3-Dec-99 Chanukah - First night
Charley and Anne both came over for the first evening of Chanukah. Chanukah is not nearly as big a deal as Passover or Rosh Hashanah, but it's better with more family around. I made latkes and doughnuts. Doughnuts are not one of our family traditions, but they are a Chanukah tradition in some Jewish communities and it seemed like a good excuse to try making some. The conclusion was, I make good latkes but I should leave doughnuts to the pros.
Here's the recipe I use for latkes, makes four to six servings:
3 large potatoes
1 medium onion
2 eggs
1 t salt
2 T flour
1/4 t baking powder
Peel potatoes and onion and cut into chunks. Throw in a blender and chop fine. Drain in a strainer. Beat the eggs in a medium mixing bowl, add potato-onion slurry; mix dry ingredients in a small bowl and add to the batter. Fry in hot oil a quarter-inch deep, turning once. Serve immediately with sour cream or applesauce (or alternate sour cream and applesauce for alternate latkes)
If you want to try doughnuts, these were really not bad when they were hot, if you don't mind a lot of oil:
| 2 eggs | 5 t baking powder |
| 1 C sugar | 1 t salt |
| 1/4 C oil or melted shortening | 1 t grated nutmeg |
| 1 C milk | powdered sugar & cinnamon |
| 4 C flour |
Beat the eggs; add milk, sugar, and oil or melted shortening, and mix thoroughly. Sift the remaining ingredients together and add slowly to the first mixture. Mix well. This makes a very soft dough, but don't add more flour. Let it sit for a few minutes and it will get thick enough to roll out. When it does, roll out 1/4 inch thick on a floured board, cut with a doughnut cutter, and fry in deep hot oil (400 degrees F) until light brown, turning once. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Makes lots more than you want to eat at one sitting, so invite plenty of oil-tolerant friends.
Anne had come over from work and peeled and cut up the potatoes before I got home. I just had to cut up the onion, do the blender part, add eggs and dry ingredients, and cook the latkes. The doughnuts were entirely my thing. We lit the candles (even the first night there are two, one official holiday candle and one to light the other(s)), sung the blessings over them and "Rock of Ages", and exchanged presents. Pretty low-key.
I'm giving my bottle of rainbow ink a rest. I don't like the way it looks with the chanukiah. I'm pleased with my navigation arrows, though. They're all done with paths in Photoshop.
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