“Yay! Mommy doesn’t have to make any more kugel!” Ruby cheered yesterday when we arrived home from our “early bird seder” weekend adventure.
Both of my girls were clearly tired of hearing about my kugel conundrum — not to mention the sound of the food processor chopping all of those carrots, potatoes, and onions!
I can’t say I blame them. Quite frankly, I was relieved to finally be done with the whole production myself.
Do you want to know how the kugel turned out? In short, it was a hit — all my hard work paid off — and there was more than enough to go around. I ended up making about four batches of the recipe so we had enough for leftovers. My best friend Dori will be pleased to hear that the “muffin kugels” she suggested were the most popular. She was right — making the kugel in muffin tins kept it crispy.
The rest of the family pitched in to make it a lovely seder meal.
My cousin Marla made matzoh ball soup that was better than the one they serve at The Second Avenue Deli; Claudia made homemade gefilte fish and mouth-watering brisket; My brother made carrot kugel (he vowed next year, he’d add garlic to spice things up a bit); and cousin Tina baked desserts that were so outrageously delicious, you’d swear they were made with flour (she swears they weren’t!)
When I bought the matzoh meal for the kugel, I noticed Streit’s slogan is “The Taste of a Memory…” Isn’t holiday cooking all about revisiting old memories and creating new ones? Maybe my girls will one day aspire to recreate their mom’s kugel.
I can just picture Ruby asking her sister, “Remember when mom nearly went crazy making all that kugel one year?”
How could they forget?
Meanwhile, I promise not to write anymore about kugel…until next year.