Photo: joshbousel Flickr.

Tonight marks the beginning of the Jewish new year -- Rosh Hashana -- and with that, a whole new cycle of holidays and special meals to go with it (in case you need another reason to justify that trip to Whole Foods).

This celebration involves quite a few riffs on the ever-popular salty-sweet flavor pairing. The sweetness in honey, apples, pomegranates and dates are added to many Rosh Hashana dishes and is often offset by the rich, savory taste of brisket or chicken.

It's tradition to begin ringing in Rosh Hashana with sliced apples and honey -- like a toast to a sweet new year. No recipe needed here, just hit up your farmer's market for some tart, crisp apples (try Macoun) and local honey.

Zucchini, Potato and Scallion Pancakes. Photo: Rec(ession)ipes.

As we transition from summer to fall, it's the perfect time to pair prime vegetables from each season.

And these zucchini, potato and scallion pancakes from Rec(ession)ipes beautifully capture the colors of autumn, while sneaking in the last tastes of summer. Pan-fried and topped with a dollop of chive sour cream, a glimpse at these almost makes up for the fact that we'll be seeing a lot less of the sun for a while. Almost.

[Via Rec(ession)ipies]

Sick of soggy latkes? Hanukkah's only a few days away, but there's plenty of time to perfect the art of frying potato pancakes...

There's just something about the crispy allure of the latke that makes it the perfect holiday side-dish. It's crisp, delicious, and a wonderful comfort food. For years they've graced holiday tables, but is everyone making them the right way?

Chow has posted a video where Leslie Jonath covers the ins and outs of latke making. Her biggest point: Don't strain the heck out of your potatoes -- you want to keep the starch in to maintain the creamy texture. But even if you ignore that controversial statement, she offers other great tips for whipping them up in a food processor, and adding crushed Vitamin C tablets to maintain color. I can't comment on their taste, but her finished product sure looks delicious.

Still, there are other ways to whip up delectable latkes, and if you want a classic strained version, check out Marisa's latke lesson from last year. I can also vouch for the sweet potato version she mentions -- tres delish!

For the last few years I've been sort of smug about my latke ability. For some reason, I've always been able to turn out perfect, round, golden, crispy latkes on the first try. But after yesterday's debacle, I realize that it wasn't me, it was my recipe. You see, I decided to change my perfect recipe to include half sweet potatoes, thinking they'd incorporate just like the normal, starchy potatoes. Only they didn't. They were too hard and didn't have nearly enough starch, so my pancakes never stayed together. I instead ended up with a pan full of sweet potato/regular potato hash browns, which were delicious, but were not what I was going for.

So, if you were thinking about incorporating sweet potatoes into your latkes this weekend, make sure to follow a recipe (like this one from Epicurious, which uses are more egg and flour than I did). And, if you want the recipe that made me feel all smug about my latke abilities, that one is after the jump.

Hanukkah starts tomorrow at sundown and with it brings an assortment of yummy seasonal foods. It is traditional to eat food that are fried during Hanukkah because the cooking fat symbolizes the oil that burned for eight days instead of one in the temple. My favorite Hanukkah food is the humble latke, because really, there's very little that's better than the fried potato.

The first time I made potato latkes was my junior year of college, when I was an RA. I decided that I wanted to do a Hanukkah-themed study break and so determined to make latkes. For 75 people. Thankfully, someone in my hall had a salad spinner, so I didn't have to do all the shredding by hand. But let me tell you, it was worth the three hours of shredding, mixing, draining and frying (we kept them warm and mostly crisp on a sheet pan in the oven). They were delicious.

If you're searching for latke recipes, look no further. I've searched far and wide for an assortment of links to good recipes, from the basic to the more unique. Happy frying!

1. Last year, Deb stayed fairly traditional with a latke recipe adapted from Food and Wine. These puppies are what I think of when someone says the word latke to me.
2. If you want to start getting a little fancier, check out these Potato-Turnip Duck-Fat Latkes over at Chow. Even just thinking about them makes me start to salivate ever so slightly.
3. Epicurious offers five variations on the latke theme. I am particularly intrigued by the New England-Style Cod and Potato Cakes with Tartar Sauce latkes.
4. Over at That's Fit, one of our sister sites, they have taken the greasy latke and made it low fat. It's a good recipe, if you want to go that direction (although it does sort of defeat the purpose. I'm just sayin').
5. For those of you who aren't fans of potato, you might be thinking about how to turn other veggies into latkes. Look no further than Elana's Butternut Squash Latkes.
6. Another variation on the theme, Eat Like a Girl does it with beets. They look a little disconcerting, but I'm sure they taste wonderful and earthy.
7. From the archives at the Amateur Gourmet, Adam makes latkes with apples and celeriac. Yum, yum!
8. And for the visual learners, check the episode of Fork You that Scott and I filmed last year in which we made latkes. Or as Scott calls them, kosher hashbrowns.

• Why not make candy to give as gifts this Christmas?
• There's no reason to be afraid of baking.
• Lighter latkes.
• An interview with Simple Cooking publisher John Thorne.
• Who makes the best frozen french fries, McCain, Oreida, Goya, Alexia, or Stop & Shop?
• Restaurant reviews: The Select Cafe, Gulu Gulu, and Haru.
• More recipes: Pumpkin Cranberry Loaf, Potato Fritters, and Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe and Toasted Breadcrumbs.

