We had such a lovely shabbat with our neighbors from across the street, and the fantastic and entertaining Edible Torah family!  It helped that the weather was 65 DEGREES!!  IN CLEVELAND!  IN NOVEMBER!  It really was a treat.  Knowing that our guests were pretty laid back people, I tried a new recipe from this week’s NY Times, Fiery Sweet Potatoes.  You must make these NOW.  I had trouble not eating them on Thursday when I made them.  I literally had to put them in the fridge in the garage so I wouldn’t see them every time I opened the fridge in my kitchen.  I added curry chicken, maple-syrup glazed acorn squash and nice fresh green beans to round out the meal.  Our neighbors brought a nice salad and phenomenal homemade challah, and the Edible Torah folks brought lovely wine and, in a very thoughtful gesture, sparkling grape juice for the kids.  That was a lovely touch, and one we will be making into a tradition here at Casa Caruso!  The kids felt a bit “grown-up” with their special kiddush grape juice.

We had interesting shabbes table conversations, and I learned much from Mr. ET (hmmmm. . . ET . . . coincidence?) and from our neighbors on various sections of this week’s parasha (Hayyei Sarah the Life (and Death) of Sarah).  I also learned that my neighbor, who is completely fluent in English and Hebrew, also speaks French as she lived in Belgium for 4 years as a child.  Who knew?  Pretty cool.

Anyhoo . . . that was my Shabbat in a nutshell.  How was yours?