Fat Dad: Hanukkah With My Grandmothers


One of many holiday dishes during Bubbe Mary's. Around a list are a immature Dawn Lerman, center, her relatives Phyllis and Al Lerman, right, and Bubbe Mary (Mary Goldman) with her father Alex, left. One of many holiday dishes during Bubbe Mary’s. Around a list are a immature Dawn Lerman, center, her relatives Phyllis and Al Lerman, right, and Bubbe Mary (Mary Goldman) with her father Alex, left.Dawn Lerman today.Librado Romero/The New York Times Dawn Lerman today.Fat Dad
Fat Dad
Dawn Lerman writes about flourishing adult with a fat dad.

When we lived in Chicago, Jewish holidays were spent possibly during my Grandma Beauty’s residence or my Bubbe Mary’s house. My dual grandmothers lived nearby any other on a North Side of Chicago. However, we saw my grandmother Beauty any weekend, though we would usually see my grandmother Bubbe Mary, my father’s mother, on occasional holidays. While my dual grandmothers had a lot in common — they were both extraordinary cooks — they were also really different.

My grandmother Beauty precious me, though my Bubbe Mary did not seem to have many time to see me. Also, my Grandma Beauty was all about being healthy, regulating a lot of uninformed fruits and vegetables in all her dishes. My Bubbe Mary was all about recreating a dishes that done her feel closer to a Old World traditions that she left behind in Romania — and catering to her new father Alex, whom she married shortly after my father’s father died.

Every memory from my childhood is trustworthy to food. The food my family ate, a food we were not authorised to eat, and a saccharin-loaded diet dishes that were partial of my family’s daily life. My really overweight father jumped from one diet to a next, my mom was too bustling to to lay down and eat, and we was always hungry. But all that altered when we was with my grandmothers on a holidays.

Every year during Hanukkah, a whole family was invited to Bubbe Mary’s for a normal Jewish dinner. She even enclosed my mom’s parents, Beauty and Papa. What we preferred many about holiday gatherings during Bubbe Mary’s residence was observant my initial cousins, Elizabeth and Alyson, and my uncle Melvin, whom we precious though frequency ever saw — and listening to both my grandmothers pronounce Yiddish. we never knew what they were saying, though something about a sound of a Yiddish difference total with heated palm gestures and a aromas of a Jewish food left a durability imprint.

Before we would go to Bubbe Mary’s, Beauty would tell me to make certain we pronounced greatfully and appreciate you, to eat all on my plate, and to take caring not to hold anything. Bubbe Mary had a lot of brittle tiny potion animals that she had collected over a years and a vast play of potion fruit on her coffee table. we always wondered since there was not genuine fruit in a bowl. But Beauty pronounced not to kvetch given it was a genuine provide to eat during Bubbe Mary’s. Her food was real, authentic, aged universe Jewish food — a kind that would put beef on your bones. Beauty would contend that she would really benefit 5 pounds after one of Bubbe Mary’s meals, though once a year it was good value it since it was so delicious.

Bubbe Mary grew adult in Romania and trafficked by vessel to get to a United States when she was 13. She trafficked with some of her sisters and brothers, though many family members were left behind. Her family did not have a lot of money, though they knew all a tricks to cooking, stretching reduction and feeding many people regulating schmaltz — duck fat — to make all ambience delectable. Bubbe Mary used schmaltz to prepare all — from matzo balls to latkes to duck livers. Everything was boiled with schmaltz, that she kept in a potion jar above her stove. For Hanukkah, she mostly went by a whole jar. She boiled and grated so many potatoes for a latkes that her knuckles would bleed. She done certain if we were eating during her home that there was copiousness of food and we would not leave though a full swell and a doggy bag.

The many noted Hanukkah during Bubbe Mary’s was when we was 8, a final one before my family changed to New York, and one of a final times we ever saw my Bubbe Mary. Once we moved, we perceived cards from her spasmodic on birthdays and holidays, though we never saw her again and we never knew why. During a final Hanukkah together everybody seemed to have such a good time. we can’t even remember anyone arguing, and we know my sister Apr or we did not brief or mangle anything.

