In my house, bagels & lox. Of course there are also the old standbys: tuna salad and egg salad. I've never hosted more than a couple of friends but I've been to a few Break-the-Fasts where there were many in attendance and the main theme seems to be Keep It Simple. I mean, after being in services all day, no one expects you to have an elaborate meal prepared. But I'll be interested to hear what others recommend!

Oh, and always always I have brownies. Once when I was in my teens while we were at synagogue, along about four o'clock I started craving brownies. I told my mother who regretfully had not made any (she always had some sweet thing on hand for breaking but it just didn't happen to be brownies that time). Since then, brownies -- ooey, gooey, fudgy, chewy brownies -- have become de rigeur for breaking.

I make or freeze everything before hand. I make chopped herring. whitefish salad, deviled eggs.I also have lox and bagels .I also have a cold pasta salad. I make one hot dish that I heat in the microwave, Usually it is a noodle kugel.Most of the time i also have a marinated salad. as you can see, everything is make at least one day ahead. The kugel is frozen, I set the table way in advance. Even the bagels are sliced and frozen.

Barbara48: I could definitely do a kugel ahead of time and pop it in the microwave. It will be wonderful to have something hot since the Holidays came so late in the regular calendar this year. I never think of the microwave when I am planning and that's dumb of me since I spent a stupid amount of money to get the microwave drawer when I did my kitchen over last year. It is big and powerful and does very well at reheating and keeping things like kugels warm. I am almost never ready in advance enough to freeze things but I will have time on Wednesday morning and afternoon to make whatever I will need for Thursday evening.

Lowspark: If I make brownies I am sure they will be a hit. If I call them lowspark Brownies will my guests think the name refers to our energy level after a 26 hour fast?

Mimsic, break the fast has always been a dairy, brunch type meal for us. We usually have bagels and sometimes lox like May, as well as tuna and egg salads. I typically make a couple of quiches, usually broccoli and cheese, because they can be served room temp and still taste good. I slice up some tomatoes and onions to serve with the bagels and cream cheese, and usually have some cottage cheese as a side for the boys and my Father in law. We have something for dessert with coffee, sometimes I've made a coffee cake or we have honey cake that I had made and frozen from Rosh Hashana.

A couple of times we have broken the fast with some Israeli friends and what feasts we had! Hummus, tahini, baba ganouj, and the salads - oy! It was all so good.

I think the simpler the better, since all you want to do is eat and get some strength back after fasting all day. I find fasting very hard, so by 2:00 P.M. I am VERY CRANKY.

Kugel sounds good, I think I might make one of those this year. Barbara, can you share your recipe?
DONNA

I like eggs at break fast, so, like Donna, we always have a quiche along with the bagels, etc. And Orange Juice is a must.

I also love all the Israeli salads, particularly anything with eggplant. I have a nice one with beets and eggplant that can be made ahead and warmed in the microwave.

We rarely have people over or go anywhere since it's so late and DH is so ornery after the fast. Growing up, we always broke early so we could socialize, around 5:50 or 6pm, but now DH likes to go to N'eela and wait until the true end.

AM

LOL, Lowspark Brownies. I like it!
I actually have made quiche before because I like the egginess of it as well.

Donna, The 2:00 crankiness, Oh yes! I can relate. However, I have learned a trick that helps with that (besides the fact that my kids are all grown up which relieves a lot of crankiness over all). My 'trick' is that I cut back on caffeine intake starting right after Rosh Hashana so that for the last 2 days before the Fast I have not had any. The gradual withdrawal is tolerable and I don't feel the effects of it. And it eliminates the caffeine withdrawal headache during the fast which seems to make the whole thing a lot easier. I start to feel a bit woozy around that time but find that a walk in the park helps instead of going home in the middle of the day, which I used to do when the kids were growing up. Being home takes your mind off the real business of the day and makes it hard to focus. If I stay near the shul, take a walk and return to the services it seems to work much better. I get a second wind, so to speak and make it all the way through with little difficulty after the 2:00 crankiness has passed.

