For as long as I have been an adult Jew with an apartment of my own, I have had this fantasy of having a Purim dinner party. I’m not a very religious person, but Purim always struck me as greatly underleveraged. It involves kings and queens and costumes and puppets and I know if the Christians got a hold of Purim, it would be the most fantastically commercialized holiday since Christmas.
Except every year, I forget Purim is coming up on the calendar, until the actual day when Mike (who knows all about Purim themed dinner party dreams) takes great pleasure in announcing “It’s Purim! There’s always next year!” It’s our running joke.
This year I almost fell into the same trap, except I remembered about three days beforehand. Not enough time to plan a fancy dinner party, but certainly enough time to plan a play date with Seri (aka Little Miss Party) for our Project Play Date series.
If we had more time, we would have dressed the kids up like royalty and filled the hamantaschen with Nutella, but Seri and I had to think fast and make due with whatever she had in her house.
We pulled it off, but it was definitely no Christmas.
Bake: HAMANTASCHEN
We used a recipe from our friend Deb at Smitten Kitchen (because who would make better hamantaschen than Deb?) and made our own dough, which was pretty easy. Once the dough was made, we let the kids do most of the work.
They started by rolling out the dough on a well-floured surface until it is about 1/4-inch thick. Harlow wore a very festive pirate hat for the occasion.
The recipe called for a round cookie cutter, so we improvised with the lid of a mason jar.
Harlow’s favorite part was spooning the filling in the center. We used raspberry jam but next year, I’m opting for Nutella.
Mazzy asked to make hers plain because she is the pickiest eater alive— even when it comes to cookies. She also kept eating the flour which was super weird.
Next, you need to fold the dough to form three sides. This was probably the most fun part for the kids. It’s important to firmly crimp the corners and give them a little twist to ensure they stay closed, leaving the filling mostly open in the center.
Then we bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper until golden brown, about 20 minutes, which was the perfect amount of time to get started on our puppet craft.
CRAFT: WOODEN SPOON Puppets
Purim is often celebrated with skits and puppet shows depicting the story of the holiday, which revolves around Queen Esther, who is secretly Jewish and persuades the king to save the Jewish people from an evil man named Haman. We found this easy craft project making Purim puppets using wooden spoons.
What you will need:
-some wooden spoons
-googly eyes
-cardboard, construction paper, yarn, curling ribbon, pipe cleaners, pompoms, sequins or anything else that can be used for crowns, beards, hair and clothing
-glue
What to do:
It depends how close you want your kids to create characters that resemble the ones in the Purim story. I created spoon puppets that could VERY LOOSELY stand in for Queen Esther, Haman and King Achashverosh to show the girls as examples. It’s somewhat upsetting that in my efforts to make my spoon look like a girl, Esther ended up looking like a blow-up doll. But Mordechai looks like a clown, so all things equal.
I showed the girls my puppets and pre-cut some crowns and beards, but then let them do whatever they wanted.
At least, Mazzy’s Esther looks a little more respectable than mine.
DRINK: AppletinIS
All crafts must be accompanied by a cocktail for the grown-ups. That is the first rule of Project Play Date. We incorporated apples because Seri said they have Purim significance. I thought that was Rosh Hashanah but maybe it’s both? No matter, they were delicious.
What you will need:
-1 1/2 ounces vodka
-1 ounce green apple schnapps
-1/4 ounce lemon juice
What to do:
1) Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice cubes.
2) Shake well.
3) Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
4) Keep out of reach from the kids.
Happy Purim! Next year— fancy dinner party at my place!
My 5 year old kept eating the flour when we made Hamentaschen too! I thought it was so strange. These are great ideas for next year! I didn’t do anything but take him to the carnival at our synagogue, let them plan all the fun!
We’ll be doing this tonight too… okay… well maybe this weekend since tonight is the megillah reading! 🙂 Gotta love a Dr. Seuss themed Purim Spiel.
This is awesome. 🙂
Kids are weird. When I make biscuits I always collect the scraps of dough and keep rolling it out until it can’t be cut to biscuit size anymore. Then I combine them into an “ugly biscuit.” Once when I was rearranging the tray of cut out biscuits to make room for that one my son picked it up and crammed then 75% of the thing in his mouth.
It was almost baseball sized and he managed to get a substantial amount in there, then used his hand in front of his mouth to hold it in since he had so much that he couldn’t close his mouth all the way. Then fought me when I tried to pry it back out. So I let him stand in the kitchen and eat that giant glob of raw bread dough so I could make sure he didn’t choke or spit it out some where. He didn’t. Ate that whole dang thing that he had fit in there. So gross.
My husband (before he was my husband) used to come into my work and ask for whole, raw pizza dough balls. He’d sit there noming away while flirting with me over the counter.
And then you married him! So, who’s the weird one now? 😉
Well, as usual, you inspired me. Thanks to you I’ve bern reading Smitten Kitchen for a while, but have never made any recipes. Now the dough is made and in the fridge and I’m scrounging the cabinets for filling ideas. I think were looking at some with strawberry jam and some with chocolate chips and marshmallows.
My husband and daughter made hamentashen on Sunday. My daughter only liked rolling out the dough, and hated the finished product! She is excited to dress up tomorrow though.
Ah, I LOVE hamantaschen! Purim was always the best day at synagogue.
This is adorable. And clearly a girls play date. My sons (6 and 2) wouldn’t get through cutting the dough in circles, nevermind filling and folding and baking and puppet making. 🙂 Where was Gavin for all of this?
As a Christian I hate how commercialized Christmas is. I actually got excited when my son says he likes Easter more than Christmas….. but uh, thanks for the stereotype?
(yes I do enjoy your humor (have for a couple years now) but these days, I’ve been getting a little tired about how it seems that it’s acceptable (everywhere) to stereotype Christians, but no other religions… anyway)
(other general stereotypes that are not true: we’re not all homophobic conservatives)
Yes, I know the commercialization of Christmas is more the responsibility of big companies and marketers than it is people who just like celebrating the holiday. Probably because there are so many of you guys that it makes it really profitable, whereas marketing to the 2.2% of Jews in America is just bad business. Sorry for poking fun. I don’t believe you are all homophobic conservatives. Just people with really great kid-friendly holidays. It’s a jealousy thing.
[…] up, Purim was never celebrated in my house like Passover or Hanukah, so with the exception of a Purim Project Playdate last year, we don’t really acknowledge it. But now that Mazzy and Harlow are both obsessed with […]
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