By KATHIE SMITH, Toledo Blade

Potato latkes are traditionally served during the Hanukkah season. The food commemorates the miracle of the rededication of the Temple, when a single cruse of oil burned for eight days.

The Jewish Festival of Lights begins at sundown this Friday.

The bounty of Thanksgiving soups keeps growing. There's the pre-holiday soup, such as oyster stew; the Thanksgiving Day favorites for anyone who wants to serve a soup course, and then there's the post-feast tureen of soup made with leftover turkey or stock.

Oyster stew is a seasonal favorite.

Even though biscuits are among my favorite foods, I rarely order them in a restaurant.

Instead, I make them myself.

Poire de Vin a la Normandy is a wonderful Valentine's Day dessert.
For those who don't speak French, it's simply a beautiful poached pear cooked in wine (port wine, in this case), which is then baked on puff pastry.

Serving chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday is a natural, whether you cheer for the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Arizona Cardinals this weekend.
Nothing could be better than a menu of chicken wings, deviled eggs, tortilla chips with avocado dip, casseroles of macaroni and cheese, and baked beans. For dessert, serve homemade brownies.

Food trends will likely take a decided turn from edgy, pricey choices. Because of the slow economy, whether dining out or cooking in, consumers will be leaning toward the comfortable, the safe, the less expensive and the local. High-end selections will be intentional and specific.
Comfort food will be evident on restaurant menus as much as in home cooking.

You don't have to leave home to discover the world of curry. Because of a growing interest in these foods, the market has produced more and more cookbooks are that are eager to show home cooks how to streamline ethnic recipes and adapt them to the American plate.
The key is to start with the basic spices and ingredients.

Holiday entrees range from such traditional favorites as turkey with gravy; glazed hams; succulent roast duck and the Christmas goose, and the classic rib-eye, rib and tenderloin beef roasts. They all taste great.
And yet, some cooks want a little something extra.

Christmas cookies are artistic creations. They are prettier, tastier and more inviting for your family and guests than cookies at any other time of the year.

This holiday season, add the Italian sweet bread, panettone, and the Italian lemon liqueur, limoncello, to your table. Not only do they complement one another, there's an assortment of recipes that combine both products or use one or the other for a new twist on flavorful dining.