Inspired by the Latke thread I’m planning a full Hanukkah meal this weekend. Right now I’m planning to make latkes, challah (never made this before, wish me luck), brisket, noodle kugel, and rugalach.
What are your must haves for a festive Hanukkah dinner?
Sufganiyot!
I really don’t want to set up to fry them, and we never had them growing up so they’re not a fond Hanukkah memory for me. It’s always been my grandma’s rugalach.
My mother always served latkes and matzah ball soup. Growing up in a kosher house we wouldn’t have sour cream if we had chicken soup. As Polish Jews, (they immigrated to this country after the war and a few years living in Israel), she and my father’s topping of choice was a sprinkle of white sugar. I never realized this wasn’t universal until I got to college.
She also made cut out sugar cookies in Hanukah shapes.
My daughter is coming home next week on the last day of Hanukkah and says she will be bringing a home-made challah - we’ll see (I am hopeful). My mother made hamantaschen (prune and apricot) around this time of the year, also, kasha and latkes. Not sure how aligned any of this is with the holiday, officially, but there it is. My son looks forward to donuts. 
My mom’s family were all bakers/caterers, so home-made challah, hamantashen, rugalach, sufganiyot, honey cakes and halvah cakes were always a thing in the appropriate time of year. Real bagels too, the kind you could break a tooth on.
Our toppings for latkes were either applesauce, sour cream or sugar.
BTW, this Sunday is the “Menorah Parade” through this neighborhood. Signs are up, showing the route.
For my family, the key was the matzoh ball soup. The day before, my dad would put a whole chicken, onion, carrots and the rest of the stock ingredients in a large stovetop style dutch oven and simmer all damn day; the smell was maddening. The main dish varied a bit, although my personal favorite was the one year he did a leg of lamb (medium to medium rare) for the whole family. However brisket, whole chicken or turkey were more common. For what it’s worth, we didn’t keep a kosher household, but almost never had pork products in the house, most other kosher rules were ignored other than around passover.
No one was particularly skilled at baking, so the challah was always sadly store bought. My grandmother made amazing, Amazing sugar cookies though before she passed, which were a personal favorite, but not central to the holiday.
Okay, enough drooling and reminiscing. So, back to the OP. Must haves are GOOD maztoh ball soup, with homemade stock and floaters (!!! Death to sinkers !!!), absolutely everything else is optional. If I was cooking a family dinner (just me and the wife so not going to), I’d probably go with something fun like a cider roasted duck, whole wheat couscous with apricot, almond and tarragon, mixed green and pecan salad, homemade challah (because my wife is a good baker), and thick, brandied bread pudding made from a second loaf of challah made ahead of time and left to dry out.
Edit for content - and because it rings so many mental bells, I’d probably have a bottle of Manischewitz wine although I’d never have more than half a glass.
I only know that it has to have 17 syllables.
It would be brisket for me. Slow-roasted with onions, prunes, carrots, and parsnips. And Hanukkah gelt.
The challah came out fantastic! I was amazed at how easy it was and how good it tasted. The Kitchenaid certainly helps.
The rugalach was a success, but can use a little work. The filling has to be thinner, a lot oozed out. I’ve got more dough in the fridge so I’ll try some jam ones tomorrow.
Tonight I made a new kugel recipe. My family didn’t really do the sour cream and cottage cheese based noodle kugels, but I’ve certainly had them. I liked the end result, we ended up using it as our main dish tonight.
Tomorrow, brisket.
I make challah every Friday morning. It is surprisingly easy. You can use quick rise yeast, and just throw it in with the dry ingredients, no starting it separately. Only requires one rising, and I walk the dog during this time. Bakes in 50 minutes at 375’F.
If anything is tricky about it, it’s the fact that it has a lot of ingredients compared to other breads, but if you grow up making it, so you never use a written recipe, it’s still pretty easy.
If you ever want to make it again (or if anyone reading wants to make it), here’s a suggestion: get diastatic barley malt powder, and powdered soy lecithin. Add just a tiny bit of lecithin, like 1/8 tsp for every 2 cups flour, and about 1/2 tsp malt powder for every 2 cups flour. It improves the crust. It makes it very, well, crusty-- you can thump it and get a nice sound, but it is also thinner than what you would get without those ingredients, and the bread inside is very light. It also will keep better with those ingredients added. Usually, homemade challah is really stale after 24 hours, and usable only for toast or French toast. With the lecithin and barley malt, it will still be good for sandwiches for a couple of days.
Challah fresh toast = potential proof of the existence of Ywh.
And you left out bread pudding, which is basically baked french toast with booze. 