Jewish New Year … Symbolic Eating

by Laurie Chorna

I have often said that my first connection to being Jewish was through food. My mother is a great cook, and always fed us according to the Jewish holidays. And there are symbolic foods for all of the holidays.

Traditional High Holiday foods symbolize "hope for a good year". Meals at this time are always accompanied with sweet dishes to make sure the year begins on a sweet note, often apples and honey.

A great side dish that anyone can prepare is a Noodle Kugel. The basic Kugel is really quite versatile, and can be adapted for a savory taste as well as a sweet one. This particular recipe (my mother's) is almost dessert-like, and has a custard quality. Sometimes I use other fruit such as pears, apples, or dried apricots. You can experiment and find your favorite. Here's mine…

Preheat oven to 350°F.

12 oz. package wide egg noodles
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 lb. butter
1/2 cup corn flakes or granola
1/2 pint cottage cheese
1/2 pint sour cream
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1 can crushed pineapple, drained
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1/2 cup almonds or walnuts

Cook noodles and drain well.
Beat eggs and mix with cottage cheese, sour cream, sugar and lemon juice.
Add raisins, pineapple, and oranges, and mix with noodles.

Melt butter … and put a small amount in bottom of pan (8"x11"-ish).
Mix the rest with the flakes and nuts.

Place noodle mixture in pan, and pour buttered nut mixture over the noodles.

Bake at 350°F for approximately 1 hour.

—from our September 2002 Newsletter

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