Not Your Mother's Cookbooks

January 1988 started what was to be a good year for catering. It was an election year and Reaganomics had the country in the lull between Iran-Contra and the end of the Cold War. People were entertaining at home nonstop. I had a lot of private parties scheduled way into the summer. January is a great month to entertain since people are looking for some excitement in the dreary cold month following the Christmas holidays.

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This is my friend Ilana Sharum’s grandmother’s recipe from Russia, which she had transcribed over the phone to me from her recipe written in cursive Hebrew. It is one of my most treasured recipes and I make it for just about every special occasion. There is a saying that when you make this traditional bread (every Friday), you are creating an atmosphere, not just food.

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I remember one lunch catering job where my client was having lunch negotiating a contract with a tennis pro. He looked at me and asked, so what is your opinion on all of this on eggs not being good for…

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My dear friend Norma Golobic, who knew every excellent place to eat in the city, told me about a great little bistro in San Francisco off Union Street. It was called Balboa Cafe. One trip there and I was hooked;…

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When I was still in college, my boyfriend and I spent every Sunday with his grandparents, Granny and Grampy Weick, after Grampy retired from working on the Union Pacific Railroad line. Their Saratoga, California, home was a suburban corner lot.…

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