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When I invested in a kitchen remodel a couple of years back, it was with the intent of having it as a Kosher work space, relatively uncluttered with what I need when I need it.  Food preparation and cleanup afterwards has become a form of recreation, though more event to event than the steadier stream of challenging my skills than originally intended.  I go from birthdays to yom tovim to Thanksgiving.  Rosh Hashanah approaches so preparation begins, with a slight calendar advantage of the main dinner occurring on a Sunday evening.

Some things are traditional.  There is wine for kiddush.  Challah for motzi is usually round.  After buying one for many years, they have gotten expensive and are not that hard to make, though sometimes tedious.  I made my own last year, better than what I buy.  Infusing raisins into the dough has become traditional, and maybe adding some honey to the batter adds to the tradition.  Apples covered with honey also starts the meal.  Apples have gotten rather expensive the last couple of years.  I only need one for this ritual, but the price has deterred my using apples as an ingredient, particularly for apple-walnut pie which I make a few times a year, but it being milchig, it is not suitable for Rosh Hashanah.  I have made wonderful pareve apple cakes for dessert, though honey cake, known as lekach, is more traditional, and rather easy to make.  Appetizers are a distraction, so I plan to make soup instead.  I could use a mix, maybe premade stock with noodles, maybe a bean soup that I start from scratch.  Have a few weeks to decide.  Making soup is usually straightforward and mostly forgiving of misjudgments of what to put in it.  I usually make a salad, often an Israel salad with cubed tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers but tabouli may be better.  I have a mix for this and can add the produce.  The entree is still open.  A large whole chicken occupies a lot of space in my freezer, obtained free with a discount coupon, I forget if Thanksgiving or Pesach.  There are lots of ways to make this but roasted whole usually comes out well.  It takes a couple days to defrost.  Half turkey breast is another option, usually available in the Empire section of Shop-Rite.  And then there is beef but this has become prohibitive in price.  I don't think a family Rosh Hashanah meal is the best forum for an expensive brisket.  My wife makes a rice kugel each year.  And vegetable is traditionally a carrot, known as mirren in Yiddish, which when converted to Hebrew brings a wish for bounty in the new year.  Sometimes I make them glazed, sometimes Moroccan with cumin and parsley.

A small adventure to which I look forward each fall.