By Nina Glick
I was browsing through an old cookbook and realized that some of the oldest “hits” within my family circle of great eats were from its pages. I actually enjoy these cookbooks, and don’t need a computer to research a good recipe. I know that I am not alone in still enjoying cookbooks, which I assume is the reason that every few months a “new” spin on old recipes is published in an attractively bound book.
Pictures never were used in the olden days in describing recipes. One had to use their imagination to put ingredients together in an attractive fashion.
Sometimes I laugh when I think about the year my daughter Malkie went to Michlala and we gave her a list of friends from our YU days who had made aliyah and would be happy to host her for a Shabbat. Many times when she would visit them for Shabbat they would ask if her mother still made those same meatballs! They could still taste them after so many years! Actually, I still do make them!
We are always looking for something new and different, forgetting that there was really nothing wrong with the old!
One of my favorite foods that I remember from childhood were the potatoes and carrots that my mother would cut up and cook together in a pot with lots of butter, and a bit of salt and pepper. For whatever reason, that was my greatest comfort food. I still stick a sweet potato into the oven and bake it the way she would have it ready for me when I came home from school on a cold winter day. I would wrap the potato in a paper towel and try hard not to burn my fingers as I bit into it.
Today when I ask my grandchildren what favorite foods they remember from our home in Montreal, they would probably say the knishes and egg rolls from Kosher Quality Bakery, the almond croissants from Adar bakery and, yes for sure, one or two or three items that I made special for them whenever they visited. Bubbie’s ribs were top on the list and for sure Zaidie’s chrain that we know is being replicated each year before Pesach by all of our grandsons.
I am fortunate that my daughters enjoy cooking and baking just as I did and continue to entertain constantly. Sharing recipes goes on daily and now I am reaping the benefits of having grandchildren to call me for various tricks of the trade.
Our daughter Chavie came up with the most ingenious idea. As each of her children or nieces and nephews married, she presented them with a personalized copy of a cookbook which included all of the Glick, Eisenberg, Hagler and Kinderlehrer specialties. I wish that I could show it to each of you.
She is now working on her latest creation as a replacement for my grandchildren Hillel and Malkeh Eisenberg, who went through the awful trauma of having their apartment engulfed in flames in Lakewood. Everything in their apartment was destroyed. Auntie Chavie got to work immediately making a replacement cookbook. I am hoping that this tradition of family recipes will continue on for many generations.
Undoubtedly the winning challah recipe in our family goes to Auntie Chavie. Hmm! Whether we should enter it into The Link challah recipe contest is a dilemma we have not thought through yet.
Every once in a while we (as a couple) would indulge and barbecue a rib steak. It was especially enjoyable and almost sneaky as my Mordechai had high cholesterol and for a very long period of time (years) did not eat meat, eggs or anything fried. However, the day after he would have his necessary blood work to check his cholesterol, we would indulge!!! Chopped liver and steak—two of his favorite vices. I can still savor the flavors and the giddiness we felt while participating in what he considered a clandestine meal. I am quite certain that I have not had a rib steak since he died. No fun to eat alone!
Take out food was not part of our vernacular. I always considered it to be luxurious to buy prepared food for a family of seven and I still have a hard time even buying something just for me alone. A little voice in my head says just go home and take a piece of cheese or boil an egg, but I have to admit that most takeout options look very tempting! One day maybe.
I wish all of you the pleasure of a grandchild calling to say, “Bubbie, can you please give me your beery roast recipe?” I love it so much. Then the next call comes from the supermarket in front of the display of meat asking which piece to buy and then the next call is from the kitchen facing the meat on the counter. And so on and so on. What a great part of life that hopefully will continue on from daughters to granddaughters and beyond.
It’s like the taste of those meatballs. Still salivating in mouths thousands of miles away, decades after first being enjoyed.
Nina Glick can be reached at [email protected].
