Purim always sneaks up on me. I find myself relaxing in post-Chanukah bliss, drinking cocoa with no holidays on the horizon. Then the snow melts and BAM! Time to get ready for Purim! Time to get organized for Passover! Order costumes! Make mishloach manot! See that tulip? Now bake 600 hamantaschen! This time of year…
It depends on your tastes
If you plan to follow the Purim directive to drink until you can no longer tell the difference between “blessed is Mordechai” and “cursed is Haman,” then it would be advisable to have something of substance in your stomach when you do. What if this year’s hamantaschen could stand in for an actual meal —…
Purim 2021 will be a tamer affair than what we’re used to. While 2020’s festival was the last dangerous gasp of the old normal — replete with mixed drinks and droplets for many — we now know what we’re dealing with. COVID is determined to put a damper on our typical revels. But then, we’ve…
The author shooting cupcakes in Texas, before moving to New York and discovering, to her amazement, that there are bakeries devoted to traditional Jewish desserts. They had poppyseed. They had apricot. And prune, almond paste, chocolate and chocolate chip. I’m not in Texas anymore, I thought, quickly telling the lady at that yes, I’d take…
I’ve started noticing hamentaschen showing up in local bakeries, and it made me wonder if one of the reasons we say “Purim Sameach/Happy Purim” is because we know that we’ll be eating lots of hamentaschen, the traditional Eastern-European Purim dessert. This joyous day celebrates the repeal of the death decree against the Jewish inhabitants of…
“I stood willingly and gladly in the characters of everything – other people, trees, clouds. And this is what I learned, that the world’s otherness is antidote to confusion – that standing within this otherness – the beauty and the mystery of the world, out in the fields or deep inside books – can re-dignify…
(About 40 small pastries) Shape is the underlying theme of traditional Purim pastries, thus symbolically erasing Haman’s name or identifying with Esther and Mordechai. Winding the dough to produce ear-shaped pastries, the most widespread Purim dish, is derived from the medieval custom of cutting off a criminal’s ear before execution, a reference to Haman’s fate….
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