Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen

Over the past few days I have received quite a few emails asking me a great deal about Hanukkah and its significance. Though I have written about this before here @ Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen in the post " A Bit About Hanukkah & Some History ", I realized that many Jewish traditions in regard to food I obviously take for granted. So in this post I will try to explain a bit more about Hanukkah than I did previously in the above mentioned post, and how the traditions of eating certain food groups developed. I will try and concentrate on three main points. The Historical Background Some Of The Traditions Involved The Food Associated With Hanukkah Some of what is written below obviously has nothing to do with food per-say so if you are not interested just skip over it. The following is not meant to be a comprehensive article either. So if you are looking for detailed specifics just Google it and there are a million sites explaining Hanukkah. The Historical Background...

One of the basic rules of being kosher is that it excludes all products that have anything to do with pigs. Pork, Ham all of it. Being kosher means no pig. Period. Well, sooner or later you know someone would come up with kosher ham. It was inevitable. In truth this is My Bad! I saw this quite awhile ago, but somehow it slipped out of my radar. You have to hand it to the Jones Soda Company , you really do. Not only do they have their interesting and sometimes real quirky sodas, but they also manage to keep kosher certification from Star-K. This time they really went all out and produced special holiday packs of soda. One for Hanukkah and one for Christmas. The Christmas pack is of course kosher. And what makes it even better, is that one of the flavors in the pack is " Christmas Ham " - certified kosher by Star-K . (You can download the PDF kosher certification as well.) This is not a joke. It is GREAT! Ingenious actually. Kosher Ham Soda. What will they think of next! So go ...

And from Paula again Blueberry Sauce for Latkes Blueberry Sauce for Latkes Ingredients: 1 Cup Blueberries ¼ Cup Sugar 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch 2 Tablespoons Water ½ Teaspoon Cinnamon Directions: Mix cornstarch with water until smooth Put all other ingredients in a saucepan and slowly pour cornstarch mixture in. Cook on medium heat, stirring often. Cook until mixture has a thin pudding consistency. If it is too thick, add a few tablespoons of water, one at a time Great Blueberry sauce...and great for Latkes! In Israel unfortunately, blueberries are sometimes prohibitively expensive (do not ask me why cause I never could figure it out) but it is worth a try with this recipe! Posted On: Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen Tags: Cooking , Baking , Recipe , Cooking Related Appliances , Humorous Stories , Ingredients , Kitchen Appliance , Parve (Meat or Milk) Recipe , Kitchen Utensils , Kosher , Meat Recipe , Milk Recipe , Kosher Home , Spices , Single Pa...

I honestly have no clue how Paula, a Boston Irish woman, can not only come up with such a great recipe for traditional Sufganiyot - and even get the "Hebrew" name right to boot - But you have to respect this. It just goes to teach us that where there is respect and love anything can happen and all bridges can be crossed. Now a bit on Sufganiyot . These donuts usually filled with Jelly or "ribat halav" which is caramel - are available immediately after Sukkot until the end of Hanukkah all over Israel. They are part of the Hanukkah tradition because they are made in oil, which as I have discussed is the traditional background for foodstuffs on Hanukkah. (see: A Bit About Hanukkah & Some History ) Good Sufganiyot are not easy to make and everyone has their own "secret" recipe for them. The demand nurturing and love, and are full to the brim with calories! Some are dairy (chalavei, Milchig) and some are parve. But these are one of those dishes that engen...

Happy Hanukkah! Posted On: Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen Tags: Cooking , Baking , Recipe , Cooking Related Appliances , Humorous Stories , Ingredients , Kitchen Appliance , Parve (Meat or Milk) Recipe , Kitchen Utensils , Kosher , Meat Recipe , Milk Recipe , Kosher Home , Spices , Single Parenting , Vegetarian , Cooking Stories