Holidays

Next week is Tu B'Shevat, and for many Jews the holiday has become about a lot more than tithing trees, according to a recent article in Something Jewish. With the upsurge in environmental activism jump-started by Hurricane Katrina and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and our continuing concern over where our food comes from, Jews in their 20s and 30s are incorporating green ideology into their Tu B'Shevat seders.

Some organizers will relate Tu B'Shevat to issues of environmental justice and environmental racism, while others are using the holiday to advocate for local and organic food. According to the article, a seder scheduled in San Francisco is billing itself as "eco-kosher," meaning the food served is sustainably grown and produced in a socially just manner, "[combining] progressive politics with religious imperative."

While Tu B'Shevat seders focusing on environmental concerns have been around since the 1970s, today's seders include much more religious content, according to many of the organizers. Combining environmental activism, an issue so prominent on today's forecast, with Jewish tradition may prove to be an attraction for formerly disenchanted Jews to rejoin the religious community.

Here's a list of environmental seders to check out in the big cities:

* In Chicago, Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps is running its first communitywide Tu B’Shevat seder in the co-op apartment shared by this year’s seven young program participants, all in their early 20s.

* The Tu B’Shevat seder in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, held in Dolgin’s living room the past several years, is moving into a rented space to accommodate its growing numbers.

* The Kavod Jewish Social Justice House is having a seder in Boston for young adults with students from Hebrew College, alumni of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem and the Charles River Bet Midrash.

* In the Washington area, Shomrei Adamah will be co hosting a Tu B'Shevat seder and Shabbat celebration with Am Kolel, Jews United for Justice and the Shalom Center.

* Hazon, a New York-based Jewish environmental group, is running its sixth Tu B’Shevat seder at the JCC in Manhattan, and one is being organized for Limmud NY, a Jewish learning program taking place Jan. 17-20 in the Catskill Mountains.

Anthony Bourdain Says: you're rude.I'm not going to pretend that I'm a fan of Anthony Bourdain. This is a man who has labeled all vegans as "rude" (ironic, considering he's easily one of the rudest people on television) and calls them the "Hezbollah-like splinter-faction" of vegetarians. This is a man who has said that "the sooner we asphyxiate in our own filth, the better." This is a man whose appetite is whetted by watching a live cobra have its still-beating heart ripped out, then served to him in a dish. Clearly, Bourdain and I have very different world-views and principles. Perhaps the one thing he and I agree on is that Rachel Ray is really, really insufferable.

Though I often can't stomach his Travel Channel show, No Reservations, thanks to his caustic and surly hosting (and penchant for the cruel), clearly I'm in the minority. People seem to love (maybe it's love/hate?) the guy, so much so that Food Network, home of his first television series, A Cook's Tour, has announced that they'll be reprising the series with a marathon on Christmas.

The series, featuring outspoken chef Anthony Bourdain, returns to Food Network with a Christmas Day Marathon, airing four back-to-back episodes on Tuesday, December 25th from 9-11pm ET/PT. The series will then join the primetime lineup in its new timeslot on Tuesday, January 8th at 10:30pm ET/PT.

The Christmas Day marathon includes:

9:00pm "So Much Vodka So Little Time" -- Russia
9:30pm "Dining with Geishas" -- Japan
10:00pm "How to Be a Carioca" -- Brazil
10:30pm "Stuffed like a Pig" -- France

So, there you go: order in some Kung Pao and Moo Shu and celebrate the winter solstice with Bourdain.

...you come across something like this:

 
Hat Tip: Gothamist

By now we've all read Steve Almond's A Very Osama Hanukkah, and some of us have even worked our way through Christopher Hitchens' scathing testimony on what he terms "tribal Jewish backwardness," wittily entitled Bah, Hanukkah, over at Slate. It would seem that this Hanukkah season is about raising consciousness, confronting the past, and being accountable for our actions and traditions. What fun! While we're at it, I thought we might as well confront some current "backwardness," for example, the backwardness of how we treat the animals we raise for food with heartless violence and torture. (Oh, cut me some slack, I'm just getting into the holiday spirit). First up is the evils of the Egg Industry, and Exhibit A is the battery cage! Give that a read, and if it upsets your stomach, fear not: I have an infallible, mouth-watering, egg-free latke recipe for you. Happy Hanukkah, you backward fundamentalist.

Humane Latkes
4 Russet Potatoes
6 Teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer, packed flat
8 Tablespoons of warm water
2 Small Yellow Onions
Salt and Pepper to taste
Oil such as Grapeseed, Rice Bran, or Canola for frying

Using a food processor (or old-fashioned grater, if you're a backward fundamentalist), shred the potatoes and onions so that they feel the pain of centuries of backwardness.

In a small mixing bowl, combine 6 Teaspoons of Ener-G Egg Replacer with 8 Tablespoons of warm water. Mix thoroughly.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the shredded potatoes and onions with the Egg Replacer. Add salt and pepper and mix well.

In a large frying or griddle pan, heat your oil. Use a small serving spoon to scoop the mixture into the pan. Flatten, and fry until golden and crispy on both sides. Serve after your self-flagellation parade, with apple sauce and non-dairy sour cream.

Careful how many latkes you eat tonight, ladies (and Happy Hanukkah, too). A new Dutch study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, has shown that a carcinogenic chemical called acrylamide is produced in starchy foods that have been baked, fried, roasted, and grilled.

