As you all know by now I’m interested in all things food. Especially holiday food… I love the laughter, togetherness, and honest good will the holidays have to offer and I’m very fortunate to be able to share these times with my family and friends and even show them off a bit to people less suspecting. I show my appreciation for people in different forms of food. Nothing I make doesn’t have my soul in it… But I feel like that wasn’t always true…I remember mindlessly trying to keep my mind in things that I couldn’t love every day like sandwiches. slicing deli meats, and scooping store bought gelato but I tried every day. I would wake up in a daze of something and try for the life of me to make a difference every time I made something. But it got tired and even if you love something more than anything there is no way that some how you have to have a break from it. I got to that point I needed a break. I needed my creativity to live inside me once again. And by powers unbeknown to me I’ve been able to show what I love to myself 1st and foremost and then to others. I love cooking more than anything but unfortunately sometimes you end up resenting things that you never knew you could. I’m glad I’m away from that environment. Anyway I woke up this morning well seeings as I don’t sleep till 5 am, this afternoon… I decided that I wanted to make some kind of 1st night of Hanukkah dinner. Which was good because I came to find out that we were supposed to be going out to dinner with my mom and dad and grandma anyway so they could just come over for dinner instead. I’m not Jewish just so you know. But I grew up with plenty. So I’m familiar with some of the customs but not all of them and i can’t really say at all that this was a traditional anything because I’m not traditional at all but I googled some stuff and i saw some recipes that I thought I could make pretty tasty and this is what came out.

Menu… Homemade Three apple sauce Potato,carrot, and zucchini kugel Sweet pea, mint, and chive with roasted tomato Spaetzle Lemon thyme roasted whole chicken Potato Latkes with horseradish Avocado, Cucumber, and sliced almond mixed green salad

So anyway to say the least the meal was put together last minute, there were lots of lovely apples at the store. So apple sauce seemed natural. Though I’d have to say I could of blended it much less but i was pulling something out of the oven and forgot about the blender… opps… I used golden delicious, fuji and granny smith cinnamon stick and some brown sugar. Kugel! which I can only describe as potato stuffing kinda I don’t know I thought it tasted nice with a little extra love in it. I’ve made Spaetzle before but in a kinda Italian way with meat sauce. So I thought the peas were really interesting kinda strange pasta dish haha I think so did everyone else. But I’ll eat it… I love peas and mint. That’s one of my favorite raviolis…   I’m pretty good at roasting a whole bird. This one was really tender and lovely. I love lemon and thyme. Latkes are wonderful. I made them pretty crispy but they were still really tender in the middle i like that contrast and I love horseradish anything. so all together I would say a successful 1st Hanukkah dinner put together by yours truly