And since I'm posting a Christmas video every night leading up to Christmas, I think it's only fair to post a Hanukkah video every night of Hanukkah…so prepare yourself for eight different renditions of the most popular Hanukkah song — that Public Domain Classic, Tom Lehrer's "I'm Spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica." We start with Mr. Lehrer's own recording of it…
And I'll also throw in my new favorite Hanukkah song which is not public domain. In fact, I don't know if they even got permission to parody the hit song on which it's based. This is the Jewish a cappella group known as The Maccabeats…
Interested in a latke recipe? I'll give you a choice. Here is Alton Brown's, which unlike all others I've ever seen doesn't use flour or matzo meal but instead calls for instant mashed potatoes. What would an Alton Brown recipe be without at least one ingredient or kitchen tool that no other human being ever thought of using before?
My mother's latkes — which of course were the best in the world — were made using a slight variation on Jenny Grossinger's recipe. Ms. Grossinger was to Jewish cooking what Antonius Stradivarius was to making violins. Here is that recipe and remember that the most important thing is to make sure you get as much water as possible out before you put them into the frying pan. Mr. Stradivarius did the same thing with his fiddles.