In the best Chanukah spirit, we spent Christmas Eve with an old friend making latkes, enjoying her childhood tradition of eating them fresh from the pan. The ingredients are:
4 lbs. - ca. 1,5 kg - baking potatoes
1 big onion
2 tbsp/spsk matzoh meal, wheat flour is fine, too
2 eggs
salt and peper
The potatoes were peeled and grated along with the onions on the Acme Special Safety Grater. We took turns. Dangerous tool, I was sure somebody'd get bloody knuckles. But no...
Remove some of the water with a few paper towels. Then mix the egg, flour, salt and pepper with the grated potatoes.
Heat up 1 1/2 inches of oil. Drop spoonfulls of the potato mixture into the hot oil and flatten the cakes. Turn them over when they're nicely browned on the first side. When they're finished drain them on some paper towels to absorb some of the fat.
Latkes are best right from the pan. If they make it to a plate, they're good with applesauce. Mott's is a classic, I'd rather have my mom's. 
The latkes were delicious, much better - more delicate - than the ones I traveled uptown to get at Zabar's last time I was in this mecca-city of Jewish cuisine. Secrets are minimal amounts of egg and matzoh meal, flattening the cakes when they get on the pan and having the right temperature oil.
Happy Chanukah!
A fond farewell to take out. Corn, pineapple and It's a beautiful morning muffins. Frittatas, veggie quiche.
Sushi, Korean, thin-crust pizza, a half espresso with a shot of chocolate, seaweed salad, porchetta on a roll, braised greens, sushi.
Quick, early morning bagel on the highway.
Sushi.
Oops, the girl chef shopping.
Even from supermarkets... Really good self-composed salad and spit-roasted lemon chicken from Wegmann's in Ithaca. From Union Square Whole Foods fresh cut fruit, marinated mushrooms, artichoke salad, sesame tofu and buckwheat noodles. I've only cooked 3 or 4 meals the whole time I've been here. And I'm the cook....
And pain au chocolat, one of my all time favorites when they're good.
