Happy Mother's Day!

I'm joining Barb over at Foley's Follies in her tribute to Mother's Day. Everyone's invited to join in with their tributes, just add your name to her link list or just come on over and check out the participating blogs!

My Mother's Day tribute is for my grandmother's. My Mom's mom and my Dad's mom. Both excellent cooks, but complete opposites in the kitchen. One was neat, the other was a lot less neat. One was bland, the other was spice. Both were love. Lots and lots and love. and in their world food meant love. Thinking of my grandma's brings up memories of not just them, but my entire family.



A few years ago, an artist friend of mine was working with stained glass. She helped me to make a frame to give my grandma a place of honor in my kitchen. This is the piece I ended up with in my kitchen. My Nana's two best recipes in my grandpa's handwriting. Grandma was always telling him what to do and I can just picture her telling him to write this down. So worn, torn and tattered, in my grandpa's hand and from my grandma's mind comes her challah recipe, framed in glass and made with love.








A work in progress...




















Finally finished after weeks of work, one piece of advice for stained glass, never grab a soldering iron from the wrong end!













On display in the kitchen. Essen is "eat" in Yiddish. I can hear them now, both my grandma's saying "essen, essen" and we did!


















Everything has a story, the word sculpture is from my brother in law, only he got the spelling wrong, but it's the thought that counts! Brings a smile to my face when I notice.

My grandma's Challah recipe...

Challah
Printable Recipe

Dissolve 2 packages dry yeast in 1/2 cup water. Then in a bowl add 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon salt, 3 well beaten eggs, 1/2 cup oil, about 6-7 cups flour. Make a well. Keep mixing in flour with 1 1/2 cups water, mix into salt and eggs with sugar and yeast. Mix in a little flour, knead well. Cover with towel. Let rise in a warm place for one hour the turn out on floured board. Knead for 10 minutes. Let rise until doubled in size. Knead a few minutes more. Then divide into three parts and braid. Place on slightly greased cookie sheet, cover, let rise about 40 minutes. Paint with egg yolk, mixed with a little bit of sugar. Bake 350 degrees temperature.

The second recipe in the frame is Mandel Bread. Like biscotti but my Nan's came out softer. She sometimes spread jam in the middle instead of the chips. Her recipe says "glasses" but it means cups.


Mandel Bread
Printable Recipe

4 glasses flour
6 eggs
1 glass oil
3 tablespoons vanilla
1 1/2 glasses sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
chocolate chips
chopped walnuts

Mix all together in a large bowl and make 6 loaves on 2 greased cookie sheets. Shape each loaf with wet hands.

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and slice. Then return to oven and bake 20 minutes at 325 until browned on top.

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