Looking for a creative and tasty breakfast this weekend? Something a little out of the ordinary that isn't too energy intensive? Why not take a page out of Brys at Cookthink's book and whip yourself up a batch of Leek and Potato Latkes? Because latkes aren't just for Hanukkah anymore. He dresses a few up with a spoonful of caviar and tops the rest with a fried egg. After seeing this post, I wished fervently for the ability to crawl into my computer screen and magically travel through time and space to the kitchen where these puppies were created. Sadly, it was not to be.

On a different latke note, if you're the type of person who learns through watching, you might want to check out this here little video in which my friend Scott and I make up a batch of potato latkes. So yummy.

We already had a brief discussion about the worst holiday foods and responses included canned cranberry sauce and fruitcake. But it's no fun to dwell on the negatives when you're supposed to be celebrating and spending time with your family, so why not think about the best holiday treats instead? What are those foods that you look forward to all year?

When it comes to store bought treats, peppermint bark and chocolate covered graham crackers always seem to be readily available, but the best holiday foods come from home. Here are some suggestions from around the blogosphere for holiday favorites that should make your menu this year:

• Jelly donuts, a.k.a. sufganiyah, are a standard for Hanukkah celebrations
• I'm partial to oven baked latkes myself, but purists will want theirs fried in oil.
• You can make homemade peppermint bark and use it (or store bought) to make Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies
• Fudge is an easy to make homemade candy that looks great out on the dessert table.
• Gingerbread fans can choose from regular gingerbread, chocolate gingerbread, gingerbread men or spicy ginger cookies.
• Eggnog takes many forms, as well. It can be a drink, pancakes or even cheesecake.
• The Bûche de Noël, simply known as a "yule log," is a classic, chocolatey Christmas dessert that consists of a rolled, filled cake that is covered with a chocolate frosting and shaped to look like a log.
• Last but not least, we have the crowd-pleasing homemade marshmallows. Don't forget to serve them with hot chocolate!

Hanukkah is known as the "festival of lights" and is a holiday in which oil has a special meaning. To put it very, very briefly, Hanukkah celebrates a miraculous occurrence where one night's worth of oil burned for eight. There is a lot of oil used in foods that are served for this holiday and much of it is used for frying. The two most well-know Hanukkah staples are sufganiyah (jelly-filled donuts) and latkes, or potato pancakes. As good as these two foods are, health-conscious holiday revelers don't always want to completely blow their diet with a meal of entirely fried foods, nor do they want to restrict themselves to only a few bites of this holiday favorite. Recognizing the health conscious, many people who host Hanukkah parties plan to serve baked latkes, as well as fried.

Baked latkes are often undercooked and not nearly as crispy as fried ones, but this recipe makes an excellent stand-in that is better than most. A minimal amount of oil is still used to grease the baking sheets, and the latkes turn out to be very crispy and very satisfying - with far less fat than ordinary latkes. They have a good potato flavor and, because they are thin, are not undercooked in the center.

The issue of Alan Richman's dislike of New Orleans and its food is brought up, with a particular focus on his assertion that Creoles do not exist. It's not all that difficult to find an actual Creole living in NOLA and once you find them, they'll probably share some of the food that they're famous for whether Mr. Richman likes it or not, including: Calas, Artichoke and Oyster Casserole, and Beef Daube Glace

Harold McGee starts a new column, the Curious Cook. which will explores the science of food. The subject of this article is blue-green garlic, a color that results from sulfur compounds that are the result of pureeing onions and garlic together.

The 66-year old Essex Street Market, on the lower East Side of Manhattan, bridges the gap between "of the bodega and the universe of the gourmand," where you can't expect to know who is going to buys what or how they're going to pay for it. It's completely unpretentious and the food is great.

It's the start of latke season and it's hard to resist the lure of a hot, crisp, fried potato pancake.

Frank Bruni eats at Tocqueville and the Tasting Room and gives them two and one star, respectively.

Mark Bittman, the minimalist, talks more about his hugely popular no-knead bread recipe.

Where to find tableware like the Achatz and Adria's.

You know latkes, those practically-deep-fried potato pancakes most closely associated with the Jewish holiday of Hannukah, which for those of us in the northern half of the planet, is the dead of winter. But latkes in the summer?!?

Sure, why not, especially if they're made with sweet potatoes. Acme Instant Food, a food blog based out of Los Angeles, made Curried Sweet Potato Latkes based on a recipe taken from Epicurious.com. It's essentially the same concept as a regular potato latke, though there are quite bit more spices and seasonings in the recipe.

So Hanukkah ended yesterday. So I'm a little late with the latkes. So sue me. (Actually, since celebration always starts the night before, the last night of Hanukkah was actually the evening of January 1st.)

I fried the latkes on time, I just didn't post anything about them right away. Nicole already pointed us to another blog with some beautiful latkes, so I won't go into all the delicious details today about grating vs. shredding potatoes, keeping or tossing the onion juice from grating,and whether one should use matzo meal or flour or nothing at all. I will say that I made the accompanying applesauce.

Words to eat by's writer, Debbie, is often a diet-minded food blogger, which makes her site a great reference for a delicious but not-as-bad-for-you cake or cookies. She knows, however, that certain things only happen once a year and they should not be skimped on. Her latke recipe is one of her once-a-year recipes and though its simplicity may belie the delicious taste of the results, Debbie's photo certainly does not. One look at it and I can taste the hot, oil crisped potato pancakes yielding to a moist, tender center in latke perfection.
Happy Hannukah, everyone!