Three Little Words...

"You've Got Mail." Every detail from a themed "Shabbat at the movies"—recipes, DIYs, tiny tablescape moments, and the occasion behind this special night.

Nov 11, 2024

What is that? What are you doing?

You’re taking all the caviar?!

That caviar is a ~~garnish~~ cookie. And a very cute one at that.

…Okay, this is officially as niche as it gets—and that’s coming from the girl with the Jewish-holiday-focused lifestyle blog. We were already in deeply niche territory, my friends. But this? This is niche, on niche, on niche.

So: If you have no idea why I took the time to craft a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils, if you’re not sure what the caviar thing was all about up there, if you’re scratching your head at the sight of cupcakes with little taxis on them…then I suggest you hightail it on out of here, because things are only going to get niche-ier from here.

Conversely, if you do know every line of this perfect movie backwards and forwards and around the corner (heh!), if Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks’ perfect chemistry does make you want to adopt a golden and fling yourself through the gates of Riverside Park with wild abandon, if you do have a comically vast collection of Zabar’s-themed coffee mugs—then this newsletter, my friends, is for you.

You lone reed, you.

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It’s also the first in what I hope will be a series called “Shabbat at the Movies,” where I’ll share movie-themed Shabbat dinners and accompanying hosting ideas. I hope. But it’s rarely wise to call something the “first of” anything unless you’ve already mapped out and prepped the “rest of” said thing, and, well, I certainly have not. And my life is only heading in a direction that will make it harder to stick to any sort of predictable posting pattern (see: now-unmistakable midsection rotundity in video above).

I’ll do my best to host elaborate, movie-themed Shabbats as often as I can, though.

…

There was no real occasion for this dinner, I should add, save for the occasion of autumn—prime Meg Ryan movie season—and the occasion of my dearest-oldest-best-friend-since-the-age-of-3 staying at our place in Philly last weekend. Kicking things off with an entirely over-the-top rom-com tablescape on Friday night just felt right. Of course, in typical dearest-oldest-best-friend fashion, Caroline texted me just before arriving with a casual, thoughtful, “by the way, please don’t go to any extra lengths for little old me” sort of text, to which I was like, “oh, of course not!”

*nervously flings laptop-shaped cupcake topper out nearest window*

Ever hosted any fun themed Shabbat dinners, by the way? I’d love to hear about them.

That caviar is, indeed, a cookie.

I was inspired by Maya Frenklach’s caviar cookies (she’s over at Painted Ladies Pastry; her talent will stun you), but with one big change: Instead of topping things off with hard sprinkles, I wracked my brain to think of what else might work as a tiny, round caviar “bead” and came up with…these chocolate crisps! You can find them at most baking specialty stores. No chipped teeth required to bite into these cookies—they’re crispy, not crunchy.

I mixed the little crisps (sometimes called “crispearls,” “crispy baking pearls,” or “chocolate baking pearls,” in case you’re doing some Googling) with black frosting (for color) and edible glue (for a glossy, slick, caviar-like sheen).

The day before making the “caviar,” I baked a batch of rough-edged cut-out sugar cookies (to mimic the look of a blini). For the “crème fraîche” effect, I added a dollop of the thickest royal icing I could manage, letting it set overnight so the black color from the caviar wouldn’t bleed into the white. The next day, I topped it off with a spoonful of the “crispy caviar” for that final touch. To complete the blini look—though I really should’ve done this at the start—I used my fingertip to dust a faint ring of cocoa powder around the edge. A paintbrush would’ve been more hygienic, I suppose. Oh, and the green “chives”! They’re homemade sprinkles—royal icing + green food coloring, piped in long straight lines and set out to dry overnight, then crumbled into large, chive-like pieces).

All, of course, inspired by Maya’s brilliant creation.

Oh, and PSA: Do not consume black frosting on a white couch. Or any couch. Any furniture. On second thought, this stuff is best enjoyed at a safe distance from your entire home. Just take it outside, people.

New York-style cupcakes with a pop of nostalgia.

