Starry Wisdom

Finally, it is time for my second installment of Hanukkah side dishes – and this time I bring you the recipe for noodle kugel. Kugels are a very common Ashkenazic side dish, and they can range from sweet to savory, but in my family the sweet has always reigned supreme. This recipe is actually courtesy of my mom’s good friend, and our next door neighbor growing up, Joan Futterman. Joan is a fantastic cook, and her Kugel recipe is, well, also fantastic.

Sweet Noodle Kugel
Servers at least 10

• 16 ounce wide egg noodles
• 16 ounce container cottage small curd cottage cheese
• 16 container sour cream
• 8 ounce cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp orange juice
• 1 tsp lemon juice (optional)
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 3 chopped or thinly sliced peeled large apples
• â…“ cup cinnamon sugar mixture
• â…“ cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 stick melted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. Cook the noodles until al dente, and drain
3. Mix the rest of the ingredients together, except for the graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon sugar
4. Fold mixed ingredients into noodles
5. Put mixture into a greased 9×13 inch baking dish
6. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon suger on top
7. Bake uncovered for 60 minutes. Check after 50 minutes to make sure it is not burning
8. Let rest for 20 minutes before slicing. The kugel may be served hot,at room temperature, or even cold

And yes, this is not a dessert, this is eaten with the main course!

Well, I owe you all another post about side dishes – I hope to be able to do that this week. But right now, I want to do a quick (I just wrote SQUID there, btw) rundown of the books I read in 2011.

I read a total of 23 books in 2011, which is far short of the 30 books I resolved to read, according to the resolutions I put in the champagne bottle last year, which we cracked open on NYE. Anyway, some more info:

Only 7 of the books were nonfiction, and two of those were memoirs. Maybe this is balanced out that one of the books was about deeds in California? I don’t know. That one was not one of my favorite books of the year.

I read two books by David Foster Wallace in 2011, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again and The Pale King. The latter is his posthumously published ‘last’ novel, although it’s to complete, so I’m really not sure what to call it. Despite that fact, it ranks as one of my favorite thing read in 2011, without a doubt. It’s also one of the two books published in 2011 I read this year, the other being Tina Fey’s Bosspants which I did not like nearly as much!

I read almost half (eleven) of the books electronically, via the Kindle reader on my iPad. Actually, wait, I read 12, so really just over half, of the books electronically; I read Bossypants on Mackenzie’s actually Kindle. It’s very convenient, and very comfortable to read this way in bed, but I do have some misgivings about the whole thing. The last physical book I read this year was a reread of At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft, back in September, which I own at least two copies of in various collections.