When we walked in a doorway that evening, Bubbe Mary had a menorah in a window prepared for all a grandchildren to light. There was also a label list off to a side of a vital room that had dreidels and Hanukkah gelt. we remember there was one vast wooden dreidel and a few cosmetic ones so any of a cousins could have their possess dreidel to use spinning before a championship began.

Later that night, we stood between my dual grandmothers as Bubbe Mary hold a shamash candle in her palm and illuminated a initial of a 8 candles, ushering in a initial night of Hanukkah while reciting a blessing. we watched a wick bake and a fire grow splendid as we listened to a Hebrew blessings. On a initial night, distinct a other 7 nights, 3 blessings are made. we remember my father looking really happy.

After we illuminated a candles, it was time for dinner. There contingency have been 10 opposite courses. As Bubbe Mary brought out her uninformed challah bread, comfortable from a oven, she whispered to my father to asperse a bread in a matzo round soup. we remember a demeanour of pristine fun on my dad’s face as he dipped and slurped. The subsequent march was potato latkes served with applesauce and green cream; she done certain my father and uncle Melvin had dual helpings. Just when we suspicion it was not probable for there to be any some-more food, Bubbe Mary gleamed, revelation us that a categorical march was on a approach — cabbage filled with beef and rice, sautéed duck livers surfaced with onions, brisket with kasha varnishkes, and roasted tongue with peppers. My father took my palm and smiled. “If we consider this is amazing, wait until we see what is for dessert.”

After a few rounds of dreidel and Hanukkah songs, a final widespread was prepared — homemade chocolates, mandelbrot with golden raisins, boiled doughnuts with strawberry jam, and jelly fruit slices. Showering my father with food was how my Bubbe Mary voiced her adore — a some-more food, a some-more love.

That Hanukkah was full of special memories, as good as insights into my dad’s lifelong conflict with overdrinking and branch to food for comfort. Over a years, Jewish food has always had a special place in my heart, reminding me of those early years during my Bubbe’s house. Only now have we found ways to reconstitute some of her Old World recipes to be healthier for my father and my possess children — a brew of New and Old World traditions, a brew of Grandmother Beauty and my Bubbe Mary.


Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

This is a healthier chronicle of a sarmale that my Romanian grandmother Bubbe Mary done when we was little. we replaced grass-fed belligerent turkey for belligerent beef, olive oil for schmaltz, and quinoa for white rice. The outcome is an authentic tasting family favorite, full of protein and fiber.

1 core conduct cabbage ?
1/2 crater finely chopped onion ?
2 teaspoons garlic, minced or chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil or coconut oil
1 crater baked quinoa or brownish-red rice
1 1/2 pounds belligerent turkey, reduction of white and dim meat
14.5 unit can diced tomatoes
10 teaspoons tomato paste
1/4 crater brownish-red sugar, or sugarine of choice
Salt and peppers to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Leaving a outdoor leaves on, rinse and core as best we can a conduct of cabbage. Place it, cored side down, in a vast pot of H2O containing about 3 inches of water. Bring to a boil to steam a cabbage. After a H2O comes to a boil, flay off a dual outdoor leaves and set aside (do not use these for rolling). One by one, as a leaves loosen, flay them off and set aside.

3. In a meantime, sauté garlic and onion in olive oil. Cool.

4. Cook a quinoa according to package directions. Cool.

5. In a core sized bowl, brew a diced tomatoes, tomato pulp and brownish-red sugarine together.

6. In a incomparable bowl, brew a belligerent turkey, quinoa, a onion and garlic reduction and 1/2 crater of a tomato mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Stir to blend.

