Hanukkah 2: The Family Party

Our other family tradition is a Hanukkah party. We alternate years with my sister-in-law’s family (the nieces and nephew who help with the cookie factory). This year was our year to have it at our house. It was, of course, our granddaughter’s first Hanukkah party. At 4 months old, she was more interested in putting the gifts (and wrapping paper and toys and whatever she could grab) in her mouth. But we got pictures. Our daughter also came home from Chicago for the party. The only person missing was my future son-in-law. He couldn’t get away from work.

Latkes, fried in oil, are a traditional Hanukkah food. We serve them with sour cream and applesauce. I made the applesauce from apples that my parents gave us from their farm. We decided to have a deli night with cold cuts, bakery bread, pickles, and all the fixings. My brother-in-law brought a salad. For dessert, of course, we had the gingerbread cookies from the cookie factory.

We made two kinds of latkes – traditional and sweet potato latkes. The traditional latke recipe is from Temple Treasures, a cookbook compiled by the Sisterhood of Temple Israel in Minneapolis. The sweet potato latke recipe is from the Florida Sun-Sentinel, one of my favorite online newspaper food pages.

My son took over the actual cooking. He fried them a little before the party began. We drained them on cookie sheets and then heated them in the oven when it was time to eat.

Here are both recipes.