Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, began last night with the lighting of the first of eight candles over the coarse of the next eight days.
My husband and I sat down to this holiday dinner after what will be the last of many garage sales we have had over the many years in our home.
Yes, it was December 8, 2012, and we were having a garage sale! But, it was sunny and in the mid 60’s!
As it turned out we still had plenty of yard sale worthy stuff since we, ( my husband) has been working hard at sorting through and cleaning out our large storage area in preparation for selling our home and moving.
So after a fun, successful, but tiring day I came in to fry up some latkes to go with the left-over brisket and gravy I had defrosted in the fridge the day before (thank-you), and what was remaining of the homemade applesauce my sister had brought for Rosh Hashanah which I had also frozen (thank-you).
The only thing left to do was send my exhausted husband out for some eggs which I needed for the latke batter (sorry), and within a very short time two very tired people sat down to what would be our last first night of Hanukkah in this home.
This time I tried Melissa Clark’s recipe for latkes, which came out beautifully, but I think when I make them again I would use a little less flour than called for, and a bit more onion.
It’s also the first time I ever added baking powder to the batter. The consistency of the batter was less messy to work with, and by grating the onion with the potato it prevents the batter from darkening as fast as it might otherwise.
I will be making latkes again sometime this week to freeze for my annual Hanukkah get- together with my aerobic exericse class, and to take to our best friend’s dinner on Christmas Eve.
So I will have lots of time to tweak this recipe to my liking, and I look forward to being the taste tester as well! Happy Hanukkah!