Farm Kitchen Chronicles: Holiday Food Edition
A Beet Stew made with Short Ribs, Hanukah Latkes, and Egg Nog two ways!
Readers, a winter storm is starting here in Wisconsin, and I am ready to stay home! Outside the snow is blowing in beautiful cartoon-ish swirls, the trees all look like they have creamy icing on their branches, and the wooded hills are just a sea of white and skeletal black. Inside, our house is just heated by wood, so we are keeping the woodstove stocked, drinking lots of hot cocoa, doing homeschool in pajamas (we are just keeping warm with their wool pjs this week, usually they do get dressed, I swear), and making lots of food. It makes me feel so good to have a split pea stew in the Instant Pot, freeze a batch of liver pate for the freezer, and have a butternut squash in the oven. And since Alex gets the weekend off, we all get to stay cozy inside for Christmas.
But first, we are trying our best with celebrating Hanukah, like we do every year. Alex grew up having Hanukah, and his family still celebrates, so each year we attempt to go all the way through. But around the third or fourth night, I inevitably look at my small pouch of beeswax, ecologically-made candles, and ask, “Wait, how many more candles do we need for the rest of the nights?”, and then we decide that a total of forty-four expensive candles are just not in the budget and we give up.
But! This year, we have done better than ever, and finally made latkes after a several year hiatus. We tested three different fats for frying, and tried two different recipes. Here, ladies and gentlemen, are our conclusions for the best latke recipe.