Happy Hanukkah! Celebrate with our favorite latke recipes

It's not a Hanukkah celebration unless something gets fried, celebrating the temple miracle that occurred when a one-day supply of oil miraculously lasted for eight days. Hence, the latke.

But potato latkes are just the beginning. We took a look through the L.A. Times Test Kitchen's favorite Hanukkah recipes and found latkes made with apples, parsnips, zucchini, corn, red peppers, beets, olives, ricotta, sweet potatoes, polenta, pasta....you get the idea.

But we have a few twists, as well. Such as bumuelos, above, sweet rice fritters and fried cheese served with tomato sauce, and a zucchini, feta and basil frittata.

Check out our photo gallery: Lotsa Latkes: 18 of our favorite Hanukkah recipes

--Rene Lynch
On Twitter @renelynch

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Photo credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles TImes

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Gifts for Cooks: 'Get Cooking'

Mollie Katzen’s new book is aimed at young people who know precious little about how to cook – which doesn’t mean they’re ignorant about food. Quite the contrary.

“They know what spaghetti carbonara is but they don’t know how to get the scrambled eggs into the pasta,” she said.

“Get Cooking”speaks to people who “have grown up without seeing their mom in the kitchen or their dad making dinner” and who now want to cook, Katzen said in a telephone interview.

There could hardly be a more understanding guide to the kitchen basics than Katzen, who as a young person herself decoded the world of vegetarian cooking with her iconic Moosewood books.

“Get Cooking 150 Simple Recipes to Get You Started in the Kitchen” (the title is longer than some of the ingredient lists) was inspired in part by her 25-year-old son and his friends who are living on their own and trying to eat well and on the cheap.

“’You should write a book for me and my friends,’” he told her.