L'chei-im

We were lucky enough to be invited to a Hanukkah dinner on Friday night.  We were to bring drinks, and though my Jewish friends aren't really all that devout, we wanted to get into the spirit of things and bring some sort of kosher alcoholic beverage. 

I sent John to the liquor store to pick up some kosher wine. So John goes and looks and looks and looks, then finally calls me for advice.  Apparently my advice "just get something that sounds Jewish" isn't all that helpful because he askes me "What about Sutter Home?"  I respond "Does Sutter Home sound Jewish to you?"  He gets all exasperated and says "I DON'T KNOW?!?!"  Finally I tell him just to ask someone.  He refuses.  Which I don't get (classic man-won't-ask-for-directions syndrome).  So I get off the phone with him, call the liquor store myself (he's still AT the liquor store at this point) and ask them if they have kosher wine.  They say they have two, I hang up and I call John back.  I tell him what to get, and he looks and he looks and he looks, still can't find it.  I get fed up and tell him to ASK SOMEONE ALREADY! and hang up.  He came home with the two wines I'd told him to get: Manischewitz red creme concord and Mogen David Blackberry.

The dinner was great, we had Matzoh Ball Chicken Soup, Potato Latkes, Carrot Tzimmis (aka candied carrots and apples), Challah bread, Tomato & Onion Braised Brisket and Noodle Kugel (aka noodle pudding) for dessert.

Our wines were good, though the Manischewitz was WAY too sweet for me.  I ended up having three or four glasses of the Mogen David, with no real buzz, so I'm thinking kosher = weak on the alcohol content.

It was fun to share someone else's holiday traditions for a change.  Though the Gentiles outnumbered the Jews at this particular dinner (out of the 10 of us, only 2 were Jewish), it didn't really matter.  Good food and good company make for a wonderful evening in my book.