Kosherfest Exhibitors Offer Up Delicious Goodies & Festive Items For Chanukah 2011

This year the 8-day holiday of Chanukah starts Tuesday night, December 20 through Dec 28, and there is plenty to help make the holiday festive & delicious from Kosherfest. Kosherfest is the largest kosher food, lifestyle, beverage, and wine and spirits trade show, held annually. With the 2011 show behind us, Kosherfest (www.kosherfest.com) is now heading into its 24th year.

From among the more than 350 Kosherfest exhibitors, comes lots of epicurean delights specifically for this holiday, celebrating 8 days of light from merely one day's worth of oil. They also offer up complementary holiday lifestyle items.

Gourmet Kosher holiday chocolate abounds, with both parve (non dairy) and dairy varieties. MICHEL CLUIZEL (www.chocolatmichelcluizel.com) offers a large parve chocolate menorah that looks as good as it is to eat. They make a large assortment of chocolates and pastries handcrafted by a master chocolatier. SUGAR PLUM (www.sugar-plum.com) offers Belgian milk or dark chocolate 5" menorahs.

From kosher cook Jamie Geller comes the Chanukah issue of her JOY OF KOSHER magazine, chock full of recipes (latkes with balsamic reduction), serving suggestions, decorating ideas, and even "eat light" diet ideas. Check out her free online kosher cooking newsletter, JoyofKosher eNewsletter (koshercom@newsletter.kosher.com).

If you are planning on making traditional Chanukah jelly donuts (called sufganiot), why not fill them with fig cabernet preserves, from TISHBI (www.tishbi.com).

If you are baking cupcakes for the holidays, try RITELITE's Chanukah cupcake decorating set. Includes 12 cupcake holders, 12 cupcake toppers and 3 cupcake stencils, all with Chanukah motifs (www.ritelite.com). Can also be used on cakes and other baked items.

From THE KOSHER COOK (www.thekoshercook.com) comes an 11" non-stick aluminum dreidel cake mold, which bakes one large cake in the shape of a dreidel. The company's silicone holiday trivets come in Star of David and dreidel shapes, in vibrant colors.

Also from RITELITE, a deck of Dreidel-shaped playing cards, bio-degradable 'go green' vegetable wax Chanukah candles, silicone dreidel molds and Chanukah metal cookie cutters.

To further decorate your table in style, try CAZENOVE PRINTERS (England) Jewish themed napkins and specialty cards, beautifully imprinted for Chanukah and more.

Need a great idea for the little one? Try Shalom Sesame Chanukah: The Missing Menorah DVD, SISU HOME ENTERTAINMENT.

If you are not sure what to cook for the Chanukah holiday, here are some great kosher cook books to choose from:

Adventures in Jewish Cooking, and Jeff Nathan's Family Suppers (Clarkson Potter), by Jeffrey Nathan; Encyclopedia of Jewish Food (Wiley), by Gil Marks; Levana's Table: Kosher Cooking for Everyone (Stewart, Tabori & Chang) and, In Short Order. Book-DVD set. (Self-published), by Levana Kirschenbaum ;Kosher by Design Teens, and 20-Somethings (Artscroll), by Susie Fishbein; Quick & Kosher: Recipes From The Bride Who Knew Nothing, and Quick & Kosher Meals in Minutes (Feldheim Publishers), by Jamie Geller; The New Food Processor Bible, Norene's Healthy Kitchen, Healthy Helpings (Whitecap), Second Helpings Please (JWI) by Norene Gilletz; Fresh & Easy Kosher Cooking: Ordinary Ingredients - Extraordinary Meals, ArtScroll Mesorah Publications, by Leah Schapira.

If all the gift wrapping has made you too tired to cook, heat up some DR. PRAEGER'S Potato pancakes (www.drpraegers.com). They are low in saturated fat and cholesterol, and contain no artificial flavorings, colors or preservatives. End the celebratory meal with RABBI MINTS, classic kosher mints (www.rabbimints.com).

Consumers have a chance to win many of these Chanukah related prizes, gen