I found my love of cooking thanks to my grandmother. Bubbe, as we affectionately called her, was your typical Jewish grandmother. She nagged to my cousins and me about how we didn’t have boyfriends, but she never let us leave her house on an empty stomach. She was crude, blunt and never held in a belch, but she was still elegant. And in one way or another, she was (and continues to be) my culinary idol. (Sorry Dad.)
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One of my fondest memories of cooking with her didn’t even involve cooking. I was in middle school and had baked cookies during a home economics class. Having found a new passion, I bought a recipe book filled with different types of cookies and immediately told Bubbe I’d be over one day to make a few of them with her.
If you know me at all, I have a severe allergy to dust, pollen and literally all other air pollutants (so it’s really great I’m now living in LA). I must’ve forgotten to take my allergy medicine the day I went over to her house because I was soon overcome with a horrendous allergy attack the moment I walked inside. She grabbed my family’s favorite over-the-counter drug, Benadryl, and handed me one. Forgetting it made me incredibly drowsy, I gulped it down with a swig of water. Thirty minutes later, I told her I needed to lie down for a quick nap, but that nap turned into a four-hour snooze-fest.
Needless to say, we did eventually make cookies from that recipe book, but the next time I went over I made sure I’d taken my good ol’ Zyrtec.
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Almost two years ago, I used her matzo ball soup recipe for my very nontraditional third night seder. I called my aunt — who’s been making Bubbe’s matzo ball soup for as long as I can remember — for advice because my matzo balls weren’t holding any shape. They were literal mush, and as Ina Garten would say, “a dog’s breakfast.”
Looking back, I think my ratio of soda water to matzo ball mix was off. But despite my first and terrible attempt at matzo ball creation, I didn’t have my Jew card revoked. My soup, which I made in a pot far too small for how many ingredients it had, was crazy delicious, as was my brisket.
That being said, I haven’t held a Passover seder since, and I probably won’t until I have my own family and at least one extra set of hands.
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During stone fruit season — which, in my opinion, is the BEST season (see: pluots!!) — Bubbe would take peaches and cook them down until they were soft, warm and syrupy. I’m actually salivating just thinking about that heavenly dessert. With a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream, cooked peaches (as we called them) were a staple of my growing up in the South.
She always told me, “Ilana, if you aren’t careful, you’re going to wake up with two people in bed. And they’re both going to be you.” Well, Bub, if you didn’t make such decadent desserts, maybe I wouldn’t have had such a sweet tooth!
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My grandmother passed away a little over five years ago, but she left behind boxes of recipes. One of my favorites is her incredibly irresistible banana bread (another decadent dessert that I also eat for breakfast and as a snack). My mom doesn’t let me get on a flight from South Florida to Los Angeles without two in tow — one for my brother and one for me. The bread has become a staple of any trip home, and in a way, it’s like I’m bringing a part of my Bubbe back with me and keeping her crazy spirit alive 3,000 miles away from her final resting place.
Here’s how you, too, can make it:
Ingredients
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1½ cups of AP flour
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
4 heaping tablespoons of sour cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 eggs
1 stick of melted butter
Steps
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees; lightly grease a loaf pan and set it aside.
2. Melt the butter in the microwave until it is liquefied.
3. In a large bowl, take the bananas and mash them with a fork until smooth.
4. Crack the eggs into the banana mixture and pour in the sugar. Beat together.
5. Once thoroughly mixed, add the teaspoons of baking powder, baking soda and vanilla.
6. Pour in half of the flour, half of the melted butter and half of the sour cream. Mix well.
7. Add the remainder of the flour, butter and sour cream, and mix until smooth.
8. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and place in the center of the oven for 50 minutes.
9. When time is up, take a toothpick and poke the bread in the center. If it comes out clean, your bread is done. If it comes out doughy, place the bread back in the oven for 2 minutes.
10. Repeat Step 9 until the bread it cooked through.
11. Indulge.
Photo credit: My mom! (But don't worry; we'll be making one next week when she comes to LA!)
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