For DIY-loving Passover celebrants
Making your own Matzah seems easy enough, if you can work quickly. The key is to get it all done before the dough has a chance to rise! We found this straight-forward video on Youtube that breaks down the whole baking process.
You’ll need:
Have you ever made your own Matzah?
Image via Youtube
Our Purim Bunchbrary goes great with Hamantaschen
Is Purim the most fun of all Jewish holidays? It’s certainly in the running! Costumes, cookies, a kickass queen and escaping a proto-Hitler, what’s not to love? Here are five stories to read with your kids this week. (Purim starts tomorrow evening, March 7, and goes until the evening of March 8.)
1. Cakes and Miracles by Barbara Diamond Goldin (2010)
Hershel wants to help his mother prepare for Purim and make the Hamantaschen with her. One problem: he’s blind. “If only I could see, he thinks, I could help my mother more.” Good thing an angel comes to him in his dream and tells him what he can make and how he can help.
2. Purim Goodies by Amalia Hoffman (2007)
How do you make this Hanukkah favourite?
Last year we found five awesome recipes to try and even ended up making a couple at home! Sweet potato and apple is a real winner, friends.
So, who’s eating latkes tonight? Care to share some family traditions? How many onions are you able to grate before you need to take a break? We’re pretty tough, so we’re gonna say… two. And what’s the superior apple sauce: sour cream: latke ratio? Being huge sour cream fans, we’re going to say 1: 3: 3… is that terrible? Fine. 1: 2: 3 but we’re not going any lower.
Photo by elana’s pantry via Flickr
Latkes and blintzes can be a party on a plate.
Traditionally, many fried eats are made and consumed on Hanukkah. Sucking down a plate of grease-soaked carbs will suck the life out of you, especially if you happen to be a small child. These dishes are fine in moderation of course, but what about the other traditional dishes you want your kids to fill up on? Doughnuts need no assistance to be made fun. They leave us no mystery. What your kids DON’T know is that kugel and latkes can be a party on a plate! We’ve got some ways to make them appealing and a bit more healthy.
Latkes
Putting a cool spin on the traditional 4 sided top. Because Dreidels rule.
The song tells us that we make dreidels out of clay, but know there are so many ways to make a dreidel from stuff you have around the house.
Cream carton dreidel: Take a small empty cream carton and tape the spout shut. Cut an incision into the bottom center of your container, just enough to put a popsicle stick through. Hot glue it in place. Paint the milk carton all over, and draw the letters on each side.
L’Shana Tova!
Last night at a family Rosh Hashanah dinner, Bunch founder Rebecca and her producer cousin Corey Marr had a simple yet genius way of keeping the kids entertained at the table: Apple Heads.
Rebecca and Corey used plasticine to make faces on the apples and gave one to each kid. The kids could then remake their apple heads, thus keeping them at the dinner table longer. We think grownups should also get in on the apple head caricature action. Kids sitting quietly at a holiday dinner? This year’s off to a sweet start indeed!
Need more apple crafts? Did you see Krista+Kids this week where they took on a Little House in the Big Woods-inspired pomander?
Photos by Corey Marr
We spoke to some famous Jews about their Passover traditions and alternatives, and who better to start with than Alternadad himself, Neal Pollack.
What are some alternative traditions (or twists on the original) that your family does for the seder? Or rather, how have you updated the seder to make it something hip and relevant rather than an ancient bore?
The current seder crowd in my family is largely under the age of 10, so I make it a point to keep things moving quickly. We hit the high points: The Hillel sandwich, the Exodus story, the Four Questions, and so on, but I don’t hit anything over the head very hard.
