"erik r. trinidad" news and stories

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring ... except for the Fancy Fast Food Chef, stirring apple filling and honey mustard in a saucepan for a traditional Christmas dish!

We are talking about the traditional holiday ham, the centerpiece at many a Christmas dinner, which is unfortunately an item that fast-food restaurants don't sell (the whole ham anyway), so we'll have to get creative -- as usual.

Hey everybody, it's Hanukkah! It's Chanukah! No matter how you spell it, it's time for the Jewish festival of lights -- eight crazy nights of dreidels gone wild, a time when latkes are as abundant as old yentas around a mah-jongg table.

But you don't need to be Jewish to partake in Hanukkah traditions, particularly the gastronomic treat of latkes (or lattkes). No matter how you spell it, latke is Yiddish for fried pancakes, typically of the potato variety.

These oily treats are oddly similar to McDonald's hash browns. But, Bubbe Wendy has guilted us into using her Fancy Fast Food recipe ("If you just want to use McDonald's hash browns, then I guess that's fine by me..."), so here goes. Oy. ...