Grandma's Cookbook by Sara Jaye

Grandma's Cookbook

Reci

ipes

GRANDMA'S COOKBOOK

Apple Sauce • • • • • •

8 apples peeled and cut in chunks 2 tablespoons of brown sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 2 tablespoon of apricot jam 1 tablespoon of honey 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Peel and cut apples into small pieces

Put apple pieces and the rest of the ingredients in to a pot

Cook until everything is soft, about 30 min

Mash the mixture with potato masher

GRANDMA'S COOKBOOK

Latkes • • • • • • •

8 medium potatoes 3 eggs 1/4 cup of flour 1/2 onion (or more depending on your taste) 1/4 tsp of pepper 1 tsp of salt 1 tsp of baking powder 1 tsp of oil for frying

Peel and grate the potatoes

While mixing heat up oil on the pan

Pour cold water over them and drain over a bowl

When done mixing place mixture into frying pan with a large spoon

The potato starch should start to settle to the bottom

Fry until crisp

To refrigerate or freeze DO NOT drain excess oil

Reserve that for after you have poured off the water

Add eggs, onions, salt, pepper, baking powder to the potatoes and mix well

10. Place between sheets of aluminum foil 11. Reheat latkes on a foiled lined cookie sheet at 450° once

NOTES (FROM MY MOM/AUNTIE D/DIANE) • • • •

Maybe a little more onion (1 big onion / 8 potatoes) Try grate blade no pureeing DON'T drain, just squeeze after processing Use an electric fryer instead of pan

GRANDMA'S COOKBOOK

Brisket • • • • • • • • • •

Onions 1 or 2 depending on size of meat, sliced Brisket single to double cut, weight depends on size of pot and number of people(it shrinks) Orange juice 6 carrots peeled and sliced Ketchup Marmalade or apricot jam Dried fruit like raisins Brown sugar 2 handfuls of crushed ginger snaps 3 or 4 potatoes peeled and quartered

Almost cover bottom of Dutch oven with water and put onions in to brown and soften

Add meat to the pot

Add 1 cup of water with about 1/2 cup of ketchup, can also add 1/2 cup of orange juice

Add jam, sliced carrots, handful of raisins or prunes, crushed gingersnap on top of meat and a sprinkling of brown sugar

When meat is 1 3/4 hour done, put the prepared potatoes in the pot and continue to cook. Set oven 350 at this point

At 2 1/2 hours, check with a fork that meat and potato is tender.

Put Dutch oven in the oven for about 30 minutes. Slice when warm

Serve with juice and potatoes around meat

Cook on a low flame covered for 2 1/2 hours adding more ketchup/ water mix as it get low in pot.

GRANDMA'S COOKBOOK

Chicken Soup • • • • • • •

1/2 green pepper seeded uncut 1 parsnip 1/4 cup of flour 1 onion 3 stalks of celery 3 carrots (diced) Chicken pullet

Fill pot with water and bring to a boil

Add chicken pieces and bring to a boil again

Put vegetables into pot and bring to a boil again

Add in 2T of Osem in, along with some salt and pepper

Cook for 2 hours

Remove the whole vegetables (pepper, onion, celery)

Squeeze out liquid from vegetables through a sieve over a bowl and mash too

Put all vegetable juices and mash back into pot

Take parsnip out whole don't mash) but leave carrots in

10. Make sure chicken is done, then take off bone to cut up 11. Put bone pieces back into bowl

GRANDMA'S COOKBOOK

Kugel • • • • • • • • • •

1 package of egg noodles 1 lb of cottage cheese 1/4 cup of flour 1/4 lb of butter 1/2 cup of sugar 4 eggs Raisins 1½ cups of milk Cinnamon 1/2 pint of sour cream

Mix ingredients together with a spoon

Spoon out mixture into a 2 inch deep baking pan and spread it across the pan so its level

