אני פורים

 If you had asked me last week or even yesterday if I would be making hamentaschen for Purim I would have told you that I would not.There are just the two of us at home.  While we are going to services tonight we participated in the communal Mishloach Manot, so of course, it wasn't necessary. 

But I woke up this morning like a woman possessed.  This recipe has been on the front of my fridge since before the pandemic.

I believe that I did make this recipe for yeast dough hamentaschen. It may have come from my schoolmate Rena Gopin's mother---but then again perhaps not.

I don't know if it has been the parade of photographs of gross triangular-filled pastries that are NOT hamentaschen, covered with rainbow sprinkles, filled with Nutella, or speculoos or chocolate hummus---but I woke up this morning like a woman possessed, determined to make hamentaschen.

So I followed the recipe above making almost no substitutions. it is a lovely, lovely dough. I made a poppy and fruit filling that wasn't as claggy as either poppy seed filling right from the can or prune lekvar right from the jar. The mix of dried fruits and poppy and the last bit of homemade marmalade brighter with some citric acid and the last bit of the fig molasses my daughter gave me as a gift is really yummy.

So I rolled and filled and baked.

I was surprised by my physical NEED to be doing this particular set of labors right now. I was reminded of how my mother---even after she had suffered a couple of strokes and if you asked her what month it was would consistently be six months off would call me to remind me that her estimated taxes needed to be filed. My mother's deepest internal calendar was tuned to the tax calendar. Today I needed to bake hamentaschen that tasted old-fashioned and authentic-

While rolling and filling these hamentaschen I remembered the Purim thirty-two years ago ...during the Gulf War when my husband played Sadaam Hussein in a Purim Shpiel and how that night Saddam Hussein was defeated. I thought about how many people would be dressed up like Vladamir Putin tonight and perhaps that miracle would be repeated.

Purim is a day for eating stuffed foods, where things are hidden inside, just as Esther had to hide her identity.

If your Hebrew is good enough, watch this video about the essence of Purim.

 The following is completely untranslatable and screamingly funny---there is a long setup but be patient. It is so worth the wait. 

Happy Purim!