Lights, Flames, and Turducken

/ Tuesday 15 December 2009 /
Warning: There are no quilts in this post.
Chanukiot
Seems like the quilting blogopolis in awash in the red and green of Christmas.  Jewish quilters are a rare breed, it seems!  But there are a few of us around, and here are a couple of pics to show what we've been up to - last night marked the beginning of the fourth day of Chanukah.
Fourth candle
Chanukah 2009
Fourth night
Here's the back of a chanukiyah my daughter made when she was five.  It says "Dear Family, this is for us.  Happy Chanukah and Love, Eve.".  I love that all the words are there, but squished in wherever she could find space, never mind about the word order.
DSC_0002
Chanukah is not a religious holiday.  It celebrates a military victory of the Maccabees over the Syrians and the reclamation of the Temple.  The miracle of Chanukah refers to the story that when the  Temple had been rededicated, and Judah Maccabee went to light the eternal flame, there was only enough oil to burn for one night.  By a miracle, the flame burned for the entire eight days that were required to obtain a new supply of oil.  The letters on the sides of the dreidel represent the words Nes gadol haya sham, or A great miracle happened there.
Olympic flame
 As you know, the Winter Olympics are in Vancouver this winter, and the torch is making its way across the country.  Last night, the torch came to our town, carried by Vicki Keith, best known for her swim across Lake Ontario.  Seems like the whole world turned out!  There was such a crush I wasn't able to get my camera out in time to capture Vicki lighting the flame from torch, but here's a nice photo from a better photographer than me.  Lots of proud Canadians in market square last night. I love this guy.
Ho Habs Ho
Oh, and I couldn't end this blog post without telling you about my experience cooking a turducken!  On Saturday night I hosted my students and their significant others in our tiny, tiny house for our lab holiday party.  It was presented to me that it would be an excellent idea to roast a turducken, which is a boned chicken stuffed inside a  boned duck, stuffed inside a boned turkey, all stuffed with dressing.  It weighed 25 pounds when Winnie, one of my students, dropped it off on Friday, with the instructions written out by the butcher:  "Cook for 4 hours at 325.  Internal temperature must be 180."
Turducken before
Huh.  Four hours, eh?  I was a bit skeptical, so I figured I should allow a bit more time.  It's a good thing I did, since the dratted thing took eight and a half hours to reach 180 degrees.  Here you see it in all its glory (with a piece of chocolate Chanukah gelt to show scale?)
DSC_0075
DSC_0131
We were all assembled at 6pm, but the dang bird(s) wasn't ready until after 8pm.  Never mind, although we were hungry, we whiled away the time playing poker dreidel and eating the chocolate money that we won.
Grant money
I lost all my money before I could eat it, so that was good for my waistline.  The Incredible Shrinking Quilters will be proud of me!  Happy holidays -- no matter what kind -- to all of you!

14 comments:

{ Unknown } on: 15 December 2009 at 08:08 said...

Happy Chanukah to you and your family! I have never seen a turducken, heard about it though. Did you like it?

{ Amy } on: 15 December 2009 at 09:13 said...

I'm a jewish quilter - and I have to agree that we are a rare breed!It is definitley very rare to see anything Chanukah related on any of the quilting/crafting blogs that I read! Happy Chanukah!

{ Dee } on: 15 December 2009 at 10:23 said...

Zionist Christian here! We celebrated our first Pesach with friends this year. We tried to be as "kosher" as we could.

Thank you for your post. We don't celebrate Chanukah, but we have it on our calendar and our children knew when it started this year!

Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam
she'asah nisim la'avoteinu bayamim haheim baziman hazeh. (Amein)

Blessings be upon you and your family during this season!

{ The Calico Cat } on: 15 December 2009 at 11:44 said...

& now I feel the need to post about my Hanukkah quilt(s).

{ Erin @ Why Not Sew? Quilts } on: 15 December 2009 at 12:48 said...

Your pictures are beautiful and I would love to try a turducken! Was is yummy?

{ quiltermom2 } on: 15 December 2009 at 13:52 said...

Awsomeness! I have wanted to try a turducken but never been brave enough! Happy Holidays!!!

Anonymous on: 15 December 2009 at 15:17 said...

Thanks for linking my picture on flickr! Happy Holidays to you and your family!

{ Mary @ Neat and Tidy } on: 15 December 2009 at 17:38 said...

Sounds like such fun!

{ Thelma } on: 16 December 2009 at 06:46 said...

Who thinks of this stuff.....Turducken? What did it taste like?

{ Rene' } on: 16 December 2009 at 20:16 said...

Thank you for sharing your Chanukah history and beautiful menorahs. So beautiful!!!! How did the turducken taste? You are very brave to attempt that dish. Sounds like a fun evening. Happy Holidays!!

{ Rosalyn Manesse } on: 17 December 2009 at 01:21 said...

Happy Chanukah!

{ Kate } on: 17 December 2009 at 03:46 said...

What a great post! I am a Jewish crafter feeling swamped under with all the Christmas posts at the moment. So your post was refreshing to come accross. happy Chanukah to you and your family.

{ Yuki } on: 20 December 2009 at 13:39 said...

So how was the Turducken? Inquiring minds want to know. LOL Happy Chanukah. I'm no religion but I love this time of year, folks seem nicer.

ttfn :) Yuki in chilly Silver Spring, Maryland

{ Cheryl Arkison } on: 12 January 2010 at 22:49 said...

Poker dreidel and Christmas crackers? I love it!

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