Place extra egg noodles on top of the mixture

Bake for 1 hour at 350°

GRANDMA'S COOKBOOK

Interview with Grandma What food do you remember eating growing up? “My mother went to the school and brought the oatmeal drink, lots of eggs (which I hate), chicken soup, chopped liver, (between you and me she was not the best cook… but she had four kids and my grandmother also lived in our house so it was hard to prepare a perfect meal every night...” “I remember having stuffed chicken necks which we called helzel, and a lot of lima beans because my father loved them." What kind of food was typical for a weeknight meal? “ I remember eating a lot of things like chicken, meatloaf, salad, applesauce…. A lot of canned vegetables… like peas. I remember my mother in law would always forget to serve the canned peas and would have to put them back in the fridge." “A lot of the food we ate on a day to day was plain, nothing like what your mother makes.” “I also remember eating a lot of tongue...When I was younger and I had parties, tongue was often served as an hors d'oeuvre… Richard used to eat it all the time.” What do your friends like to eat? “My friends like plain things too…People like to stick to the things they grew up with.” Would you still eat it today? “Yeah, why not?” 16

GRANDMA'S COOKBOOK

What were Holiday meals like? “Pretty much hasn’t changed… we would eat things like brisket, chicken, and kugel just like we do now. The knishes I ate were much longer than the ones your mother gets though… we would buy them from the Aperion caterers and they were so delicious!” We also ate varnishes and kasha, which was like a pasta dish with barley in it...both my mother and grandmother made it. For dessert, we would have chocolate cake or bread pudding.” “We also would have rice pudding and kugel, but when I was growing up I remember putting apples in it instead of raisins like I do now.” Do you eat those foods now? “Well yeah, I still like simple foods, except I never really eat fruit and vegetables from a can anymore… and I still eat the same food that I ate during the holidays when I was growing up like chicken soup and brisket.” Do you like to try new things /anything you didn’t eat growing up that you like now? “I never had pizza … but now I eat it and I like it… but I really just like to eat mostly plain food.” Where could you find the food you ate growing up now? “You could find most of these things at the kosher butcher… most markets around Jewish communities.” Do you have a favorite recipe? “Apricot chicken is my favorite… I use Russian dressing for that.” How religious was your family? “Somewhat religious… my grandma always went to shul… but not all the time because she had to help take care of the kids.”My father wasn’t that religious… but my grandfather was somewhat religious. We never had shrimp or pork, or shellfish in the house though… it just wasn’t something we ate.” 17

GRANDMA'S COOKBOOK

Do you think people are more observant now than they were before? “I think people used to be more religious then they are now… people don’t follow rules as strictly.” How religious was your community? I lived in a completely Jewish community… I barely ever interacted with people who were not Jewish. When did you learn to cook? I didn’t really start to cook until after I married… but I remember one of the first times I cooked for Grandpa I almost served him a chicken that I forgot to gut and remove the insides. After that moment I remember thinking to myself… I really need to learn to do this right!” “Your mother and Rachel, however, started cooking at a very young age, I remember when they were in middle school, Mert and I would come home from going out to dinner, and your mother and Rachel would be baking in the kitchen.”

What is your favorite Jewish food? “Well, I think corn beef and potato pancakes in a sandwich on Hanukkah is the best.” What is special to you about Jewish food? “It tastes so good... and it reminds me of family.”

GRANDMA'S COOKBOOK

Do you think that we can still carry on Jewish tradition by making slight adoptions to classical recipes or do things need to be exactly the same? “I think you can definitely make changes to recipes and still carry on Jewish tradition”. What do you think of Israeli food vs Jewish food? “I like Israeli food...I definitely didn't eat much of it growing up...but I like falafel and hummus.” Do you have to love to cook to be able to pass on Jewish tradition? “Not at all… I think times are different now and more women are working so it is much harder to find the time to cook. There are so many places where you can buy Jewish food, and that works too.” What lessons have you learned from cooking? “That’s the best way to keep Jewish tradition alive. If you love doing it, you will stay with it for the rest of your life… and it keeps family together.”

GRANDMA'S COOKBOOK

About the Project For this project, I interviewed my grandma over the phone about the way food had impacted her Jewish upbringing and the ways in which cooking has contributed to assimilation into American culture. My grandma grew up in Brookline Massachusetts, a town with such a dense Jewish population, she had barely mingled with anyone of another religion. Although we both didn't grow up in orthodox families (let alone families that strictly followed Jewish law), we both felt that the one thing that has remained the same throughout our lives is cooking. I asked my Grandma what she has learned from cooking (specifically what she has learned from cooking Jewish cuisine). She said “it’s the best way to keep Jewish tradition alive. If you love doing it, you will stay with it for the rest of your life… and it keeps family together”.