the feastival of lights

another sunday - another successful supper!

in honor of hannukah, this was a celebration of all foods jewish. i challenged everyone to do their bubbe's proud - even if they weren't sure what 'bubbe' meant. i took on the challenge very with a big, beautiful brisket from florence 5, (one of the best butchers in NYC and lucky for me just one block away.) i braised it the night before, because, like with so many jewish dishes, it's even better after letting it sit overnight.

while it reheated i prepped the apartment

cessie looked on as people arrived with an endless stream of delectable dishes to snack on:

lemony leek cakes (serena), smoked salmon, pickles and herring (lucas), cheeses (max), baguettes and proscuitto (piet and sophia), hummus and pita (melissa) - and to accompany the meal lots of lovely wines and beers, (thank you ceren, joel, will and josiah) and two giant bottles of manishewitz (nick...)

once everyone had arrived it was time to light the candles and sing...

and at last dinner was served!

on the menu: brisket (me), grandma mickey's noodle kugel (allison k), carrot souffle (sara), baked chicken (sharon), challah (candace and josh), "kosher" crab rangoon (kate and jason), a torta, (piet and sophia), homemade many-grains bread (cassidy), and of course no hannukah would be complete without latkes (allison a), and loads of them! accompanied of course with sour cream and apple sauce (nick and laura)

even after all that feasting we were not done! and were onto dessert:

apricot-chocolate rugelach (serena)

toffee-chocolate-almond matozh (candace)

and a fabulous assortments of varsano's chocolates!! (todd)

it was a truly joyous evening, better than i could have hoped for and exactly what the holidays are all about - celebrating with good music, great food, and the best of friends... and cessie!

wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year!

xoxoxo