...and I also made a nice Shabbat dinner and lunch this weekend. I just haven't had it together to post the menu yet. No, not because I was hungover from Purim! I'm afraid that I didn't keep that mitzvah this year. I've been a little under the weather, and a little swamped with my fabulous freelance gig, editing this book. I did get to the megillah reading with my husband and my two year old, and my first bag of mishloach manot. (Those are the packages of goodies one traditionally sends to one's friends on Purim--but so far I had only been a recipient, never a giver.)
I made my mother-in-law's recipe for hamantashen. I would post the recipe but it's too vague. Wherever she got it from, the original recipe doesn't call for enough flour. So my MIL adds more. But she doesn't know exactly how much more. So this year, I added more....and more....and more! My hamantashen were delicious, but they were still just a little too rich. Too much fat and sugar in ratio to the flour, because I just didn't add enough flour. Phooey. They were still good, I'm just saying, I don't think I'm ready to post the recipe just yet!
Anyway I'm starting to feel better from this killer cold. I got a big boost from yoga class--I did a handstand! Our digital camera is working again and I took some pictures of the bread before Shabbat, so I hope to post this past weekend's menu with photos of some of the food. True, it's not Paris in the springtime but it's a pretty nice looking kugel. Okay, kugel isn't the most photogenic food ever, I know that now. I think a lot of pictures of Ashkenazi Jewish food might be a tough sell. Except for all the people who read Chez Miscarriage and want to see photos of gefilte fish. (Am I going to get google searches for "pictures of gefilte fish" and "photogenic kugel" now? Please yes!)
Balabusta: I really like your blog, as one who loves to think about food/host shabbat meals etc. Any advice on how to make that lovely Hamentashen shape? My "Hamentashen" came out circular, w/o much of a pocket for the filling, so it just sort of spread all over the cookie. All of my friends that I called had similar problems. Should I have added more flour? Rolled the dough so that it was thinner? Do you or anyone else have some thoughts?
Posted by: Rachel Alexa | March 28, 2005 at 11:55 PM
Most, but not all of my hamantashen came out like yours. My second batch were actually triangles, but I made them smaller and slightly thicker, not thinner. I think it is all of the above: not enough flour, how you roll the dough, and chilling the dough. The flour issue is a pain! I just don't think I can post this fabulous recipe if I don't know how much of the main ingredient should go into it! I still have leftover filling so maybe I should try again.
Oh, here's a good tip, if you aren't doing this already: roll the dough out between two sheets of waxed paper. You can lift the top one to make the circles--I used a juice glass.
Posted by: balabusta | March 29, 2005 at 10:13 PM
Okay, this is weird. The post below this one was posted after this one, so I sound like a lunatic in this post, talking about what I'm going to do with my photographs. Forgive my inexperience with blogging software.
Posted by: balabusta | April 01, 2005 at 12:11 AM