Okay, onto the cupcakes—and those edible laptops! They’re just silver fondant + edible wafer paper printed with a vintage AOL screen and cut to size (well, sort of cut to size—let’s say this wasn’t the most scientific process). I used edible glue, again, to affix each screen to the fondant laptop, and a LEGO piece to create the markings for each keyboard (my son is too young for those smaller LEGOs, but that’s where my many nieces and nephews came into the picture!).

Besides that, I pretty much followed a video tutorial for these, so if you want a step-by-step guide, head over to MyCupcakeAddiction and watch for yourself. But I was excited to stumble upon silver fondant (as opposed to just grey fondant) at Michaels—it has this lovely reflective quality that makes it perfect for the look of a laptop (though if you want to get technical about it, Kathleen Kelly’s laptop is actually black in the movie).

Pro tip: Let these set for a full 48 hours so they harden properly before adding them to your cupcakes. I made mine the night before and learned my lesson: They survived, but were a little floppier than I would’ve liked.

The little taxis and pencils are from SprinkleRobot on Etsy—you might remember her sugary masterpieces from my (third) mezuzah cookie video this past spring! Love her work. And the cupcakes are store-bought, because…I have my limits.

A bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils.

Don’t you just love New York in the fall? It makes me want to—what Joe Fox said.

I don’t own a pencil sharpener, I should have you know. But to my utter delight and surprise, pencils now come pre-sharpened. Was that always a thing? Because I have vivid memories of painstakingly sharpening each pencil of my childhood with the loudest sharpener known to man. That thing was ear-splitting. Monstrous. Woke the neighborhood.

Anyway, if you’d like to include something like this in your own YGM-themed Shabbats, all you have to do is pop the (sharpened) pencils into a jar and tie a ribbon around it. Easy! (I do believe the pencils should face upwards. I recognize that that’s a bit of a safety hazard but I’m afraid the “freshly sharpened” thing will get a bit lost otherwise.)

Popcorn is a must.

If you can swing a ceramic pumpkin as a vessel here (as in the video above), then by all means, swing it. If not, any old bowl will do.

The rest of this step’s pretty self-explanatory (…add popcorn!) but I will say that making stovetop popcorn with your movie night guests is so fun. My family made it this way growing up (well, we typically used something like this, actually, but kernels were involved) and these days, I just wing it—a splash of olive oil, a handful of kernels, cover, heat, wait, enjoy. But here’s a full recipe if you haven’t done this before.

Just remember, a few kernels go a long way…don’t overdo it.

A peek at the friendliest flower.

…daisies! Admittedly, I could have matched the exact look a bit better with some extra thought (perhaps a yellow painted center?) (also, this photo is BLURRY—sorry!), but the poppy-seed-and-oat combo is tried and tested (read: all over Pinterest) and it worked well enough. I chose to lean toward a more autumnal floral arrangement as the table’s centerpiece, but still wanted to give daisies their moment in the spotlight; adding a floral motif within the challah braid felt like a nice alternative.

To get the look, simply press poppy seeds into the dough with your finger right after the egg wash, followed by a few rolled oat “petals.” Then add another light drizzle of egg wash over the designs (to avoid the smudging that might occur if you were to drag a pastry brush across them). Bake as usual!

(My classic challah recipe is here, if you’re looking for it.)

A table replete with Zabar’s references—and the easiest menu for any movie night.

I get so many questions about this mug, which you might have noticed in previous videos; I typically use it for mixing up the egg wash for my challah. It’s for sale here! Nothing fancy.

My sister gifted me the other “Happy Thanksgiving Back” mug (seen briefly in the IG video of this whole set-up) during a sisterly Meg Ryan-themed bachelorette/bridal shower thing we did in the Poconos before I got married. Can you tell I like these movies…a lot? Anyway, she’s the best. Thanks, Abigail!

Those very mugs held the main dish for our night: a perfectly autumnal butternut squash soup paired with a crispy, melty grilled cheese. For movie night, I think a pared-down menu or even takeout is the way to go—after all, several hours of your evening will be spent in front of the TV. Allotting extra time for a sit-down meal at the dinner table (or kitchen island, as it were) feels like a lot.

Hope you loved this “Shabbat at the Movies” moment—let me know if there’s a specific film you think I should tackle next.