7. To arrange a cabbage rolls: take a cabbage leaf, supplement 1/3 crater beef reduction to a core of a leaf, overlay a bottom up, sides in and tip over, and place, folded side down, in a baking dish. Continue rolling until all a beef is gone. Pour tomato reduction over a rolls. Bake for one hour, covered.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings


Librado Romero/The New York Times
Sweet Squash Latkes
Yellow squish latkes are a smashing approach to suffer some-more veggies in your diet while still enjoying a crispy hardness of Hanukkah latkes. Latkes are everyone’s favorite boiled Jewish food. we remember how my father looked brazen to them any year. Traditional latkes are done with potatoes, matzoh image and egg, and are heavily fried. My many healthier chronicle uses yellow squash, whole-wheat bread crumbs and olive oil for sautéing, so we can have seconds or thirds though Jewish guilt.
2 core yellow squash, peeled, seeded and grated
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs, easily beaten
1 tiny onion, grated
1/3 crater whole-wheat bread crumbs or whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 to 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon creatively belligerent black pepper
Olive oil or coconut oil for frying
1. In a core bowl, toss grated squish with 1 teaspoon salt and let mount for 10 minutes. Squeeze squish dry, dispatch a liquid, afterwards stir in eggs, onion, bread crumbs, baking powder, Parmesan cheese, and remaining salt and peppers and brew well. (Note: it is critical to fist as many H2O as probable out of a squash. You can place a grated squish into a purify image towel to mislay additional liquid.)
2. In a vast skillet, feverishness oil over core heat.
3. When a vessel is hot, dump heaping soup-spoons of beat into a pan. You can use a spatula to squash a latkes. Cook a latkes about 2 mins on any side, until golden brown. Transfer delicately to a plate. Serve with plain yogurt or homemade applesauce (recipe below).
Yield: 6 servings

No-Cook Applesauce
This easy no-cook applesauce creates a ideal commanding for holiday latkes, and it tastes like classical applesauce. However, a apples aren’t boiled, so we keep all a advantages of eating tender fruits, that is useful if we are eating a lot of boiled foods. When something is this easy to make, since buy it from a store?
4 apples, peeled and chopped
1/4 crater uninformed lemon juice
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1. Combine a apples and a lemon extract in a blender. Blend until it reaches preferred consistency. If necessary, supplement a hold of H2O to assistance blend.
2. Stir in a maple syrup and a spices. Serve plain, or use to tip latkes.
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Librado Romero/The New York Times
Strawberry Jelly Thumb-Print Crunchies
These cookies make a good surrogate for boiled doughnuts, also know as sufganiyah, a normal Hanukkah treat. They are equally as gratifying and scrumptious, with a dollop of jam in a center. Children will adore assisting to make these since they are fun to mold and they are so healthy we will feel good about vouchsafing your children suffer them. They are installed with fiber from a palatable oats, omega-3 greasy acids from a flax seeds and coconut oil, and protein from a almond flour. You can also surrogate oat flour if your guest or family members have bulb allergies.
8 tablespoons coconut oil or malleable butter
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons almond milk
1/3 crater maple syrup
1/2 crater almond flour or oat flour
1 1/4 cups oat flour (you can make your possess oat flour by consistent oats in a blender)
1 teaspoon flax seeds (optional)
Pinch of sea salt
Strawberry jam or preserves
Powdered sugarine for powdering (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a blending bowl, brew a oil, egg, vanilla, almond divert and maple syrup and brew well. In a apart bowl, brew together a flours, flax seeds and salt. Then brew a reduction from both bowls and brew together with your hands until it forms a gummy dough. If a mix feels a hold dry, we can supplement a dash of H2O to skinny it. And if it feels a bit wet, we can supplement a hold some-more almond flour.
3. Roll a mix into balls with your hands; we like cave to be 1 1/2 to 2 inches across. Place them on a easily greased cookie sheet, squash them somewhat with your palm, and pull a thumbprint into any ball. Add a dollop of jam or preserves into a thumbprint.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, or until easily brownish-red on a bottom. Let cold and shower with powdered sugarine before eating.
Yield: 10 core cookies

Source: Health Medicine Network