A Week in the Life of The Jewish Princess – Thursday

Some Princesses might wait for a phone call to tell them their nail technician can fit them in for an emergency repair but the best phone call of all is when you hear the words, "Can you come over for dinner?" And the icing on the cake is, "for Friday night," because as any Princess knows, cooking for shabbos is the Jewish equivalent to catering Christmas day lunch, but instead of having to prepare this feast once a year, we have the Princess Privilege of making it once a week. You simply can’t get away with baked beans on toast or a good old spag bol. Friday night dinner requires the whole geshrai, chicken soup, chopped liver the works, and when it comes to the Yom Tovs, well that takes catering to a whole new level. But don’t worry if you need help in that direction just Princess Pick up a copy of my new book The Jewish Princess Feasts & Festivals and all your Princess Prayers will be answered.

So if I haven’t received "THE PHONE CALL" I am up first thing Thursday morning unpacking my meat order, as once again I have invited a large gathering for Friday night-well my motto is, if you are going to roast one chicken you may as well roast three and just think of all the Friday night dinner invitations that will be coming my way. The trick to making an easy, stress free Friday night is to be Princess Prepared.

So today, the butcher has already delivered and I am peering into the box to see if I have been lucky this week, how do I judge this? If the box contains a carton of golden eggs-chicken eggs are now banned by the EU my Grandma always said we should never have gone into the common market, if she only knew, she would turn in her grave. Now if the butcher manages to get his hands on these delicacies, for me to get my hands on them, I have to be high up on his pecking order (please excuse the pun). YES, I have just found a carton containing SIX (I hold them aloft) not enough for everybody (thank goodness not everybody likes golden eggs) so the kids will be under strict instructions again to FHB (family hold back).

So for the rest of the morning I will be in a mad frenzy preparing as much as I can, because in my book Friday is a day for Princess Preparing ME, and I won’t give up my standing hair appointment for anything. Therefore, my chicken soup shissel at the ready (inherited from my Grandma), I will raid the freezer to find "one I made earlier" doubling up when making desserts is a g-d send. Lockshen will be pre-cooked and zip locked, the same applies for my matzo balls and even the vegetables and be trimmed, sliced and diced ready for action (Ok I admit it I bought them like that). Plus I will marinate my Chicken Marmalade (recipe below) and of course the table will be laid with the best of everything.

Now I shall look forward to tomorrow night when my family sits down to dinner and once again "ooh" and "ahh" over the chicken soup, is it a good yuch? Is the colour as good as last week? Will it cure my mother’s cold? Then of course there is a fight over who will get the extra matzo ball, and hopefully they will not fight about anything else. I will sit at the end of the table and survey my Princess realm remaining PPP Postive Productive and Princesslike in everything I do.

Chicken Marmalade

serves 6

1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces

1 onion, chopped

salt and black pepper to taste

for the marinade

2 tablespoons thick-cut marmalade

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons white-wine vinegar

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder

sprinkle of dried parsley

1 ¾ cups water

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Wash the chicken thoroughly and place it in a baking dish, along with the chopped onion.

Mix together all marinade ingredients, with salt and pepper to taste, and pour over the chicken.

Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour, basting occasionally with the marinade. The chicken is done when the juices run clear.

The chicken turns a gorgeous golden color–rather like me after a spray tan!