08/31/2021
Dear Temple Sinai Bakers Guild:
Shana tova! You are a member of the stalwart crew that shows up, year in and year out, to make our celebrations festive and fun by providing homemade sweets and savories. These past many months I have had little opportunity to call on you to share your gifts of cooking and baking, shopping and arranging. It has been especially disappointing that, once again, we cannot gather for the High Holy Days. But I am hopeful we will be able to come together again and your talents will once again help to make Temple Sinai the warm and welcoming place we all know it can be.
While it does take a measure of optimism to plan for anything right now, I want to tell you about our developing plans for a Hanukah Homecoming Perhaps you will want to help us make it delicious!
The rough plan is as follows: Saturday, December 4 we will gather in person (assuming it is safe to do so) at Temple Sinai to celebrate the seventh night of Hanukah with havdalah, stories, songs, candle lighting, several fun workshops, and a Hanukah dinner. We want this event to be multigenerational, volunteer driven, and as inclusive as possible.
The big question is, “Are there enough of you willing to contribute your talents to these two projects?” This is not an official sign-up yet. But please let me know if you think you can help.
Hanukah Homecoming Dinner
We really don't want to have to charge for the dinner. We are planning a meal of hearty, healthy, homemade salads prepared by congregants. (Of course, we will also have bread and sufganyot, to balance out the healthy!) I will provide recipes for things like sesame noodles, orzo salad, Moroccan carrot salad, potato salad, tuna salad, roasted cauliflower salad, maybe a Chinese chicken salad--you get the idea!
We are going to need quantities generous enough to feed a lot of people! So, once we settle on the exact menu, I will coordinate at least two people to prepare a gallon of each recipe. Volunteers will be able to deliver their salads to the Temple on Friday afternoon December 3, or during the day on Saturday. (We don't have much in our kitchen, but we do have refrigerators!!)
, I will also need volunteers at dinner serving the salads to keep everything as sanitary as possible.
Would you be willing to prepare a gallon of a yet-to-be-determined hearty, healthy salad? Do you have a favorite recipe you would be willing to share?
Hanukah Cookie Decorating
One of the workshops offered after dinner will be decorating Hanukah shaped sugar cookies, to be served at the end of the evening.
I need volunteers to bake up a bunch of cookies using a sugar cookie mix or premade dough and cutters I will provide. Cookie bakers will be able to deliver their cookies to me anytime before Friday, December 3, or to the Temple on Friday, December 3, or Saturday, December 4.
, we will all wear gloves! And, again, volunteers will use tongs to serve the cookies.
Would you be willing to bake a few dozen sugar cookies using Hanukah cookie cutters? Do you know which is better; Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix or Pillsbury’s Cookie Dough?
As always, please do not stress if you can’t help this time. After all, everything is a bit up in the air these days. I’m just making sure I’m not biting off more than I can chew. And, unless you ask me to stop asking, I will ask you again!
Hoping you and yours are staying safe.
Laurie Leiber
Temple Sinai Bakers Guild
