The Men’s Club of Temple Beth Shalom of Long Beach had been defunct for multiple years. Over the prior year, the Men’s Club was restarted and we held on a Men’s Club Shabbat on Friday, August 16, 2019. We wanted to host an event to indicate that the Men’s Club is now functional. We organized and ran a combined service and Shabbat dinner. This involved advertising the event, creating a new seating arrangement, finding prayer leaders, finding somebody to give a D’var Torah, menu planning, determining a budget for the event, cooking the food, serving the food, collecting (using a Google form) and payments (using Paypal), and checking people in upon arrival.

We had 50 adults sign up plus another 5-10 kids. We had four vegetarian meals requested. This means we should have a budget of ~$500 at $10 / person.

Cooking happened the Thursday evening before the Men’s Club Shabbat at the Temple at 7:30 PM.

One member from the Sisterhood cooked rice and green beans on Wednesday evening.

To keep food warm, we used our synagogue meat kitchen ovens and the steam trays. As we started the meal will start before Shabbat started, we could easily operate in the kitchen.

Menu:
Beer Roasted Chicken (See recipe below. I will purchase 9 8-piece cut up chickens from Trader Joe's)
Beer Roasted Chicken-less Chicken Pieces (I'm going to try on Wednesday evening both the Trader Joe's frozen chicken-less pieces and the Gardein ones)
White Rice
Green Beans (Nina said she would cook)
Green Salad (Salad Greens, Shredded Carrots, Cherry Tomatoes) done as a salad bar with Italian Dressing and Thousand Island Dressing
Potato Salad (Store bought, Smart and Final)
Macaroni Salad (Store bought, Smart and Final)
Coleslaw (Store bought, Smart and Final)
Challah (Store bought, Trader Joe's / Smart and Final)
Dessert:
Soy Ice Cream (Trader Joe's)
Raspberry Sorbet (I finally found a source of Pareve Sorbet in Long Beach.)
Fresh Fruit: Strawberries, Grapes (to eliminate the amount of cutting that needs to be done)
Beverages:
Wine (A member donated enough money to purchase a case Kosher wine, obtained from Trader Joe’s)
Seltzer (Plain and various flavors, Trader Joe's)
Juice (Apple and orange juice)

Chicken Recipe:
if you buy chicken with bones, make sure it is defrosted, rinse off, then put in a pan with some olive oil and 2ish yellow onions. Add (to both sides) salt (kosher salt if you have), black pepper, sweet peprika (dont be shy with this), garlic powder. (also can add beer if you'd like).

Bake on 350 for 45 mins covered with tinfoil and 45 minutes uncovered. when it is uncovered, baste with the gravy every 10-15 mins. make sure there is enough olive oil in there when you start so there is stuff to baste with. if not, you can add more beer :)

if you use boneless chicken, just do 30 minutes covered and 30 uncovered