Great Ready for the Great Challah Bake
This Thursday, October 25, is the annual Great Challah Bake, when thousands of Jewish women from around the world unite in their respective communities to bake this special bread.
I’ve already posted Mrs. Fenton’s Big Challah recipe. But in honor of this amazing, worldwide event, I’ve posted an improved version of the recipe. If you’ve never made challah, or never made bread for that matter, now is the time to jump in hands and flour first to bake this heavenly treat.
My Chanukah party menu
The Kindling of the Hanukkah Lights, Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Chanukah is nearly here! This means it’s time to polish the antique brass Chanukah menorah that has been in my family for more than a century, as well as go in search of the narrow glass oil holders for the menorah that are so difficult to find.
Just like in years past, we’re planning to have a family Chanukah party with lots of delicious fried foods and gold-wrapped chocolate coins. Latkes, or potato pancakes, will be on the menu; and I might make some spelt sufganiyot (jelly donuts), time permitting.
This year I also have some new ideas for our Chanukah party menu, courtesy of my guest bloggers. Check out Libi Astaire’s post on the very Jewish origins of that British staple, fish and chips, and Sophie Schiller’s yummy-looking recipes for fried red snapper and West Indian Johnny Cake for creative, Chanukah-appropriate food ideas from Jewish communities around the world. Or, if you want to play it traditional, find out how I make my latkes and sufganiyot.
Fish and chips: and old-new tradition for Chanukah?
Exotic history and cuisine of Caribbean Sephardic Jewry
My Georgette obsession
What happens when an irredeemable bookworm becomes obsessed with an author?
The Regency reader’s dream home: Cobham Hall, Kent – Ackermann’s Repository, December 1826
When it’s D.B. Schaefer, the mental wheels start turning, the ideas start churning and—voila—Me & Georgette is born. Regency England will never be the same! Read more…
What makes a good Regency novel?
Jane Austen started it all. Ever since Sense and Sensibility was first published in 1811, readers have been falling in love with Regency novels. Fast forward to 1935, when popular author Georgette Heyer published Regency Buck, her first novel set in the British Regency period (1811-1820). Read more…
But is it kosher?
Lord Robert first tastes cholent while paying a sick visit to the supposedly injured Devorah at Ten Oaks Manor on the Jewish Sabbath. He is so taken with this tasty dish that he begs Devorah to teach the recipe to the cook at Ravenscourt. Mrs. Fenton, the housekeeper at Ten Oaks Manor, also has an amazing recipe for challah, the traditional Jewish braided bread served on Sabbath and the holidays. See the recipes…
Devorah Asher is blessed with beauty, brains and a great collection of Georgette Heyer novels. What 30-year-old Devorah doesn’t have is one of the most highly prized commodities in her Orthodox Jewish community—a husband. Even when an eligible man does appear on the scene, she fumbles the opportunity by falling off a chair...and landing in Georgette Heyer’s Regency England.