, dates, pomegranate, beets, gourd. Probably not to hard to remember since you may be using them in your menu plan.

Recipe Organizer

3. Now it’s time to assemble your meals! Start chopping Rosh Hashanah ingredients when you are already cooking for Shabbos. Using a lot of carrots this Shabbos? Chop and peel a whole bag and refrigerate into Ziploc bags. Or, put a whole dish together and freeze it.
If you don’t like to freeze in advance, think “prep and assemble”. Of course, you cannot do too much prepping in advance because of spoilage, but as I said above, chop all vegetables at one time. Skin all of your chickens at once.

To get really organized, when cooking weeknight dinners, double up on your recipe and designate those meals for Chol Hamoed Sukkos.

There are lots of other tasks you need to keep in mind for the High Holidays and they are beyond the scope of this article. You can however get checklists and a Master Holiday Grand Plan for Rosh Hashanah.

Last Year’s Rosh Hashanah Meal Plan

Halacha

After you plan out the meals, create your Master Holiday Grand Plan. That will include EVERYTHING you can possibly imagine that needs to be done prior to Rosh Hashanah- including ordering meat, getting your house ready, planning the kids outfits, giving your boss notice of when you’ll need time off, the special halachos and customs of the Yom Tov…

Guess what? Readers of JLO are currently working on a group Master Grand Plan because organizing is so much fun to do with someone else. Check it out here:

I put this under Halacha- because all of these tasks are like laws that must get done and because some of them actually involve halacha (Jewish law).

You can also organize your Spirituality so you are ready to ask for another year of life.

Aesthetics

Remember to make your appointments for your haircuts, wig styling, and other appointments for your physical appearance in advance as most salons get busy before the High Holidays.

Guests

Many people have guests for the high holidays. The most important thing to remember is to sit down now and anticipate the basic needs that guests and everyone in your family will have. Do you need one meal alone with your family and if not are you going to lose your cool? Does your grandfather like a particular soda or drink that you do not normally have in your home? Anticipate everyone’s needs (especially your own) as much in advance as possible to avoid mishaps.

Do your best. Call your guests in advance and say, “Is there any food or particular item that you just cannot live without?”

Believe me, doing this in advance will make hosting guests smooth sailing.

Schedule the tasks in your grand plan on your calendar- what weeks make sense for you to grocery shop, clothing shop, order specialty items, prepare for the yom tov davening, arrange childcare, etc. It helps to work backwards, start with erev Yom Tov and work backwards. You know what needs to be done by candlelighting so all this becomes somewhat easier to plan when working backwards.

Again, this is all scheduled for you in Rosh Hashanah Perfectly Organized using a sample calendar from 2007 so you don’t have to recreate the wheel.

Feel free to contact me should you need any guidance!