Q2 Outside Reading Post 2: Miriam's Kitchen

This week I read pages 62-120.  In the beginning we learn about Miriam's style of baking.  Before this, we knew that she loved to bake but in these pages we learn her style.  "There is no food processor, apple corer, mixing bowl, measuring spoon, basting brush, egg beater, wine coaster, or tomato knife.  Miriam, in general, does not aquire kitchen equipment... She knows exactly what she has and what she needs, because Miriam's repertoire is a dependable selection.  It is Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven, with a little Chopin, Dvorak and Irving Berlin added in over"(63).  This shows that Miriam doesn't use fancy utensils to bake.  This also shows that she isn't a perfectionist when it comes to measuring but thinks that the taste of something matters more.  We also learn more about how Miriam likes to add what she thinks would be right in a recipe.  "My instinct is to improvise" (64).  This shows that she likes to change up some of her recipes to make it her own.  

In these pages we also learn a little bit about Miriam's childhood.  She was a jewish girl, who was growing up in Germany area.  We learn that she loved where she lived.  "Her mother's youngest sister, spared at Auschwitz, was raising a family next door.  Down the road were friends from the old village.  There was dazzling warmth and sunlight..." (67).  This is a good description of what the town was like and really shows why Miriam loved Germany so much.  Unfortunatley, she was forced to move because of the war.  Her family, along with many others, wanted to go to America for the same reason; freedom and a better life.  "But her mother and her husband wanted America, they wanted prosperity, and Miriam packed up to begin again" (68).  We see that if Miriam, had a choice, she wouldn't of necesarily wanted to move because she loved her home town so much.  This quote also shows that she seems to have been moving around a lot.  Overall, in the pages we get more information about Miriam.

Q2 Outside Reading Post 1: Miriam's Kitchen

For this quarters outside reading, I am reading the memoir Miriam's Kitchen by Elizabeth Ehrlich.  In the memoir, Elizabeth is talking about her childhood.  She grew up in New York like any Jewish family.  Went to synagogue, kept a kosher house and had a grandmother who was always cooking.  We learn that Miriam loves to cook.  "They cooked twenty-one meals a week, fifty-two weeks a year, all their adult lives" (17).  This really gives you a good idea on how much Miriam really did cook.  Like most Jewish grandmothers, they are always cooking meals for their family.  Also, every chapter would be named a different type of dish.  Then, in that chapter she would describe the time when Miriam made the food.  "One autumn in Brooklyn as we visited for the holidays, I watched my grandmother in her kitchen day after day... she made a cabbage borsht or soup that season, sweet-and sour" (59).  This chapter was called stuffed cabbage.  As you can see, Elizabeth is describing the setting of where she was when this dish was made.  Then she describes the taste.  By doing this, you really get information about the flavors in the dish.  Once in awhile, there will be a recipe following the chapter.  I think this is a good addition to the book because it makes the book seem real, and you get a better understanding of what the dish is, since a lot of the foods she makes have Yiddish names.  On page 27 there is a recipe for cholent which is a type of meat.  This follows the chapter "Cholent" which is when Elizabeth meets the man she will one day marry.

In the pages, we also learn about Elizabeth's family and their religious views.  They are conservant Jews so they keep a kosher home, where milks and meats don't mix, and go to services often.  There is a chapter about the Jewish Holiday Yom Kippur.  That is when God judges the Jewish people on how they acted the past year and the people reflect on how they acted.  People go to services to pray for the day and also fast.  "The repetitions of prayer and emotion echo and rise in every place of Jewish worship:  We will die, we are sinful, we are not worthy of the privilege of life" (11).  This is what a temple would usually sound like.  People are telling God that they messed up in the past year and didn't act how they should've.