Hanukkah started last night. In our inter-faith household this is a time of great busyness and excitement. Lighting the candles, favorite foods, festive songs, decorating the tree, time with family and loved ones, and (too many) gifts are only some of the reasons that this time of year is a favorite for everyone in our family.
It is also a time of an onslaught of not-so-healthy foods, many of which are absolutely delicious. So last night I set out to try to bring some more sustenance to our dinner table as we celebrated the first night of Hanukkah. Now, before I dive right into the recipe I want to offer a disclaimer. I know that in order to commemorate the miracle of the oil lasting for eight nights the latkes are meant to be fried in oil but, to be totally honest, I can’t handle the smell of fried food that is left lingering in my kitchen for days. So this year I tried something different. I baked my latkes, with a layer of oil underneath. This is probably sacrilegious and unacceptable for some, but for our family it worked amazingly well. So well, in fact, that while I thought I had made enough for leftovers for tonight, my husband ended up having to show great restraint in leaving the last one to go in our older son’s lunch today as he begged and pleaded for this to happen….