Nice work

It's not easy, carrying all this amazing food around when you're hungry.

I Love My Friends

I'm lucky, our good friends have a great family. That great family has taken us in - we love hanging out with them for holiday dinners, on the beach, girl's nights, weekend getaways. Of course we knew we liked them before we moved, but we didn't realize that they would be so very great over time.

But last night I was loving them for a different reason, M's brother in law is a chef - a serious kick-ass Chef. My Easter dinner included:

Salmon Mousse
Foie Gras
Duck Confit
Champagne
Braised Lamb
Mushroom Soup
Truffled Mashed Potatoes
Spanish Coffee

It was a long and spectacular dinner - but I still have the urge to have a good old-fashioned Easter ham, maybe this weekend?

Current Music: Flavor of the Weak - American Hi-Fi

And I'm Back

The cold is almost gone, and happily I'm no longer in a Nyquil induced haze (not that it's bad mind you).

In other news, it's "Paczki Day" here in Southeastern Michigan. All these years I'd always thought of today as "Fat Tuesday" or "Super Tuesday", but here it's all about the Paczki (pronounced "poonch-key" apparently). I've lived here for going on three years and only last year found out that all the to-do was over a big jelly doughnut! So here I thought is was something cool and special (well jelly doughnuts are pretty cool, but you know what I mean) - and it's just another reason to add to your waistband.

Though just down the road a bit (well, quite a bit) they have a Paczki Day Parade - apparently it's bigger down in Hamtramck than St. Patty's Day - they even sell Jagermeister filled Paczki!

Happily we don't take it all that seriously here, but I did pick up a box last night - might as well make it a real fat Tuesday!

Current Music: Running on Sunshine - Jesus Jackson (even though we have been sunshine free for at least a week!)

More Hanukkah...

Today we have a special musical guest - here's Adam Sandler doing the third version of his Chanukah Song (one of my favorites):

Now on to more important things, Latkes.

Latkes are just potato pancakes, but damn are they good. There are different ways to make them, some use shredded potatoes some use mashed (though I'm not a big fan of the mashed variety). But you've got to love the fact that eating food cooked in oil is part of the Hanukkah tradition. It is meant to represent the small amount of oil the Jews had when defending the Temple - miraculously the oil lasted for eight days. So foods that are commonly served at Hanukkah include doughnuts, fritters of all sorts, and any other fried vegetable (particularly squash) - woo hoo!

So here's my favorite recipe for Latkes, it's from Louise Fiszer, a woman I used to work with years ago. She's a great recipe writer (she use to test her new recipes on us, that was an excellent perk) and has done a number of books.

So here's the recipe, super simple and crazy good!

Potato Latkes (makes about 16)
1 1/2 pounds baking potatoes, peeled
1 medium onion, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 to 1 cup vegetable oil for frying

Grate potatoes and place in strainer or colander. Squeeze out as much moisture from potatoes as you can. In large bowl, combine potatoes with remaining ingredients, except for oil. Heat about 1/4 cup oil in large frying pan until very hot. Drop two to three tablespoons potato mixture into pan for each latke. Use back of spoon to flatten mixture so that each latke is about three-inches in diameter. Fry over medium high heat about four to five minutes per side. Drain on paper towels and keep warm in oven. Continue, using more oil if necessary for each batch. Serve hot with an apple-pear sauce.

Scott prefers his with sour cream - I like either sour cream or apple sauce. Last year I made a great homemade apple sauce (I know, how perky!) - try it if you have the time.

Current Music: I'm Spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica - Tom Lehrer