Kugel, Latkes, Brisket and Pie -- Oh My!

If you read my book you know that my mother-in-law knows how to cook.  Her meals are truly exquisite down to the china they're served on.  And last night was no exception.  We had an early Hannukah dinner which meant we had a feast of delicious food spread before us on beautiful platters and serving pieces that my mother-in-law has collected from around the world.  On the menu last night was brisket stewed in an apple cider, wild mushroom kugel, potato latkes, spinach and pomegranate salad, asparagus, challah and an English apple-blackberry pie.  Everything of course, was handmade.  And everything of course (since it was cooked my my mother-in-law), was delicious.
 
When it came time to fill our plates with food and dig in, I knew to take a smaller than usual portion of everything because there were so many different foods to taste.  There was also a hot apple-blackberry pie and freshly whipped cream waiting for us after dinner, and I wasn't about to miss out on that due to getting full too quickly.
 
When I took only one potatoe latke, my mother-in-law said, "Oh, come on, you can have more than that -- we have so much food!"  I cringed at the thought of appearing ungrateful for such a beautiful meal by only taking one latke, but the truth was that EVERYTHING looked so magnificent that I wanted to have all of it.....which meant one latke would be enough if I was also going to have a piece of challah, some of the kugel, brisket, salad, asparagus and .... the apple-blackberry pie with whipped cream.  "I need to save room for everything," I said.  "I can only eat so much."
 
After lighting the Hannukah candles and saying a prayer (we did it early this year because some of the family would be out of town on Hannukah), we lifted our forks and knives to begin experiencing the wonderful journey of flavors set before us.  Needless to say, absolutely everything was, as my grandmother would say, "Divine!"  "Maaaarvelous!"  I told my mother-in-law that of all the delicious meals she's made this one ranked as one of my favorites.  My husband's cousin agreed. 
 
When we got in the car, Jeremy said to me, "I don't feel stuffed at all."  "Neither do I," I said, "Tell me more."  So he continued, "Normally I would go back for seconds and I almost went back for another few latkes because they were so good, but I decided to wait and save room for dessert.  And by the time we were done with dinner and dessert I realized that my fullness caught up with me, so now I'm full but not stuffed.  I'm so glad I didn't go back for seconds because I am completely satisfied right now.  That really was a good meal!"
 
Today as I was walking from the kitchen to my office with leftovers from last night's dinner, two colleagues stopped and stared in awe at my food.  "This is one of the many gifts my mother-in-law has," I said proudly.  "She is an amazing cook."
 
And the best part about eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full is.....you get to have the meal all over again the next day when you're hungry at lunch time -- and you don't even have to cook!