The holiday season will be in full swing with the start of Hanukkah, and I have already started celebrating by participating in my favorite holiday activity—baking.

After researching traditional Jewish recipes and deciding that doughnuts seemed way too challenging for me to start with, I found a challah recipe that seemed slightly more appropriate for my skill level. I'll admit that even though I have mad skillz when preparing certain types of food, Jewish cuisine is unfortunately not one of them, because of a lack of experience.

I found that the challenge of making challah, an often cake-like bread, is not in the mixing or in the rising—which are fairly straightforward and only require time and patience. It's all in the braiding. I couldn't quite master the technique—and can only hope that truth, peace, and justice haven't been compromised.

From certain angles, the loaf still looked lovely, and more importantly, it still tasted delicious. To me, warm, homemade bread is the perfect way to start any holiday celebration, regardless of how it looks.

Potato pancakes, or latkes in Yiddish, are a Hanukkah tradition. And like many foods consumed during the holiday, they are fried or baked in oil—some say a little too much oil. But that's exactly what helps achieve the crunchy golden crust, so I say bring it on.

Traditional latkes are made with white potatoes and onions, but I wanted to spice it up a bit and try my hand at sweet potato latkes flavored with brown sugar, cloves, and cinnamon. Other latke recipes I've seen include apple-cinnamon, chickpea, carrot, or even Jerusalem artichoke.

I must warn you that while these latkes taste fantastic (I credit that to the cloves, cinnamon, and oil), they probably won't look too pretty—and the proof is in the pictures. But taste is all that really matters anyway, right?

With Hanukkah soon coming to an end, I thought that one last post to celebrate the holiday would be appropriate. Here are some of the best, or most interesting, vegan Hanukkah recipes the Web has to offer—or at least that I could find. If you know of more, please share!

•Broccoli Trees With Creamy White-Bean Dip: This hummus-like dip is made primarily from silken tofu and puréed white beans and was featured in Gourmet's December 2007 issue (see picture).

•Gefilte "Fish": This one takes the cake for most intriguing recipe on the list, and I found it thanks to Jewish Veg's comprehensive collection of holiday recipes.

• Doughnuts: This recipe is available right here on VegCooking.com. Even though the thought of creating homemade doughnuts frightens me just a tad, I think I might finally have to give this one a try.

•Gingerbread Dreidels: Come on, who can resist a holiday cookie? This cute recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan's site just had to make the list.

•Broccoli Latkes: I found this recipe on PCRM's site and thought I would include it for those of you who are looking for low-fat, healthy holiday recipes.

•Potato and Carrot Kugel: Jolinda at Vegetarian.About.com offers up this tasty egg-free kugel recipe.

Again, this is just a glimpse at the vegan Hanukkah recipes out there, and if you have vegan Hanukkah recipes of your own, please share them here.

Happy holidays!