Happy Chanukkah

Last Sunday, Crystal did me a solid and made some good old fashion Jewish food to celebrate Chanukkah.  Our menu for the evening was Mimi's brisket, kasha, latkes and some mandel bread (Jewish biscotti) for dessert.  I detected some nervousness on Crystal's part about making some of our family favorites, but she did a trememndous job and everything was delicious.  It was great to be able to celebrate the holiday, even though I was far away from my family. 

I started the evening off with a dry martini as Crystal finished up frying the latkes:

For the latkes, Crystal used a Martha Stewart recipe and doctored it up with some diced scallion.  She worked really hard to grate the onions and potatoes, but did admit at the end of the day, they were pretty fun to make.  Of course, we topped them with the traditional apple sauce and sour cream.

Below, is the final plate, you can see I like to load up my kasha with a lot of the brisket jus.  The latke and kasha were excellent.  We had some small issues on the roasting of the brisket -- so it was tasty, but a touch dry.  I think after some consultation with my Dad, I will have the issues fixed for next time. 

Earlier in the week Crystal made Mandel bread for a co-worker.  She had never even heard of it before that day (nor had I, apparently I am a bad Jew), but heard it was her co-workers favorite.  She made a standard dough, that was slightly sweet, but nothing like a cookie dough.  She shaped it into 9x3 logs and baked for about 15 minutes.  Then, she took the bread out of the oven, sliced into biscotti shaped portions and baked again for 10 more minutes.  She topped them with cinnamon sugar.  They were so good, excellent with coffee in the morning and as a great dessert for our holiday meal.

It was a great meal and it was fun to some of the traditional Jewish things on a holiday.  We lit the menorah and everything.  I hope everyone had a great Chanukkah, and as they say at passover, Next Year in Jerusalem. Shalom Perellis Family.