In the study, researchers from the University of Maastricht in Maastricht, the Netherlands looked at data from 62,000 women and established a direct link between consumption of this chemical and incidence of ovarian and endometrial cancer.

The study showed women who had high intake of acrylamide were more than twice as likely to develop ovarian or endometrial cancer as those who ate a smaller amount.

While indulging in pan-fried potatoes over the next week won't kill you, you might want to think twice about how often you eat potato chips and fries from now on.

To make your latkes a tad healthier this Hanukkah, consult our handy list of oils and choose the best option for you.

Butcher, Baker?: Candlestick Maker. Hard to believe, but the Manufacturers Association of Israel is predicting a drop in sufganiyot sales this Hanukkah.

A new survey held by the MAI estimated that Hanukkah 2007 will see only 17.5 million sufganiyot sold – a 4% drop from 2006, citing "the obvious health reasons".

The money saved on jelly donuts will instead be put toward cigarettes. Just kidding. They're actually anticipating a surge in sales of (the much less delectable and digestible) Hanukkah candles--with an expected 10% rise since last year.

So I'm planning my Hanukkah party for next weekend, putting together recipes and making grocery lists, when I come across this. It's an article about how hunger and gluttony exist side by side in our world, and it quickly pulls me out of my latke reverie. Of course, I'm well aware of the hunger problem we face, but to see the facts drawn out like that is an instant reminder:

This year, 854 million people worldwide wake up hungry.

More than one in 10 U.S. residents, including 12.6 million children, live in households that experience hunger.

In the real world, a person dies every 3 1/2 seconds from hunger-related causes.

Since collecting and giving tzedakah is such an integral part of being Jewish, Hanukkah is a perfect time to enlist your friends and family for a charitable cause. This past September, for my 30th birthday, I asked all of my guests to bring a can for donation to a local food pantry. It wound up being a huge success. See for yourself:

If you're getting together with friends or family for Hanukkah this year, this is a really simple way to do some good as a group. Just ask everyone to bring a can along with that side dish or present, collect them all in a box or tough bag, and drop them off at your local food pantry afterward. If you do it, take pictures or video, and send them in with a note about how it went.

With Hanukkah nearly upon us, it's time to start prepping our latke recipes. The oil that we fry them in is more than just a nod to the Festival of Lights: It's an essential ingredient as well, so it's important to choose wisely. Different oils vary in flavor, nutritional value, and smoke points, and do you even know what Canola is? I've gone ahead and done some of the preliminary legwork to help you choose the right oil for your frying pan. You'll find ideal oils for latke frying under the "Freedom Fry" heading, and oils to avoid on the "No Fry" list. Keep in mind that just because an oil appears on the "No Fry" list doesn't mean that it's unhealthy -- for example, Flaxseed oil is rich in omega 3 fatty acids and can help lower cholesterol, but heat can destroy its omega 3 properties. Canola, on the other hand, has a higher smoke point, but those who wish to avoid GMOs and bioengineered products might want to stay away, as 80% of acres sown to canola are planted with genetically modified seed. When doing your shopping, remember this: Many oils come from plants that are sprayed with fat-soluble pesticides. Those pesticides concentrate in the oil portion of the plant, so always buy organic when you can. One last tip: Remember to change your oil out after every couple of batches. The longer an oil is heated, the more free fatty acids form, which lowers the smoke point and increases your chances of burning. Whatever oil you choose, I wish you a happy Hanukkah filled with luscious latkes and lots of love.

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Think Thanksgiving is a secular holiday? Think again. In fact, it's quite possibly a direct descendant of Sukkot. Wait, what? Sukkot? The Jewish harvest festival of Booths? Yup. Robert J. Hutchinson, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible, writes in an editorial today about the biblical roots of Thanksgiving:

There is at least some evidence that the deeply pious Pilgrims - who, as Puritans, believed the Old Testament law was binding on Gentiles as well as Jews - may have been partially inspired by the Jewish harvest festival of Booths (Sukkot).

Sukkot is a week-long celebration, mandated in Leviticus 23, in which the Jewish people remember and give thanks for their deliverance from bondage in Egypt. It is usually observed in October -- as was the original Thanksgiving in 1621.

At the very least, the concept and duty of thanksgiving is deeply rooted in the Biblical tradition. Indeed, you can actually see much of the Torah’s ceremonial commandments as being nothing less than institutionalized thanksgiving: The Sabbath, Passover, the Festival of Weeks, The Festival of Booths, the entire sacrificial system, seeks to inculcate among the people the awareness of divine graciousness.

So, when you're stuffing that Turkey (or Tofurkey, if you're one of my ilk) and candying those yams (mmm, yams) take a moment to think of our biblical ancestors, whom we have to thank for this long weekend.

This holiday season, Jews everywhere can experience the taste of a Christmas ham--without actually eating one. Yup, the crazies at Jones Soda are at it again, and this time they've created a Christmas Pack and a Chanukah Pack. Christmas flavors include Christmas ham, Christmas tree, egg nog, and sugar plum, and the sodas come with one "very cool stocking stuffer." The Chanukah Pack includes latke, apple sauce, chocolate coins, and jelly doughnut and comes with a dreidel. Both are certified kosher, caffeine free, and can be ordered on their Web site.

These are the same people who came up with dirt, sports cream, and perspiration sodas as a tribute to the Seattle Seahawks. They pride themselves on the accuracy of their flavors.