Yesterday several of Danielle’s friends joined Danielle and I as we made hamentaschen, triangular-shaped cookies filled with a prune mixture, poppy seeds, and jams. These cookies are traditional for the holiday of Purim which is today. The cookies are called “Haman’s Ears” in Hebrew, because they are supposedly shaped like the ears of the Jewish people’s nemesis during the time of Persian King Achashverosh. The story goes that the king married Esther, the niece of Mordechai, a Jew, who was hated by Haman, a minister in the king’s court. When Haman wanted to kill the Jews, Queen Esther boldly went to the King and disclosed that she too would be killed because she was Jewish. The King then reversed the order and had Haman and his 10 sons hung instead. Kind of like a soap opera on steroids. Except that today we rejoice that we were saved, we eat (as in all holidays), we listen to the story of Purim in the Scroll of Esther while we dress up in costumes, and we give out gifts of food to friends. For this year, we shared our hamentaschen.
-Barb in La Cruz
I wish I could have tasted your hamantaschen; they look fabulous and must have tasted just as good! I had to be content with store-bought ones - even though I had a better-equipped kitchen to work in as well as more time on my hands... sigh... the virtues of being young and energetic!
ReplyDeleteHamentashen look good. Should I buy my airline tickets to fiji?
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to have tried yours! No one in my house was interested in a prune filling (except for me) so we made chocolate ones with peanut butter chips. Still delish!
ReplyDeletexoxo