The end of another year and the Jewish-inspired meal to go with it!

2014 is just about to close!  Can you believe it?  And what a year!  Tiana's still hanging out Down Under leaving Kent and I footloose and fancy-free!  Well, except for that nursing school thing that keeps us somewhat down for 9 months of the year!  But that's ok!  It's great!  We'll miss our sidekick, Coda, a goodly part of the naming of this blog!

Our Christmas dinner theme this year was to enjoy some of the foods enjoyed at Hanukkah.  Since we are not Jewish, I'm sure there are some rules we didn't get right, but we did enjoy our meal!  From what we read, the holiday is about oil so a lot of fried foods!  Also, it's about cheese/dairy to honor some other person's victory somewhere in battle.  Anyway, we had a Brisket in Wine Sauce, potato latkes, homemade applesauce, green salad, cucumbers in sour cream and instead of fried jelly-filled doughnuts we had fried, powdered sugar-coated Khovorst/Strusky from my "Russian" childhood! We had a good dinner that might just need a repeat!  The brisket would make a fine Sunday roast!  So, for your dinner pleasure, here's the recipe!

Brisket in Wine Sauce

2½ pound brisket

1 Tbs. paprika

½ tsp. basil

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

3 medium onions, sliced

2 cloves garlic, peeled, halved

1½ c. ketchup

1½ c. dry red wine

1½ c. water

Preheat oven to 325° F.

Rinse brisket, place in roasting pan (I used a Dutch oven).

Mix paprika, basil, salt and pepper and then rub into meat.

Scatter onions and garlic over meat.

Mix ketchup, wine and water.  Pour over brisket.

Cover pan tightly (or if using a regular pan, cover and tent with foil so that the foil does not touch the meat.)

Bake for 3 hours or until a temp of 190° F is reached.

I am going to say that 3 of us ate almost all of a 3 pound brisket!  The recipe says this serves 8, but it must be 6 very picky children and 2 hungry adults!!  I did thicken some of the sauce afterwards and so even if you don't make latkes to go with it, you will have a delicious sauce to put over noodles, rice or mashed potatoes!!  You'll actually have LOTS of sauce for those side dishes! Enjoy!