Raspberry and Cherry Hamantaschen

I was so tired from the cold this afternoon that I thought I'd either bake, nap, or go to the gym to wake myself up. Baking won.

It dawned on me today that Purim starts this weekend, so what better cookie to bake than Hamantaschen? I remember one year when Jake lived in Philadelphia - his mom used an Amazon.com box to send him Hamantaschen. She crossed out Amazon.com and wrote Purim.mom instead:) For some reason this always stayed with me.

Tonight I scoured the net and found a recipe I could make at jewishrecipes.org - which I halved:

Favorite Hamantaschen Cookie Dough and Fillings
Yield: about 5 dozen

* 3 eggs
* 1 cup oil
* 1 cup sugar
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/2 cup orange juice
* 1/8 tsp salt
* 4 cups flour

Let the dough sit for 15 minutes, then roll it out and use a cookie cutter (or mug) to make round shapes, add your preserves, fold into triangles, and brush with beaten egg batter before placing them on a lightly greased cooking sheet and putting them in the oven for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

This year I used cherry preserves and raspberry preserves, since we typically don't keep prunes or poppy seeds in the house. I usually prefer apricot, but we were out of that, too.

I remember how my grandma loved Hamantaschen from Pratzel's, a bakery in town. I miss her. She once told me my cookies were like Pratzel's. But, well, they're really not. Grandmas just say stuff like that...