This web site is dedicated to the two women in my life who most influenced my cooking. One of them was my mother- in-law, Bubbe (pronounced bub-bee and meaning Grandmother) Lottie, for whom this site is named and the other is my mother Emma, who preferred to be called Grandma, Bubbe being a too “old-fashioned” name for her.

Lottie, on the other hand, loved being called Bubbe and her grandchildren happily obliged her, In fact, she became Bubbe Lottie to many of her nieces and nephews and to the adult friends of her children. She was known in particular for her delicious vegetable soup (I once auctioned off a pot full at a charity fund raiser for $100 and close friends of the family now own and cherish her precious pressure cooker in which she cooked it) her pull-apart cake and her curried fruit (to die for).

My mother was an excellent cook. She was a perfectionist who would experiment with recipes until they rewarded her with a dish that met her very high standards. (See “Emma Conquers the Knaidel”). She used only the best of ingredients, never substituted margarine for butter, skim milk for regular, cheaper cuts of meat for the best, etc. and her fruits and vegetables were always the freshest possible. Every meal was a feast; every bite delicious.

The subject of Jewish cooking always includes the question of “keeping kosher.” For many people, kosher is as kosher does. My mother-in-law kept her home strictly kosher, but would eat certain “traif” (forbidden) foods in restaurants. My mother’s kitchen was not officially kosher, although her cooking style was. However, on the weekends she would make bacon and eggs for us and an occasional sandwich of thinly-sliced ham for my father who loved it (she once baked an entire ham, but that’s another story) but, she could never bring herself to eat pork or shellfish in a restaurant, instead, usually ordered fish, the usual recourse of a kosher person who eats out.

This site will include many of both Lottie’s and Emma’s time-tested and favorite recipes, as well as a lifetime collection of treasured Jewish recipes, both for daily cooking and for holidays. Of course, this brings up the question of what is a Jewish recipe. The best answer I have is that it meets one or more certain criteria. One of those is that is attached to a religious holiday. Another is that somehow it has become a traditional food. Another is that it is a food you ate in your Jewish mother’s or grandmother’s kitchen and so for you it is a part of your culture and heritage. And last, it must meet the standards of kashrut.q        q