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Last night was the first night of Hanukkah and we had two of our favorite dining companions over to have dinner and light the candles.  Since moving back to Chicago, we usually celebrate Hanukkah with a dinner at my husband’s parents’ house.   In other words, I’ve never had the occasion to cook for this holiday.  And this year, I have not only one excuse (dinner last night) but two (we’ll be having Kevins’ parents and some relatives for dinner on Sunday night, too!).  I had a whole new world of recipes open to me and man, was I excited.

In addition to being the first night of Hanukkah and the first time I’ve cooked a meal to celebrate the holiday, it was also the first real snow in Chicago.  The first not-so-real snow came on Saturday, yes the day of our cocktail party.  On Saturday, I glared out the window as I stirred the sangria pitcher, convinced that Mother Nature was trying to derail our festivities.  But yesterday, I was happy to see the flakes fall.  You see, I had a brisket braising away in the oven by the time the storm rolled in.  And is if that weren’t hearty and comforting enough, I was also trying out a new soup: butternut squash and apple soup.

For dessert, I baked a batch of rugelach (first time!), the recipe and photos for which I am very excited to share with you soon.  You might be asking yourself about the notable Hanukkah staple missing from the menu: Latkes.  Well, shame on you for even asking.  Come on, it was a Tuesday!  And I’d been braising a brisket for hours!!  There was no way I was undertaking a major operation like Latkes.  No, those will have to wait until Sunday.

Luckily, the soup, brisket, simply dressed spicy greens and rugelach were so good that no one missed the latkes (at least, I hope not).  The soup, which required a number of modifications (as I was warned by the commenters on Epicurious, as always), was lovely: velvety, smoky and a brilliant orange.  While I pre-roasted the butternut squash flesh, I also toasted up some of its seeds.  Along with a dollop of Greek yogurt, they were the perfect garnish, adding some nutiness and crunch.  And the brisket … oh, the brisket.  I’m a sucker for braised meat and it was about time I tried a brisket (another first!).  This Zinfandel-braised version was delicious–tender, aromatic and just as fall-apart-good as brisket should be (though, in my opinion, not quite as good as my mother-in-law’s excellent brisket). 

 Happy Hanukkah!  And to those in Chicago, happy first snow!

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There are a couple of explanations for why I just had to make Wild Rice Soup yesterday.  Perhaps it’s because this Thanksgiving was the first I’ve ever celebrated outside of Minnesota and I was craving a homegrown taste (wild rice, after all, is Minnesota’s “State Grain”—what, you don’t know your state’s grain?).  Or maybe it’s because the promise of a steamy bowl of goodness was just what I needed to ease out of a four-day weekend and into a Monday.  And the fact that it was a light meal, loaded with vegetables certainly didn’t hurt after a weekend of indulgence.

If I’m really honest, though, there are a couple of other reasons for getting to the grocery store yesterday morning for wild rice, carrots, celery (the recipe doesn’t call for it, but I usually throw some in) and fresh rosemary.  You see, the last time I made this soup (which, I should add, I’ve probably made 100 times) I was delighted to find a “deal” on wild rice at Whole Foods.  Or so I thought.  Whatever I was using was not wild rice.  While it looked just like the small dark grain my home state takes pride in, it sucked most of the liquid out of my lovely soup and turned the liquid that did remain purple.  Yes, purple.  Soup—with the possible exception of borscht (on which I am definitely not yet sold)—is not meant to be purple.  So I guess this was a bit of a mission to redeem myself.

And the final motive: leftovers.  This soup is even better warmed up the next day (or, because I often double the recipe for this exact reason, the next four days).  It was a beautiful sight to see this stack of lunches-in-waiting in my fridge this Monday morning:

Whatever the cause, I had a pot of this soup—one of my favorites—bubbling away by early afternoon yesterday.  It was creamy (the slurry of 2% milk and flour really does impart a velvety texture to this soup, unlike most “light” creamy soup recipes) and earthy (thank you, rosemary and wild rice) and hearty.  And, best of all, it wasn’t purple!  (more…)