Purim Feast

Last night our Sunday School class, which essentially consists of three families, including ours, had our version of a Purim Feast. We recently studied the book of Esther, and as you may know, Purim is the holiday Jews celebrate in order to remember the story of Esther. Jamie and I did some online research and came up with a menu; each family (aka the women :) ) prepared two traditional Purim dishes. It was so much fun and all the food turned out to be really good! It was interesting to experience a bit of a traditional Jewish holiday - being Christians, those are our roots afterall!



Two interesting things about Purim... everyone is supposed to boo and hiss everytime Haman's name is mentioned during the reading of Esther. Jamie bought noise makers for all the kids and while he read the story (out of Soph's Bible :) ) of Esther, each time he said Haman the kids got to go crazy! It was such fun. The other interesting thing is that you are supposed to get very inebriated during the Purim feast. So drunk in fact, that you can't tell the difference between "Blessed is Mordecai," and "Cursed is Haman." We decided not to partake in that particular tradition... :)


Anyways, if you have a small group, Sunday school class or brave family, I encourage you to research and take part in a Jewish feast/holiday. It's really interesting and enlightening, and fun! Jamie and I partook in a Passover feast in LA with our small group, and it was amazing.


My favorite recipe from our Purim feast were these little cookies I made. They are supposed to represent Haman's three-cornored hat (didn't know he wore one, did you?! :) ). Here's the recipe. It looks more complicated than it is, they are actually quite simple to make and they are delish!


Tasty Hamantashen


4 cups flour
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar1 cup margarine, softened
1 Tbsp. Orange juice
2 tsps. Baking powder
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. Orange rind


FILLINGS1 pound strawberry or apricot preserves
Preheat oven to 350°.
Grease cookie sheets.


Place all ingredients in a large mixer bowl and beat together. You may add a drop more juice or flour, depending on consistency of dough. Roll dough into a ball. Divide into four parts. Proceed to assemble and bake according to Hamantashen illustrated.


Illustrated Guide: 1. Prepare dough of your choice. Divide into four portions

2. On a floured board roll out each portion to about 1/8-inch thick. Using a round bicuit or cookie cutter cut 3-inch circles.

3. Place 1/2 to 2/3 teaspoon of desired filling in the center of each circle.

4. To shape into triangle, lift up right and left sides, leaving the bottom down and bring both side to meet at the center above the filling.

5. Bring top flap down to the center to meet the two sides. Pinch edges together.

6. Place on grease cookie sheet 1 inch apart and bake at 350 degree preheated oven for 20 minutes.


I used strawberry preserves and I actually halved the recipe b/c it makes a whole lot of dough! Doing this still made about 3 dozen cookies!

Ruthie :)