The Hanukkah Story (sort of)

Well, it's been a little over a year since my last post and boy, has my life changed! Luckily, all for the better. I'm back in Denver working on my Master's and my life couldn't get much better. I'm sure most of you who read this blog (if there are any of you left) know first-hand all of the craziness that was happening in my life up until about 4 or 5 months ago when I moved back to Denver, so there's no need to bore you will the details. Instead, I'd like to take this opportinity to rededicate myself to this blog by telling you about the ultimate bad-ass story of dedication: Hanukkah! I'm sure some of you are like, "well... that's nice and all but, isn't this blog supposed to be about food?" And yes, you're right, this is primarily a food blog BUT, anyone who knows anything about the Jews knows that our holidays have a tripartite theme: They tried to kill us, we survived, LET'S EAT! So really, in a round about way, this post will be about food. BOOM. On with the story.

So, there was this mensch, Judah Maccabee (who was a total badass, by the way). He was like the Hebrew Rambo. He hated King Antiochus who was a total royal schmuck because he took away Judah's temple and turned it into some goyim strip mall. (He couldn't have at least turned it into a Chinese restaurant?!) Judah led an untrained army (most of them were accountants, doctors, and lawyers - little known fact) to defeat the evil king.  They were armed with nothing but their faith... and probably a few rocks and sticks... oh, and their mothers. Anyway, Judah kicked butt and the temple belonged to the Jews again.
 After cleaning up the place and some tasteful redecorating by Judah's wife (she took an interior-decorating class at the local JCC) - the menorah was made ready for the temple's dedication. And the Hebrew word for dedication is? You guessed it! HANUKKAH!
But oy! There was only enough oil to light the menorah for one day! Someone really dropped the ball on that one. Then something wonderful happened. The lights of the menorah burned for eight days and eight nights! This was way b efore smart phones, so people were easily impressed. It was a miracle! Not as cool as "parting-of-the-sea" but still not bad.
And now we celebrate with grateful hearts every year by lighting a candle for each of the eight nights and spinning a small clay block (and eating our weight in latkes and sufganiyot)!

So, Happy Hanukkah, y'all! Or, to all my Hebrews and Shebrews - Chag Sameach!

Keep your eye peepers peeled for new blog posts and recipes soon! It's great to be back :)