I adore Alice Hoffman! I had read 13 books by her and just finished number 14. The World that We Knew is so wonderful and that I read it in 3 days. Once I started it was hard to put down. I love the magical realism she weaves in the books and in this case it was a "Golem" , a mystical Jewish creature. The store is told from the view point of the major characters- Lea , the young girl whose mother sends off to France to save her from the Nazi's. Ava, the golem created to save Lea. A creature made of clay with no soul but starts to feel love and sadness. And finally Ettie, the Rabbi's daughter who creates the golem and is then on the run . She joins the French resistance and waits to become a fighter. The book is sad and lovely and wonderful. Of course there are tough parts because this is a WW2 book and you know there will be lots of death. But the Golem adds such an interesting twist as she starts to become more human and develops a wonderful connection with a Heron. There are so many other memorable characters that you want to know about each of them. Loved this book so much. I gave it 5 stars! ★★★★★
I have always had a great love for the Jewish religion and culture. (Some of you might know my story of pretending to be Jewish in high school) I think it started with reading the All of a Kind Family series as a child. It is a series about 5 girls growing up in NYC at the turn of the century. They are Jewish and you learn about their holiday's and over the course of 5 books you watch them grow up and love them. I highly recommend these books to anyone with a young person in your life and even if you don't, I think adults will enjoy them.I decided to make Kugel in honor of the book. I actually made 2 kinds of Kugel. One is a Cheesy Potato Kugel. It turned out pretty good! I posting the link to the recipe below. Next time I would change 2 things- Less garlic and more cheese. Besides that it was good.
I also made a Vegetable Kugel with Caramelized Leeks. This one was good but I didn't love it. It has leeks, sweet potato and zucchini. I liked it but once again I thought it had too much garlic in it. I also just didn't find it super flavorful. I couldn't find Matzo Meal in the store so just used bread crumbs. I think I would double the bread crumbs and cut the garlic.
Both recipes are below.
I had planned to make Chocolate Babka but I didn't realize that it needed to rise overnight and I waited to start mid-day. I think that will have to wait for another day!
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