A little further back on the family tree

This is Morris’s beautiful mother, appropriately named Bella, with her mother and her brothers. Bella’s brothers, from left to right are Izzie, Morris, Joe and Nathan. This photo was taken before the family made it’s way to the United States.
Bella’s brother escaped from Russia and slept in cemeteries as he made his way to top the boat that was to take him to the States. . He developed TB from the exposure to the cold, and died soon after he arrived to the states. Bella particularly loved her brother Morris, and named her first born for her beloved brother.

Morris had fond memories of his grandmother Pessye, who was a powerhouse. Bella was often ill, so Pessye would show up at Morris’s home every few weeks and cook up a storm. Morris had fond memories of Pessye making noodles from scratch. Pessye also wrote Socialist poetry in Yiddish which was published in the Yiddish press here in New York.

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Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee. If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it. My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid. I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed. A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...

The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

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A Passover loss

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sarah in nyc

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