We’ll Nosh Some Hamentashen!

Clockwise from top left: My father-in-law & I making hamentashen, Isabelle coloring her ‘cards’; Filling the bags; A good-looking hamentashen (Created with Moldiv.)

How do you teach a three year-old about Purim?

You read books.

You sing songs.

You eat Hamentashen.

In the case of Purim, I decided to go a step further. I decided we’d not only make hamentashen, a jam-filled triangular cookie, this year. I also decided we’d deliver them to some friends and our next-door neighbors who celebrate Purim.

Even though Purim is a week away, I decided today would be the perfect day to bake and deliver Mishloach Manot. Why? Because my in-laws were in town. Therefore, Isabelle could have the two of us and the two of them alongside her as she baked them. Plus, that would allow them to bring two Mishloach Manot bags back to Connecticut for her cousins.

Isabelle donned an apron and brought her step stool into the kitchen. She was interested in watching me roll the dough and use the cookie cutters. However, once she saw the fruit fillings come out for the cookies, she began to lose interest. She pressed a few of them with me, but soon after that she retreated to her play room to do something else.  😦

Fortunately, my mother-in-law stayed with me. We baked them together. We also got the guys (i.e., my husband and father-in-law) to help us out. My father-in-law was a little hesitant about making hamentashen, but he rose to the challenge, making the best hamentashen* of all of us!

Thankfully, Isabelle was willing to color the Purim coloring pages and stuff the bags herself.

I delivered two bags while she ate lunch. My in-laws will deliver two of them to Connecticut this afternoon. The rest we’ll deliver after Isabelle’s rest time.

Check out more slice of life stories at http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com.

*By best I mean best-looking before and after they went into the oven. You see, making these cookies is something of an art form. Most of the hamentashen we made today opened up and look more like jelly puffs. However, this was the first time all five of us ever made hamentashen. They may not have been all looked perfect, but they all tasted! Want to try making hamentashen? Click here for the recipe we used.