A couple of days ago my daughter, Star called me saying, “I’m sure you’ve sent this before and I promise to file it this time. Please send me your latke recipe.” She called while I was having latkes for lunch on my first day on my new exciting job as the Development Director of a stupendous start-up nonprofit called the L.A. Kitchen. Check us out at www.LAKitchen.org and be sure to sign up for the newsletter so that you are notified when our new site rolls out next week. If you art in the LA area keep an eye out for a building dedication and open house after the first of the year.

Back to latkes – I checked my recipe files and found that I had never actually written down the recipe. That seemed odd. I checked around the site too and found that while I had mentioned latkes (notably in my post about chicken fat and one about having latkes with the girls) again, no recipe. So, dear readers, today’s the day. The final (8^th) day of Chanukah starts at sundown tonight, but it’s never the wrong time for latkes! Enjoy!

Yesterday was Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Chanukah at City Hall. LA’s first elected Jewish mayor (yeah, really!) called in the Jewish Federation and the Counsel General of Israel to participate. It was great seeing former colleagues from the Fed and other friends who work in City government but the best was watching the mayor’s daughter Maya steal the show – 3^rd generation political family…her father had to wrestle her for the microphone.

I called to wish Amanda a happy 8^th birthday last night and asked how the latkes were that she made on Monday. She declared that not only were they excellent but that she was going to be an even better cook than I was because she had started so young. I totally believe her! Check out Star’s latkes! At first I thought that was a poached egg on top: that would be a winning idea!