I will augment this post with pictures from Nicole's camera in a bit.
Knowing I would be making latkes for dinner, I crammed a bag this morning with the important bits: a few pounds of potatoes, three onions, canister of matzo meal, three eggs, and what was left of our bottle of canola oil. I also tucked along Dave's trusty
How to Cook Like a Jewish Mother, just in case I suddenly lost the ability to make them. Fortunately, it didn't come to that.
So, how to make latkes. Grate about two or three pounds of potatoes, sparing your knuckles and nails as much as possible. Grate a few onions. Cry a lot, because grating onions hurts. Mix onions and potatoes with a few beaten eggs, a few handfuls of matzo meal, and lots of salt and pepper. Schmutz that around with your hands until it is good and mixed, and can be squeezed into a coherent pancake. If you can't make a pancake, add another egg and some more matzo meal and try again.
Pour oil into a pan up to about 3/4 inch deep. Heat it up until a potato shred dropped in bubbles, but not TOO much-- if it spits and fizzes and runs around the pan, the oil is too hot. It should just fizz a little. Then, pick up handfuls of potato mush, wad them into pancakes (you should be squeezing liquid out to do this) and slide them gently into the hot oil. BE CAREFUL NOT TO SPLASH. Leave them be for a minute or two, then flip them over GENTLY. The bottom should be golden. Let them fry another minute or two, until the other side is golden. Drain briefly on paper towels. Serve warm with applesauce and sour cream.
YUM. I give it all the Picards, but I'm partial. How did everyone else like them?
Star Trek is going "Back to the Future" with Paramount announcing that it is officially producing a prequel Star Trek feature film to be released Christmas 2008. J.J. Abrams of Felicity, Alias, Lost, and Mission Impossible 3 fame will be producing and directing. The film will focus on the early careers of Kirk and Spock and how they met, etc. No word on casting. 
I wanted to like the veggie sausages. I really did. But even drenched in lots of good Canadian maple syrup, they still tasted a bit odd and dry. I didn't sample the real sausage because of my ground meatophobia, but someone else will have to give them a review, because they looked quite tasty. I think the real winner of the breakfast challenge should actually be Hong Hong's mushroom and scallion omelette, which was really freakin' tasty! Post that recipe, dude!
This week's theme was holiday food, and nothing says Christmas like gingerbread starships. Given that I have a tendency to experiment with (and thereby ruin!) recipes, I decided to go for the tried, tested and true -- the Joy of Cooking's gingerbread men recipe. I recruited Katie to come down and help me decipher the recipe, and to shame me into actually doing everything it says (does anyone really sift their flour?).
