Latkes and Dreidel Cookies

Tonight for dinner we made latkes using a recipe in one of Eva's Hanukkah books- Grandma's Latkes by Malka Drucker.

Potato Latkes

3 large potatoes

1 small onion

2 beaten eggs

2 Tsp flour

1 tsp salt

a pinch of black pepper

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Wash the potatoes very well but don't peel them.  Grate them coarsely into a bowl.  Grate in the onion. Add the beaten eggs, flour, salt, and pepper.  Stir and let the mixture sit for 10 minutes to thicken.  Pour off excess liquid.  Heat the vegetable oil for one minute in a frying pan, then drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture into the pan.  When the pancakes are brown around the edges, turn and fry them until the other sides are crispy.  Drain them on paper towels, and eat them with sour cream and applesauce.

They turned out great and were a huge hit (they were devoured so quickly I wasn't able to get a picture!) Before bed, we made a fun dreidel snack that I saw in Family Fun magazine but can't find a link to.  We took fig newtons and cut a point at one end.  We then pushed half a thin pretzel stick in the other end and tada!  A yummy dreidel snack.

The perfect ending to an exciting day in which Eva got her big girl bed- she is so excited!

We even let her have a mattress!  ;)

Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel

One of Eva's favorite Hanukkah book is Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah by Sylvia A. Rouss in which Sammy watches little Josh Shapiro get a new dreidel each night of Hanukkah and longs for a dreidel of his own to spin.  Today we tried spinning our own dreidels.  The actual "rules" for playing dreidel were a bit over Eva's head so we just spun them and played with the gelt (aka chocolate coins).  Eva had a blast!

(And yes, we have already broken in the Christmas jammies!)

Handprint Menorah

We read Hanukkah:  A Counting Book  by Emily Sper today.  Eva loved how the candles appeared and hearing me attempt to count in Hebrew and Yiddish (the story has both languages along with English).

After we read it a few times we set about making a menorah of our own.  Rather than painting handprints like we did last year, this year Eva chose to cut out handprints.  Lately she loves tracing her hand and then cutting it out so this was right up her alley!  I love her cutting strategy.  She trims around the item and then keeps cutting closer and closer to it.

She then asked me to finish them and we glued them onto a sheet of paper.  To add the flames, Eva dipped her finger into yellow paint and then dabbed them on each candle.

When the flames dried, I wrote Happy Hanukkah along the top and Menorah at the bottom.  Eva helped me count the candles and we labeled the shamash (helper candle).  Then we hung it in the window with our Star of David.

Happy Hanukkah everyone!

Star of David Ornament

Today we made a Star of David using craft sticks.  (I found a pack of multi-colored craft sticks at the Dollar Store but you could always paint or color plain sticks with markers.)  I set things up for Eva by placing glue dots on the ends of some of the sticks to hold the triangle in place.  Eva did a great job of connecting them to form two triangles.

Then I added a few more glue dots to attach the two triangles together.

Eva then used gold glitter glue to decorate the star.

We set it aside to dry and then added some string to hang it up.

We also gave the orange play dough a sendoff by playing with it one last time using some Hanukkah cookie cutters I found at the Christmas Tree Shop.

Hanukkah Happenings

Hanukkah begins on Wednesday so this week we will be learning all about this special holiday.

Crafts
Handprint Menorah- we'll be making a simple menorah similar to the one above that Eva made last year (her "my nora")

Star of David Ornament- popsicle sticks will be transformed into this six pointed star

Cooking
Latkes- you can't celebrate Hanukkah without some yummy potato latkes!

Dreidel Cookies- fig newtons will be transformed into edible dreidels

Activities
Dreidel- we will try our hand at playing this traditional Hanukkah game

Books