Celebrating the High Holidays in Days Past

Shana Tova!

Peaceful, safe and blessed New Year to all of you who celebrate!

Thinking of my first grandma-in-law, Grandma Zukor, these holidays. She told me she kept a completely kosher kitchen during the High Holidays until Revere, MA flooded in the 70’s, and her separate kitchen washed away. She worried and washed and shopped for weeks beforehand, but—“I checked the basement and every single thing was gone.” I can hear her saying it, because she told this story several times. “And I knew that was God saying to me, ‘Anna, chill.’” I miss Grandma and her sisters, the Aunties. I think about them every year at this time.

Grandma Zukor actually liked the taste of Manischewitz wine, the only one in the family. She also used it as a substitute curse. She would drop her tea bag and pop out, “Oh, Manischewitz!” Got the whole family into doing it.

I miss her latkes. She taught me to eat them with applesauce and with sour cream, both cold and warm. She would make them at any time—just ask and out came the cast iron skillet. And her kugel. She explained kugel to me as “It’s noodles plus your mood. It’s dessert, it’s vegetables, how’re you feeling, what’s up at the potluck?”

I haven’t had a proper appetite in a long time (thank you, inflammation), but now I want warm latkes with chunky applesauce and hot tea with milk and sugar, the Grandma special. Shana Tova, Grandma. You only came up to my chin, but you were a giant.

Traditional Latkes Recipe with variations

Basic Sweet Kugel Recipe

Basic Savory Kugel Recipe