I had a very quite Purim this year. In the past I’ve thrown a raucous Purimschpiel, so this was a little strange. I think I’ll throw the party again next year, I just felt kind of sad. My topsy-turvy Purim was to have a quite day instead of a big party where I read the bible and make people act it out. It’s much more fun than it sounds!
I did manage to make some hamentashen, but they just weren’t up to my usual standards. The first problem is that I couldn’t find a single store in DC that sells the poppy seed filling and I just didn’t feel like trekking to the suburbs. I gave in and made my own, but it’s just not as good. I don’t know what I do wrong — maybe it’s sitting in corn syrup for months that gives the canned stuff that special touch. The filling turned out a lot better than my previous attempts, which may have been because I let it sit for a day before using it.
I hope you all had a festive Purim and are now in preparation for Pesach. I have two tiny revisions to make the PeelaPom Haggadah, which I hope to have posted this week. There’s a couple of typos we discovered during the seder last year that both of my copy editors missed.
Technorati Tags: mohn, hamentashen, poppy seeds, purim, baking, passover, pesach, haggadah
I guess you know that the Hamentaschen (Oznei Haman in Hebrew) or a late verse of vagina-shaped cookies in the honor of Ishtar, the Queen of Heavens (Purim in general, is a late verse of a fertility holiday to Ishtar in that time of year. This is why Hadasa is called Ester - in rememebrence of Ishtar).
Anyhow, I like to fill them with strawberries or apples - it’s yummy and it reminds me of the original fertility meaning of the Purim.
I suppose I should have mentioned the fertility/yoni connection of Purim and and the hamentshen — thanks for pointing it out. One of the reasons that I love the poppy seed filling is for the symbolic nature of the cookies filled with seeds — the fertility references in that. I do wonder if the “cakes for the queen of heaven” are where hamentashen or oznei haman came from.
I also made some cherry filled ones — but well — cherry filled yoni — enough said.
I hear Purim is quite the party in Israel.