Happy Hanukkah! One of my favorite holidays to celebrate with my BF and family. It's also latke time!

I love this method for making latkes, mainly because it's baked and not fried. You use oil, but it won't splatter all over the stove.

And yes, it's parsnips instead of potatoes. Parsnips taste nutty and sweet, so to complement that sweetness you can top the latkes with tangy creme fraiche or sour cream, hot pepper jelly and chives (as shown in the photos above and below). Smoked fish or poached eggs are also delicious as a topper. The BF and I love them with mashed avocado and a poached egg, drizzled with chimichurri sauce (bottom photo). 

If you don't have a Spiralizer, don't worry, the large grate on your hand grater will work fine. The bones of the original recipe are from Inspiralized, I just changed the quantities to my liking.

Closing on a different note, my cousins in Chicago recently sent me this amazing "Bohemian Chanukah" by Six 13 (see below), and this, along with the fact the BF and I loved the film Bohemian Rhapsody [Ed. note: if Rami Malek doesn't get a best-actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury, the offending non-voters should be studied in a lab], reminded me that Queen is one of my favorite bands of all time.

How favorite? I actually "gave" a Queen documentary DVD to the BF as a Hanukkah gift, and he kindly reminded me that he'd actually received a press-review copy of the same film years ago when he was working as a music journalist. He offered it to me, and for some reason at the time I said no.

Sometimes you need to be reminded.

​Reminding you that we hope you are enjoying a wonderful holiday with family and friends.

Shalom.

Adapted from: Inspiralized
Number of servings: makes 5-6 large latkes or 10-12 mini latkes
​
Ingredients

• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 4 tablespoons matzo meal
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 3 large parsnips, peeled, Blade C, noodles roughly trimmed (or use large grate on hand grater)
• 1 onion, peeled, Blade A, noodles roughly trimmed (or use large grate on hand grater)
• 4 tablespoons (divided) extra virgin olive oil

Optional Toppings

• sour cream, creme fraiche​, chives or scallions
• applesauce, hot pepper jelly
• smoked trout, sturgeon or salmon, poached egg

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 °F. Line one rimmed baking sheet with foil.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, matzoh meal, and season generously with salt and pepper. Add in the parsnip and onion. and combine.
3. Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil onto the baking sheet and place in the oven for 5-7 minutes to heat the oil. Remove from the oven and place parsnip mixture in handfuls onto the oil. Flatten mixture with a spatula.
4. Bake for 15 minutes or until the bottoms are golden and crisp. Remove from oven, flip latkes over and bake for another 10 minutes or until crisp and golden on both sides.
5. When done, transfer latkes to a paper-towel-lined baking rack to drain. 
6. Wipe off baking sheet with a paper towel to remove old oil and bits and pieces. Repeat 2-5.

Latkes are not just for Hannukah.

Everyone has their own Thanksgiving traditions. Growing up in our family, the turkey was not the star of the show. We were all about appetizers. Once, I asked Mamala how this all started and she couldn't remember, but at some point two appetizers turned into 20 and it took on a life of its own. We used to stay up all night before Thanksgiving and make: chopped liver, herring in sour cream, herring in tomatoes, herring in vinegar, clam poppers, rumaki, stuffed mushrooms, deviled eggs, vegetable trays, three kinds of rye bread, Japanese pickled radish, olives, cornichons, stuffed celery, liptauer (an Austrian favorite), Boston brown bread, and a pistachio pudding-green jello-cottage cheese-fruit cocktail-mayo-7-UP mold (it was the '70s, believe it was called Watergate Salad). Of course, little-girl me disliked all the appetizers we made, except black olives. Thank goodness I was allowed to stick them on my fingers.

So much time. energy and stomach space was spent on appetizers that we rarely ate our turkey and sides on Thanksgiving. If we did, it was at 10:00pm or the next day.

We've had many memorable Thanksgivings. My brother Mike had an epic Thanksgiving-Hannukah reunion in 2004. My Chicago family has hosted many extraordinary Thanksgiving reunions. We also had a beautiful yet bittersweet Thanksgiving with family and friends two weeks before my Mamala passed away in 2011.

There is always that one Thanksgiving that my family always laughs at: 1979. My father passed away that September and it was the first holiday without him. I had recently started college and my older brother Mike, a sophomore at Oregon State, thought it would be a nice idea to invite a married foreign-exchange couple from Korea to a traditional American Thanksgiving.

