Recipes by Story

Not a “How To” cookbook or a Jewish cookbook or a Chinese cookbook. It is certainly not a balanced meal cookbook. It is a family cookbook with the recipes I used to make, some memories and stories about meals, and a few new recipes that are becoming family favorites. I wrote this book to answer the question, years from now, when one of my children asks his or her spouse, “Why can’t you make meatloaf like my mom used to? Or chicken or roast beef?” Of course there are dozens of recipes for meatloaf and chicken and roast beef, and I do not claim to have discovered the best. This is just the way I make things.

So I am sharing all of my “secrets,” such as they are. My children have already become more interesting and more adventurous in the kitchen than I ever was. And even I am constantly evolving. I hardly ever make some of the recipes in this book, and I have new favorites. But these are the recipes of our family “back when.” I am also quite clear that I cooked for production in those days, and not for elegance. Our family of six often included others for months or years, and could be anywhere from two to twelve at dinnertime. There was that memorable year when I cooked for four young men between the ages of seventeen and twenty five.

Steve was a junior in high school, our exchange student Carl was a senior, Michael and Scott were both living at home for a while, and even Josh Samberg frequently ate at my table with “workman-like efficiency.” I used to make meatloaf with five pounds of meat! There were leftovers (sometimes), but someone would have a midnight snack, someone would grab a bite for breakfast, someone would have a meatloaf sandwich for lunch, and someone would have an after school snack. Poof! It was all gone and the next night I started again with five pounds of meat. I didn’t make a lot of veal or shrimp that year. (The second most memorable thing about meals that year is that Carl laughed at all of Dad’s “jokes,” and none of the rest of us could understand why.)

NO POTATOES. We all know that was the working title for this book. Or it could have been NO VEGETABLES or NO BEANS. Ha ha – tell me again how limiting and weird my taste in food is. (“Save some potatoes for Mom.”) The list of foods that I do not eat is far less interesting than the development of the foods that we ended up liking as a family. How many cookbooks have recipes for gribnitz, tzatziki, and pork bows? I had a clear philosophy of cooking: I preferred to make food rather than buy prepared or processed food unless I could not make it better or no one could tell the difference. Similarly, I like to eat things in restaurants that I could not make as well or better. So while it is not hard to make pizza at home, I think there is no comparison with a pizzeria.

On the other hand, why go out for spaghetti or steak? Nothing could be easier to make at home and it tastes as good. Ironically, Italian is Dad’s favorite ethnic food, but we rarely went out for it except for pizza. Asian foods, however, are so interesting and different and relatively hard to make as well at home. I developed a few Asian specialties and they became favorites. Of course, I retained many traditional Jewish dishes, and how could you live in California and not pick up a few Mexican dishes? The recipes in this book could not be more eclectic.

Despite the wide variety of recipes in this collection, the ingredients are fairly simple and common. I did not use exotic foods, and certainly not any expensive specialty items when cooking for the crowd – almost all of these recipes can be made from pantry and refrigerator staples. The most “out there” ingredients are probably bean curd and Phyllo dough, and those are easy to find in any grocery store.

In keeping with my favorite foods, the largest sections in this book are entrees and desserts. I make no excuses. Desserts are so much fun to make; I would make them daily if there were someone to eat them. And if there are any vegetable recipes in this book, it is purely coincidental.

So enjoy the old recipes, have fun developing new ones, and remember my cooking philosophy:

“You can never have too much Garlic, Onions, or Diet Pepsi.”

Glenda Claremon