Hanukkah

This was Maya's first real Hanukkah, and I wanted to make it special for her. Last year we were traveling and it was barely marked, and the prior years she was really too young to remember it. Each day I tried to have a special Hanukkah book, activity or craft for her, and the holiday was a lot of fun for everyone. We had several special dinners with friends, small gifts of books, stickers and puppets (plus gifts from grandma and grandpa), a holiday party with the homeschool group, and a Hanukkah party in the house for a couple of friends.

Janice gave Maya a kit for making her own menorah candles, a lovely and fun craft, and we also had a lot of success at the party with decorating construction paper cones and filling the finished result with chocolate "gelt." It made me realize that I need to incorporate more craft and art opportunities into Maya's activities.

We also made latkes and sufganiyot a couple of times...the latke recipe is an old family recipe, that I brought back to it's original form with hand grated potatoes, rather than the food processed ones that my grandma has been doing for the last 30 or so years. (Much better texture!)

POTATO LATKES
(1 potato makes about 4 playing card size latkes)
For every 4 medium sized idaho potatoes add 2 Tbs all purpose flour and 2 eggs

Wash (you do not need to peel) and grate your potatoes, and squeeze out liquid. Add appropriate amount of eggs and flour, as well as salt and white pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly, but do not over-mix.

Heat a generous amount of crisco in a (preferably non-stick) pan to a medium-high heat. If the fat is smoking, the heat is too high.

Once hot, spoon pancakes into your pan...I prefer silver dollar sized ones, though my family has always made them playing card sized.

When they are crispy golden brown flip them. When the second side is cooked drain on paper towel and serve immediately with apple sauce and sour cream.

SUFGANIOT

Ingredients

• 1 package(s) active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon(s) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup(s) granulated sugar
• 3 3/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup(s) whole milk
• 6 tablespoon(s) margarine, melted and cooled, substitute butter
• 1 teaspoon(s) salt
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) ground nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 4 cup(s) vegetable oil, for frying
• 1 cup(s) seedless red raspberry jelly, substitute other favorite jelly
• Confectioners' sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

In large bowl, mix yeast, 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, and 1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F); let stand until yeast mixture foams, about 5 minutes.

With wooden spoon, stir flour, milk, margarine, salt, nutmeg, eggs, and remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar into yeast mixture until evenly blended (dough will be very sticky). Cover bowl with clean cloth towel, and let dough rise in warm place (80 to 85 degrees F) until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.

With floured hands, punch down dough. Turn dough onto heavily floured surface; let rest 10 minutes. With floured hands, pat dough 1/2-inch thick. With floured 3-inch round biscuit cutter, cut out as many rounds as possible. Place rounds, about 2 inches apart, on lightly floured cookie sheets. Gently press trimmings together; press and cut as above. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

In 10-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat until temperature reaches 375 degrees F on deep-fry thermometer. With wide metal spatula, carefully place 2 or 3 doughnuts in hot oil. Fry until golden brown, about 1 1/2 minutes, turning over once. With large slotted spoon, transfer doughnuts to wire racks lined with paper towels to drain; repeat with remaining dough.

When doughnuts are cool enough to handle, with small sharp knife, pierce doughnuts from 1 side almost to opposite side. Place jelly in decorating bag fitted with 1/4-inch round tip. Squeeze small amount of jelly into each doughnut through slit. Cool doughnuts completely on wire rack. Sprinkle doughnuts with confectioners' sugar to serve.