Challah Back!!! (mmm...mmm...)

SUBMITTED BY STEVENSTEIN R.A. SHARON PORAT

The best challah baker in the city of Santa Cruz (also known as D'voreh Leah) and myself worked together to enlighten Stevenson Santa Cruz students about the tradition and how to bake challah. D'voreh Leah was willing to give out her famous Friday night recipe and many were ready to eat it up!

The event was on SuperBowl Sunday, which, for you Santa Cruzians, that was February 5, 2006. It started at 7:30 p.m. and ran until 10:00 p.m. We bought all the ingredients at Safeway, which to my surprise has a lot of KOSHER items!!! The event was held at Stevenson in House three's lounge. Initially about 13-15 residents of the house showed up and a few people from surrounding buildings showed as well. However, more joined as they could not resist their own curiosity of seeing a whole bunch of women having fun and cooking in a lounge. D'voreh Leah gave a little background of what challah bread is and where it came from.

There were two tables set up and each table worked together as a group to make the dough just right. People were struggling a bit when it came to stirring all the ingredients together, but D'voreh Leah was a good coach and helped many push through this struggle with her words of encouragement. Then came the braiding of the bread, this happens to be my favorite part and I was looking forward to it all night. This was the part where people could get creative as it was an individual task. And some people did get creative and into it. Finn, one of the only guys who stayed to bake made the challah that looked like a slug. Now, if we were to ever have a mascot, the challah slug would have to be it. Jewish Slugs (hand motion for all those who know it)!!!

While waiting for the challah to rise we had our own half-time show of people schmoozing and our own personal guitarist, Ann. Everyone was so anxious to try out the finished product. As the challah was baking the whole building filled with one of the most delicious smells that it has ever had. This ended up luring more people into the lounge. We all were so surprised in finding actual loaves as our products, each one of us had a loaf of challah! Even though we each had a loaf it did not last longer than an hour. Some girls went to get cream cheese and jelly from the coffee shop to show that they meant business. The whole building got to taste some of the challah that night and a piece of the Jewish religion.

For larger pictures, click here.