Last night I threw a Hanukkah dinner and invited my friends Desiree and Charlotte along with their families. It went very well, though I did spend a lot of time in the kitchen preparing latkes. I'm thinking that next year I may prepare them in advance and keep them warm in the oven - while I love the fresh latkes, it did keep me away from the party for most of the evening.

This time I served my famous Mixed Green Salad with Gorgonzola Vinaigrette, to great acclaim as usual. It really is a wonderful salad.

The latkes were from my usual recipe. As usual they were great. I served them with sour cream and apple sauce (homemade by Desiree).

The main dish was Wine-Braised Brisket of Beef with Caramelized Pearl Onions and Dried Apricots. Quite good, and my guests ate almost all of it (either they were very hungry or they really liked it).

For dessert I wanted to make homemade doughnuts, but this simple recipe was a complete failure. The doughnuts were too crispy on the outside, semi-raw on the inside (I do admit this was probably my mistake, it was hard to keep the oil at a constant temperature), and just not very tasty. I gave up and bought regular donuts and the donut store.