Rocky Mountain Jew

With all of the heavy, tragic news emanating from seemingly every corner on earth, we can’t forget that it’s still Chanukah and there is still a lot of room for joy and celebration.

With Purim on the horizon, flour, butter, eggs and jams are found on kitchen counters in Jewish homes — including ours. The title “Best Hamantaschen Recipe Ever” certainly captured our attention. That’s what Shannon Sarna of The Nosher calls the hamantaschen recipe below.

Considering its prosaic nature, the ordinary onion garners its share of poetic prose. Take this line from Mark Kurlansky’s ode to the allium, The Core of an Onion: “The onion is an extraordinary lily, certainly more talented than other lilies.”

The nine days, which began Monday, Aug. 5, is a period of heightened mourning in the Jewish calendar, culminating with Tisha b’Av, the Ninth of Av. During this mourning period, anything associated with joy or celebration is traditionally forbidden. That includes the consumption of meat, with some exceptions, including Shabbat or if one is making a siyyum, a ceremony upon completing a unit of Torah study.

When Elite Candy’s factory temporarily shut down a couple of years back due to a fire, Israeli candy lovers everywhere went into withdrawal. We know of one Denverite (hint: you’ll typically find her on Page 2 of the IJN) who deeply missed her regular Egozi bar top-ups delivered by a faithful brother.