Food, among all the other things it’s known for, can also be a bridge between the generations, reminding us of how our elders lived in their time.  When you are lucky enough to be able to sit at your grandmother’s knee to hear her stories and even to be remonstrated for not quite getting a cherished recipe right – (but how much exactly is a dollop anyway, Grandma?!) – you are truly privileged for this personal glimpse into a family member’s past.  And somehow the associations between one thing and another combine to make a perfect picture of your relatives once they are gone.  Stuffed cabbage and vaudeville!  To Annie Benjamin Ruff it makes total sense.

When my grandmother was about 85 I decided that I had better write down all her recipes since nothing was on paper... We sat for about two hours in the nursing home where she lived and I took copious notes. Every recipe had a story:  my father's favorite brownies, (which she used to send me regularly when I was in college, miraculously ALWAYS arriving moist and fresh!!), the lemon meringue pie that I used to eat ALL the meringue off without ever touching the lemon…. As we went along she would suddenly remember something that she HADN'T told me about a previous recipe and so back we would go to make sure I had it right. I am so happy to have the recipes now as part of my memory of her:  a woman who when she died at 86 still had the most perfect legs you have ever seen from years of the vaudeville circuit as a child… in fact she sambaed at her 80th birthday!  Here are some of her special and unique recipes:

RUTH'S STUFFED CABBAGE

• Take one head of green cabbage. Cut out core and then pull off the leaves and boil them around 10 minutes in a large pot of water. “DON'T OVERCOOK!”
• Remove and cool leaves on paper towel.
• Mix 1 lb ground beef with salt and pepper and 2 TBSP raw rice. Add 1 egg and if it seems too stiff a little cold water.
• Take each leaf and place stuffing at end and roll carefully.  
• In the bottom of a large casserole dish place the contents of one large can of sauerkraut and any broken pieces of cabbage.
• Place the stuffed leaves on top and pour over one large can of tomatoes and a sprinkle of sugar.
• Cover and bake at 350 at least one hour.

See the CWF Resource section for more of Granny Ruth’s delicious recipes.

Ann Benjamin Ruff

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