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!

Purim!

O.k., maybe the exclamation point is not called for since we lamed out this year. The kids had the option of going to religious school in costume. Since I only help with costumes if actually asked, and was not asked, they got creative with what they had. Little Squid kept on his scarf, hat and mittens and went as a wasp. Not a bumblebee. You see, a wasp can keep stinging without dying and bumblebees die when they sting. Little Squid wanted to keep stinging ... Always the scientific one ...

Squidette became her evil robot self. 'Nuf said.

A response to Mel the Elf ... The reason that Hamentashen feature the "time four" factor has to do with the vast amount of fat in the recipe. The fat actually encases extra weight and transports them to another dimension. When you eat the pastry, the fat breaks down and causes the extra weight to be retrieved and instantly installed on your midsection. This also explains why so many high fat items are physically light yet pack a serious punch weight-wise.

[Note to readers: Mel the Elf has frequently wondered how he can eat one pound of dinner and weigh two pounds more so this question actually make sense ... at least to me.]

Meanwhile we are in the middle of a debate about the Large and Terrible Frog. Is he so large that he can actually eat a little bunny? Do bunnies get smaller when dipped in dirt? Shouldn't the Birds be eating the frogs? And what about the cookies?

Hamentashen!

We baked today. I made the dough and rolled it out, the Squidlings cut filled and shaped the pastry. Then I burned baked it. You will notice that some of them are a little charred brown. Those are mostly gone. There were 84. Now ... I don't know. Some will be packed for friends, some will be shared at work. None will be brought with us to Purim dinner tomorrow because our relatives keep kosher and we do not. We will probably bring a plant.






























Before baking, however, we took a walk. From a distance, I spied this:


and said to the family "great, the OneIllBuilding, let me take a picture." Take it I did and then we finished Green Market run and came upon this:
The O'Neill Building. Oops. Now we have to figure out what the other domed building is. We did figure out that it is the building on the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 22nd Street and promise to pay attention the next time we make a Green Market run.On the knitting front, I finished these for Squidette. The are shown next to my dainty humongous foot for comparison. Don't you like the way the non-striping Dave yarn kind of striped in a pattern designed to break up striping? They got their first work out today and my conclusion ... I have to buy slightly looser biking shoes so I can wear my hand knit socks!