But back to the original topic: eggs and egg concoctions like Kugels and quiches, cottage cheese and fruit, Lowspark Brownies, all these ideas fit my needs: easy to serve, tasty and re-energizing. I will have a cheese board with fruits and a variety of crackers and breads, probably lox and mini bagels and all that goes with that.

Thanks all for these posts, I think I just needed a jump-start for all this.

Mim, thanks for the tips regarding the hunger-crankiness, I will try taking a walk and if all else fails, I drink some water because I'm always afraid I'm going to faint! I know I'm not supposed to drink anything, so that's always a last resort:-)

Lowspark brownies sound like a grand new tradition for break fast!

Making it to N'eila always seems so far away. Sam, who's turning 12 next week, wants to try to fast this year. Should I tell him not to, that he ought to wait until after Bar Mitzvah?
DONNA

I always like bread pudding and rice pudding - with starch and sugar to provide some quick energy for the empty stomach and milk and eggs to provide some protein and fat. It can be served cold but I prefer it room temperature or warmed up a bit. A friend makes deviled eggs which almost everyone likes (but I don't eat them - I'm not fond of hard boiled eggs in most forms).

I usually am fine with the fast until about 4 o'clock when a miserable head ache arrives. One of the easiest fasts I've had was when I was on a business trip just before Yom Kippur and made arrangements to attend services at a shul in Heathrow, England as I wasn't going to be able to make it home on time. I got to my hotel in Heathrow just a little before sundown was to start and really wasn't hungry. I went to a grocery store and the only thing that appealed was a banana so that's all I had for dinner before the fast.

Back on topic - I was invited to someone's home for break the fast in Heathrow. They served tea with the milk and sugar already added in the teapot. And cold fried fish balls - I wouldn't have expected that to be good for breakfast but they were very good.

Cloud Swift I love both bread pudding and rice pudding. I wonder if I'll have time to make those and the kugel (noodle pudding) wow what about potato pudding, hmmm, yes, there are great potato kugels - well my daughter loves her carbs! And after a long fast who doesn't?

I once had a house guest during the week of Yom Kippur and she insisted that the best preparation for a fast was to eat only the simplest of foods and not much of them. I don't remember exactly what she ate but it didn't amount to much more than celery sticks. She did just fine and swore by her method. Go Know! I don't have the guts to try that though.

Lack boys3: I don't see any shame in drinking water if you need it. It seems to me it is better to have that sip than to obsess or to feel like you didn't fulfill the mitzvah of the Yom Kippur day. In my opinion The Fast is really not about itself, rather its to separate us from the mundane of ordinary life so we can attain another level of spirituality or self-reflection.

About Sam and fasting, I think he should try it on for size this year. But he should not think he has to go all the way to the end. He should just fast as long as he can handle it. He could make it a challenge for his first time to see what it feels like and what it does for him spiritually. That way there's no sense of disappointment if he can't make it. He might want to set up a food stash so that he is ready in the middle of the service to sneak away and break his fast without calling a lot of attention to himself. If anyone in shul asks him if he's fasting he can say he's just practicing for the future. Grown ups sometimes make too much of these things and that ends up putting a lot of unnecessary pressure on kids.

OK that's enough opining out of me for one post. My kids say I have an opinion about everything. They're right about that I guess.

We go to a friend's house every year for a huge breakfast - potluck, lots of stuff! They are vegetarian...she always has her fabulous vegetarian paella, and other friend brings soup. I have been bringing jkom51's BIL's roasted red pepper and feta quiche. I have also brought (veggie) meatballs in chili sauce with grape jelly. I think a noodle kugel is a great idea; dense, packed carbs. I'm also intrigued by a 'breakfast' casserole - eggs, morningstar sausage, etc. French toast. etc.

