Today is the last day of Hanukkah, and though I'm not Jewish, I grew up in a heavily Jewish neighborhood and was exposed to a lot of the foods and cultural traditions. I remember playing dreidel games and exchanging gelt with classmates, making latkes and nibbling on matzoh. Oh, and Kedem grape juice! Still some of the most delicious grape juice I've ever had.

Anyway, I haven't had latkes in a very long time and decided to give it a go recently. Although the recipe is simple, the actual act of making latkes was far more difficult than I could have imagined! Let's just say tears were shed, and maybe the recipe will give you a hint as to why ... I cut the recipe down by about half.

Traditional Latke Recipe, from chabad.org
Yields about 3 servings

Ingredients
2 large potatoes, peeled
1 small onion
1 egg
2 tablespoons of flour
a pinch of salt
a dash of pepper
1/4 cup of oil for frying (and more, as needed)

Recipe
Grate potatoes and onion on the fine side of a grater or in a food processor -- or place in a blender with a little water. Strain grated potatoes and onion through a colander, pressing out excess water. Add egg, flour, and seasoning. Mix well.

Heat oil in skillet. Lower flame and place 1 large tablespoon of batter at a time into hot sizzling oil and fry on one side for approximately 5 minutes until golden brown. Turn over and fry on other side 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove from pan and place on paper towels to drain excess oil. Continue with remaining batter until used up, adding more oil when necessary. Serve with applesauce on the side.

I didn't have any applesauce, but I had plenty of apple butter ... as well as some Swedish lingonberry preserves. I ate the latkes with those sauces and they were every bit as delicious as I remember. If only I had a food processor to grate those onions for me!

Happy Sunday and I hope you are all doing well. I'm a bit under the weather and last week was a rough one for the U.S. ... here's to hoping the upcoming week will be a little brighter!