Oh yes, I did! Happy Hannukah!

Despite all the cooking I've done, I've never actually made latkes for Hannukah before. I think it was all the oil splattering everywhere that kind of freaked me out a bit. Growing up, I watched my mom slave away all afternoon making latkes for my sister and I, so I figured I should try to perfect the art of latke making for when I have my own two little ones running around :) Thanks to my mom's Google skills, I was armed with an array of articles detailing the proper cooking techniques and, thanks to my friend Jenna, a great recipe to go off! With my sister's help, the latkes turned out just like the ones my mom used to make us and my apartment still smells like grease today; mission accomplished!

Ingredients

5 lb bag of Russet potatoes

1 large or 2 small onions

3/4 to 1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

vegetable oil for frying

The first step in latke making is peeling and shredding your potatoes. This can be tricky because potatoes turn black once exposed to the air. Since we wanted to do a lot of the prep work earlier in the day, I made my sister stand there and peel the entire bag of potatoes, cut them into thinner pieces (easier to get into the food processor that way), and let them soak in a bowl of cold water until they were ready to be shredded that evening.

While the potatoes were soaking, we readied the remainder of our ingredients. Using the food processor, we shred one large onion and set it aside. We also measured out the dry ingredients and bet the eggs so we could quickly mix it all together later on.

Right before you're ready to make the latkes, shred the potatoes. Once done, remove as much liquid from the potatoes as possible. This took my sister and I a good 15 minutes, an entire roll of paper towel and a strainer!

Once the potatoes are dry enough, mix in the eggs and dry ingredients. The recipe originally called for 1/2 cup of flour but I ended up adding about another half to make the mixture a little drier... resulting in latkes that weren't soggy and greasy.

Heat about 1/4 inch of canola oil in a heavy duty pan or skillet and let it get really hot. Test out the temperature by dropping a small amount of the latke mixture in and seeing if it turns brown within a minute. Once your oil is hot enough, scoop some of the latke mixture using 1/3 cup measurement and drop it in.

Flatten with a spatula and let them cook a couple minutes on each side, or until brown and crispy. Remove and drain the latkes on a paper towel immediately.

Serve with sour cream and apple sauce. Happy Hannukah!