It is officially December. Hard to believe, right? Well, the main Jewish holiday that is held in this month is Hanukkah, which this year begins at sundown on the 21st. While there are a lot of Jewish holiday recipes that you can prepare for your family’s Hanukkah celebration, most of the recipes are going to contain oil. This is because oil played a big part in the Miracle of Hanukkah.
One of my favorite fried treats for Hanukkah are rosettes. These are created by dipping a shaped iron in batter and frying the batter in hot oil. Once the batter has turned a golden brown you remove it from the oil and place it on paper towels to drain off extra oil and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Here is the recipe for the rosette batter:
Rosette Batter
Ingredients
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 tsp of almond extract
1 tsp of vanilla
1/2 stick of margarine, melted
3/4 cup of soy milk (sweetened and organic)
2 tbsp sugar
dash of salt
Instructions
1. Heat oil to between 350 and 375 degrees F.
2. Mix ingredients for the batter together with a hand mixer or an emersion blender.
3. Refrigerate the batter for about 20 minutes, or until it is chilled.
4. Dip rosette iron into the hot oil and then into the batter and then back into the hot oil. As the batter cooks it will slide off the iron. Cook until you notice the bottom is starting to turn golden brown, flip using chopsticks and cook the other side for a few seconds until it turns golden brown. Remove from the oil and drain on a stack of paper towels.
5. Sprinkle with powered sugar and enjoy.
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In a few days, millions of people around the world will be waiting to be transitioned into the year 2008. This weekend is the perfect weekend to plan your New Year’s celebration and to get all your shopping out of the way. Because 2008 is a Leap Year try to work in some special recipes into your New Year’s celebration menu.
While many people stay up late on New Year’s Eve, a great way to start your New Year is to sleep in and then have a great brunch. One of the most versatile brunch items is waffles. After cooking a great basic waffle top it with fresh fruit, syrups, whipped cream and butter. Below is one of the best recipes for waffles that I have ever had. It will make a great base for your brunch creations.
New Year’s Brunch Waffles
Ingredients
3 eggs (separated–The whites beaten and set aside. Put the yokes in a larger bowl that is large enough to hold all of the batter.)
1/2 Cup milk and 1/2 Cup water – add to the egg yokes
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 heaping Tbsp. baking powder
Directions
Blend these ingredients briefly with mixer.
Add:
1 1/2 Cups flour (mix in with above ingredients and then add:
1 stick of butter (melted) Mix in.
Fold into mixture (do not mix with beaters) the beaten egg whites.
Depending on waffle iron size, put in 3 to 4 tablespoons of batter into a hot waffle iron and bake for 2 minutes. (I always use a timer or I tend to forget and overbake them.) If waffles stick a bit when you open the waffle iron, DO NOT use a fork to free them. Use a regular table knife and gently loosen the waffle.
New Year’s brunch can also include sweet or savory Jewish recipes, traditional Jewish recipes or parve Jewish recipes. I’ll see you back here next year!
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As we approach the end of the year, many people are beginning to look at their weight and how it has changed over the last year, and especially over the last couple of months. From Thanksgiving to the endless office parties and celebration, sweets and rich meals have added more than joy to your life. They have added about seven extra pounds, if you are in line with the rest of the country. Fortunately, holiday weight can be taken off quickly by addressing what caused it in the first place.
The first thing that can cause you to gain weight during the holiday season is extra calories. This can easily be addressed by simply lowering the number of calories that you consume on a daily basis and by increasing the number of calories that you burn each day. By adding 20 to 30 minutes of exercise to your daily routine can help you to shed your holiday weight quickly, without having to starve yourself to death.
While eating too many calories is the primary reason why people gain weight during the holiday season, salt can also lead to weight gain and puffiness. Many holiday foods contain more salt, especially when compared to regular dishes. If you don’t lower your salt intake to a healthy level you can develop a number of health problems from hypertension to weight gain and water retention. To lower your salt intake start reading labels, buy low sodium ingredients and stop adding salt to your recipes.
There are many Jewish holiday recipes that you can eat while trying to lose weight. Consider low fat Jewish recipes or soup recipes like autumn vegetable soup.
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Today is December 07, 2007 and we are now officially celebrating Hannuah. This is one of my favorite holidays as it really brings the family together and it excites kids. One of my family’s favorite Hanukkah activities is to create gingerbread houses. This is a fun activity that can be done ahead of time, or that can be done as a family activity during the Hannukah celebration.
It is a good idea to pre-bake your gingerbread panels and have all the decorating materials ready to go before your guests arrive. If you don’t want to bake your gingerbread from scratch consider buying a gingerbread house kit from your local grocer, or use graham crackers instead. Decorating items that you will need include: icing for decorating and to use as the house’s mortar, gumdrops, licorice, chocolate pieces, colored sugar sprinkles, food coloring and any other candy pieces you want to use. You may also want to pick up decorating tools to help spread, dot and swirl on icing. I like to buy the small colored icing tubes that have a decorating tip built right in. They are less messy then using a piping tube and detachable decorating tip.
To keep the mess to a minimum place a card table in an area that has linoleum. Or, if you will be doing this in a carpeted area, lay down a plastic table cloth first and then set your card table on top of it. This way if icing or candies fall on the floor you can just fold them up in the table cloth and discard them in one neat package. Before your guests arrive fill small bowls with the candy pieces and set out the icing tubes. Also keep a large tub of baby wipes near by so that sticky hands can be cleaned without having to go to the kitchen or bathroom.
In addition to family constructed gingerbread houses, your Hannukah celebration will also need to include other sweet Hannukah Jewish recipes and traditional Jewish holiday recipes. To make sure your guests don’t go into a sugar induced comma, also offer savory Jewish food recipes such as a beef brisket stew. Have a great Hannukah and I’ll see you back here next week to discuss recovering from holiday feasts.
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