3 Quotes by Eleanor Widmer

Her reputation as a cook spread without her knowledge- for the soups she brought to the bakery in a lidded tin for her midday meal, for her stews, for the scraps of dough that she turned into what the Russians called pelmeni and the Jews kreplach, dumplings stuffed with chopped meat and onions. She prepared hot borscht with beef in winter, shchi or cold borscht in summer, chicken cooked with prunes or a tsimmes with sweet potatoes, carrots and prunes.

After dinner the doors of the apartment were thrown open and everyone, whether invited or not, could partake of the "sweet table": slices of cheesecake, bundt cake, strudel, rugelach, strawberry shortcake prepared with sponge cake, honey cake, macaroons, chocolate cake, Linzer torte, nut cookies, lemon cookies, sugar cookies, hamantaschen, prune Danish and cinnamon twists- mountains of everything.

On Sundays when Bubby cooked dairy, she would sometimes have a request for scrambled eggs. She beat them with her indispensable broken fork until bubbles formed on top, then added a dash of sweet cream and several chunks of cream cheese. She cooked the eggs over a low flame, stirring constantly. The result was a mountain of fluff, creamy, smooth and delectable enough to tempt us.