NWR-ish yet somewhat related - my nephew's Bar Mitzvah/and my FREE tasting (VERY LONG - with pics)

This post should probably be in the review section for those brides planning a temple wedding or for anyone who may need ideas on presentation of food but I love you guys and I like you to see things first.

This past weekend I had the incredible opportunity to experience the most joyous of celebrations with my family – my OLDEST nephew’s Bar Mitzvah. For those of you who don’t know, a Bar Mitzvah is a LOT more than a birthday party for a 13 year old. It is a religious rite of passage for Jewish children where they assume the religious responsibilities as an adult. It’s the culmination of years of study and dedication to the Jewish faith – often forced upon by parents. LOL. I don’t think many kids have regrets though. I know I didn’t.

As many of you may know, my family has had much sadness this year with the passing of my father. My father and my nephew were very close – best buddies if you can call it that. My nephew had to prepare for this special day, his last year of Jewish studies (for the time being), while watching his best buddy slip away. Considering those circumstances, this child rose to the occasion and kicked “tuchas” if you will. He read from the Torah and haftorah chanting like an angel with NO errors. This is not an easy task. I speak from experience and any of the other brides (or grooms) who have had a Bar/Bat Mitzvah can tell you it is more than nerve-wracking to get up in front of 100+ people, sing, read and understand a foreign language.

Now for the fun stuff:

Later that night was the reception. It was at Temple Avodah – the same place where Ed and I are to be married and have our reception. Since my BIL is an EMT, my nephew chose the theme of honoring NY’s heroes. Each table was either a “battalion” or a “precinct” the children’s dais was “central booking” and instead of place cards, my sister printed labels and put them on top of toy ambulancesSome of you also know that I booked the temple just before they broke ground on the new renovations. So in early may, none of what you see inthe pictures actually existed. It was an empty parking lot.

So now this meant a full 100% FREE TASTING!!! FH, my mother and I were all very excited about that in addition to celebrating my nephew’s achievement. After all of the preliminary family photos were taken, we all joined the cocktail hour. OMG I never saw anything like this at any function (wedding or Bar Mitzvah) I had ever been to. In the middle of the CH room was a cold station with caviar, Nova Scotia lox, bruschetta, fruit and a plethora of premier vodkas (Grey Goose, Belvedere, Absolute etc served in either shot glasses or carved our frozen oranges. It looked so pretty because they had cold air pumping out from somewhere that I couldn’t see – so it looked like it was colder than it was!The Asian station had a stir-fry with veggies and beef or chicken, lo-mein, dumplings, and spring rolls.There was a pasta station with assorted raviolis in different shapes and striped colors with many different fillings such as goat cheese, gorgonzola cheese, salmon etc and you could top any of them with tomato, vodka, pesto or scampi sauce – SOOOO GOOD!!!

AND THERE WERE PIGS!!! The caterer makes his own puff pastry from scratch. I thought I died and went to heaven.

There was a grill station and a panini station too. In addition to all of the stations, there were 12 passable hors d’oeuvres. I cannot remember all of them but all I do remember was the unreal raspberry brie (CHEESE) baked in puff pastry and the Beggars’ purse with pear. Why is puff pastry so amazing??? There was a bunch of other food too but I cant remember it all.

As if that wasn’t enough, it was time to get the party started at the reception. We all crowded around the dance floor and the DJ, who had the HOTTEST DANCERS EVER introduced my sister and BIL and my nephew to a roaring crowd. We danced the hora and lifted him up in the chair! This DJ was really great. When my nephew had his candle lighting, Ed and I were called up to light one as he played “Chapel of Love” (“going to the chapel and were gonna get married”) and people were cheering us on.

Then it was dinnertime. The servers came out and poured hot soup from teapots into pretty little tureens and it was yummy. We had a choice of two salads – Caesar and praline salad with crumpled bleu cheese and some really cool salad dressing that I can’t remember. There were 5 entrée choices: Prime Rib, Duck, Cornish Hen, Chilean Sea Bass or Eggplant Rollatini (Vegetarian option is a must here). I had the Cornish hen and I swear it looked like there was a huge chicken on my plate. The side dish was a dinner cannoli shell with garlic-mashed potato coming out of one side and sweet potato coming out of the other side and we all got julienne veggies too.

Oh and lets not forget dessert shall we? Every third plate had on it a different specialty dessert – either a strawberry thing or one of two chocolate things with a long tall curl of milk and white chocolate. We were all family at our table so we tasted or switched with each other.

And then the REAL fun began. The servers came out wearing parlor hats and aprons with dessert designs on them. There was a dessert/sundae bar for the kids. They also had MAJOR white glove butler service with passable trays of desserts. You have to understand, I come from an anti-Viennese table family so this was a real treat. When you pay a certain amount of money for a wedding, I feel that they should be serving your guests, not your guests serving themselves. JMO. But anyway, they came out with trays upon trays of fun stuff – very kid friendly so we all had fun with it. There was: fruit, an egg cream bar set up on the dance floor, dipped fruit, cannoli cones on a great display, biscotti, ice cream bars, soft hot buttered pretzels, funnel cakes, cheesecake lollipops dipped in chocolate (OMG sooo good). Now remember this was a celebration for a child so the desserts were kid friendly. After eating all of that junk, you’d think there would be digestive issues but they passed around a remedy in Alka Seltzer!

I was very fortunate to have this full tasting. Our menu choices will differ slightly but now I know the lay of the land. I know the service is top notch. I know the quality of the food was premium. The alcohol kept coming. The band was great. The décor was great.

But most of all, my nephew, in the eyes of his faith, became a man. He EARNED this celebration. Love and family and joy surrounded him throughout the day and in many ways, my father was there with him, guiding him through the service in the morning and putting the extra bounce in his step at his reception!