OK confession time (isn't that what YK is about?) I don't fast. I fasted for two years when I was a kid and gave it up. It didn't connect for me as a 'a central theme of atonement and repentance - repentance includes both sins against God and one's fellow man'. I try to live my life in such a way that my behavior won't require me to apologize to my fellow human beings for my actions/behaviors. If I do something wrong, I apologize as soon as I can - I can't see waiting for that one day a year in September to do so. As an agnostic - I apologize to God for being a 'service escape artist'. Sitting through hours and hours of Medieval liturgical prayer makes the action-oriented Labor Zionist in me NUTS. It really doesn't help that I understand the Hebrew, LOL. When the ritual directors call asking for ushers, I am SO there!

So on Yom Kippur, you will find me in the synagogue preschool, helping the fasting teachers cut up snack for the little kids. I'm at my friend's house in the afternoon helping her set-up her own food for her guests, and when they arrive, giving them plates of food so they can immediately refresh themselves.

And in that spirit - if I have offended ANYONE on this board, whether actively with my tongue in cheek/perverse humor or by passively by neglect, I ask for your forgiveness. Please let me know, if you wish, what I have done/not done, and I will own it and try to make amends!

G'mar hatimah tovah - may you have a good, final inscription - and shanah tovah, happy new year, to my MOT and forum friends!

Awww Jessy, you rock! Yes, you have offended me by not sending me jars of fig-vanilla preserves once a week since I tasted their Nirvana last year. Can you make it up to me? Please?? (((Jessy)))

Mim, that's good advice for Sam, he tends to get weak and shaky like I do when he's hungry, and I don't want to have to deal with his pre-teen hysterics because he's starving and doesn't want to continue fasting, but is embarrassed to stop. I always carry a small tote bag with our prayerbooks, the kippot, and Sam's Shofar. I can tuck in some small snack packs of quick carbs to eat, maybe pretzels or raisins. Forget about my 8 year old, 1/2 hour into the service he's asking for a snack and wondering what time is break fast. Did I mention how much I love my children??

Everyone have a good, easy fast and a lovely meal afterwards.
DONNA

Jessy, I liked your post :)

We break the fast here for with the same exact for as long as I can remember, bagels, lox, the salads, the herrings, and all that and when my grandma was alive, blintzes, potato and cheese. They were awesome. I haven't attempted to make those blintzes yet! These days we are invited to a good friend's house.

So many great ideas, I think I will try and do something new to bring!

Have an easy fast to all those that do!

I started fasting when I was pretty young and my kids wanted to try to match that and they both did. I used to leave services with them around noon to feed them lunch. The year Ben fasted the first time, I kept asking him if he wanted to go home and eat. Final chance was at the break, which comes around 230ish. I told him now or never because once the service started back up at 4, I wasn't going home. He made it.

It's no shame not to fast, if that's your choice. But I am definitely proud of both of my kids making the effort and commitment.

I'm not offended by your post Jessy! LOL, we all have our own beliefs and level of observance, that's for sure. But I do wish to comment on one thing you said.
If I do something wrong, I apologize as soon as I can - I can't see waiting for that one day a year in September to do so.
Just to clarify, I don't think that's the point or even nuance of the holiday. I think we all do apologize asap (or should!) for wrongs. The one day a year in September is more of a repentance for wrong ways instead of wrong actions, and a pledge to mend our way of living in the future.

Thank you Donna and Carol for your kind words.

I didn't post to this thread earlier because I break the fast by myself, and I usually just have oatmeal or scrambled eggs with toast (something easy on the stomach, just like regular breakfast food). The fridge is stocked with leftover meals, so DH can "fend" for himself.

But I did want to chime in with support for Jessy; I, too, find in myself a mass of contradictions (can one spend nearly a lifetime as agnostic/nonobservant and then be influenced by Chassidic viewpoints to take on traditional practices?). I feel that my life is in transition, but I am not "there" yet. So my prayers this year will be for greater clarity and a heart and mind open to change.

G'mar chatima tova to all my forum friends!

Sue