Queen Esther and the Tuna

Q: What does a large fish and a long ago Jewish Queen have in common?

A: They are both a part of Purim! (at least in our household)

Let me start at the beginning (a very good place to start).

Hamentashen, the traditional pastry of the holiday of Purim, are one of the few items I cook. The reason that I don’t cook much of anything else is a tale unto itself and not one for today.

I have baked hamentashen every year since the children were fairly small, so 20 years or so. It is a family affair, or at least a mom and offspring affair with dad offering to taste the final product.

Traditionally I have made the dough and, in recent years, the filling, and then together with whichever child is in the house (sometimes one, sometimes both) rolled out, filled, pinched and baked the cookies.

Last year Natan did all the prep work and we assembled together. So far this year Natan has made the fillings and I made the dough. I expect that we will fill them together tomorrow or Monday night.

Back to the tuna.

Once the pastries / cookies are assembled, they need to chill for a while. Our refrigerator is wide enough to handle one tray and I can usually clear off the bottom shelf so that we can stack the trays.

How does one stack the trays without smushing the cookies?

Tuna!

We put a good size pile of tuna in each corner of the bottom trays to support the trays above. 

The pile of tuna is conveniently contained in a perfectly sized can. (Had you there for a moment, didn’t I?)

Once the hamentashen are ready to bake, the cans are removed from the trays and returned to the cabinet for future meals or bakings of cookies.

And there you have it, the relationship between tuna and Queen Esther!

Happy Purim!

Let Them Eat Cake

The prototype ...

This, naturally, left us with a whole lot of cake. What to do? What to do?

First we hit all of the neighbors on our floor. Then we took the top layer to the lobby and sat for an hour and gave out cake.
It was fun. We made lots of people happy and now only have the two 9 inch layers to "dispose" of. (The remaining top layer is going to another family on our floor as soon as they get home.)

Now ... I think I need some cake ...

Ready ...

It's still 4 weeks away but we are getting ready. I may be in charge of the knit goods but that all pales in comparisson to what Mike is in charge of ...

the baked goods. This is the start of the trial run.

(That's a 16 inch cake next to two nines and an eight.)