This month, I prepared a vegan “Harvest” themed meal. I am proud to say that my second NEXT Shabbat meal was a huge success! I hosted NEXT Shabbat at my parents’ house – this means much more space in the kitchen for food preparation and for many guests in the dining room than my apartment would otherwise allow. Food - I am a member of a “CSA” and I receive a weekly share of seasonal vegetables which are delivered to the neighborhood directly from a regional organic farm. I was able to negotiate a trade with a fellow CSA member, I offered my vegetable share for the coming week in exchange for their share of vegetables for last week. I prepared my menu based on the bounty of vegetables I had at hand: 2 eggplant, 3 onions, 10 beefsteak tomatoes, 8 ears of corn, 2 heads of broccoli, 2 heads of cauliflower, 3 garlic bulbs; 4 beets; 20 potatoes; bag of arugula and spinach, 2 heads of kale, 4 peppers; 4 apples; 2 acorn squash, and 1 butternut squash! On Thursday I shopped for the remaining necessary ingredients. Cooking - On Friday, in about 90 minutes to turn a table full of vegetables and raw cooking ingredients into the following menu: Greens Salad Corn on the Cob Kale Chips Creamy Broccoli & Cauliflower Soup Stuffed Tomatoes Raw Hummus, Cooked Hummus, Baba ganoush with toasted Pita bread Butternut Squash and Apple Casserole Roasted Acorn Squash Roasted Potatoes and Onions Wine As you can see in the picture, 15 of my friends came to celebrate, and once again, the dinner I prepared received great praise. Some of my guests who plan to begin hosting their own Next Shabbat dinners were very impressed (and perhaps somewhat daunted) ? Since I missed out on being in the picture last month, this month one of my guests took the picture. Of the guests: 7 were guests of my September Next Shabbat event, only 3 attendees were not Jewish, but 7 of the Jewish guests have not taken part in a Birthright Israel trip.