Mamala and I decided that we would forgo the appetizers and focus on the traditional turkey dinner. We worked feverishly all week cleaning the house, shopping, cooking, and decorating. Thanksgiving morning I put a 25-pound turkey in the oven and got to work on the rest of the feast. Did I mention we had a dog (part wolf, unbeknownest to us at the time), at the time. His name was Blitz. 

[Ed. Note: Good lord I do not like where this is going.]

Mike arrived with the Korean couple around noon, and they arrived in the most gorgeous traditional Korean attire, a hanbok en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanbok. They looked spectacular, were polite and gracious beyond words, just downright lovely people. We spoke no Korean and they spoke no English, but we managed just fine.

Our holiday table was beautifully set with my Mamala's customary Thanksgiving cornucopia, complete with seasonal fruit, plus pilgrim and Native-American candles that she bought 16 years prior when my younger sister Julie was born.

The turkey was baking away. Intoxicating aroma. I might have even cut a little piece of crispy skin off the tail end and snacked on it. [Ed. Note: I'ma tell.] The kitchen and dining room were closed off. Guests were in the living room.

4:00pm, countdown to dinner. The turkey needs to rest for 20 minutes before carving, so that 25-pound bird was carefully placed on the counter, covered with foil, and I finally joined everyone else in the living room.

Suddenly, THUNK. Growling. Snarling. Chomping.

[Ed. Note: The horror. Slowly she turned, inch by inch, step by...]

My heart dropped. I raced into the kitchen with Mamala close behind. There was Blitz with the turkey on the floor, devouring a leg and starting on the precious white meat. He hissed, growled, and bared teeth as I tried to reach for the bird. I grabbed a broom handle and tried to grab what was left of the turkey. His jaw dripped with coveted turkey juices. It was a scene out of Cujo.

[Ed. Note: Getting Stephen King's agent on the phone.]

By the time I could grab the turkey, it was mostly carcass with a little meat dangling on bone. What was once a meal for eight was soup stock. Mamala and I stared at the carcass, a beautiful turkey five minutes ago. We stared at the dog, who was beaming. Once our shock subsided we had no idea what to serve for dinner.

Meanwhile in the living room...Mike has said he never forgot the look on our guests' faces as they heard these psychotic masticating sounds emanating from the adjacent room. Like the proper Midwesterner my Mamala was raised to be, we of course never said a word to them about what transpired in the kitchen, and pretended like nothing happened.

Long story short, we ended up having all vegetarian side dishes for Thanksgiving that year. The Korean couple could not have been more gracious. They enjoyed the meal and we all had a blast. It was an unforgettable holiday and brings a smile to my face every time I think of it.

This Thanksgiving, consider making latkes for your vegetarian guests so they will not have to sustain their hunger on side dishes alone.

Adapted from: Food and Wine, November 2012
Number of servings: 4 dozen mini latkes

Ingredients

• One 1-pound butternut squash neck, peeled and coarsely shredded in a food processor or a large hole grater
• 1 ½ pounds russet potatoes, peeled and coarsely shredded in a food processor or a large hole grater
• ½ cup cornstarch
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup shredded onion
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• Cayenne pepper (I use a good 2 pinches)
• Peanut or vegetable oil, for frying
• Sour cream, hot pepper jelly, and chives, for garnish

Directions

1. Place the shredded potatoes in a dish towel or cheesecloth and squeeze all the water out.
2. In a bowl, combine the shredded squash and potatoes with the cornstarch, eggs and onion. Season with salt and cayenne.
3. In a large non-stick skillet, heat ⅛ inch of oil until shimmering. Add 2-tablespoon-size mounds of the mixture to the skillet, press down with back of spoon, and cook over moderate heat, turning once, until golden and cooked through (4-5 minutes).
4. Drain on paper towels and transfer to wire rack and repeat, adding more oil to the skillet as needed and wiping out the pan occasionally. Always place latkes on rack not a flat plate or they will get soggy.
5. Top latkes with sour cream, hot pepper jelly and chives. Serve hot.
6. NOTE: Latkes can be kept warm in oven for an hour or more. Cooked, they keep well in the fridge for two days, or well wrapped in the freezer for up to two weeks. Reheat in a single layer on a cookie sheet in a 400 °F oven until they're crisp again.