Going Home

Behind the grill and loving it -- just like my grandmothers

Lunch for 200? No problem.

Both of my grandmothers loved to cook and were versatile enough to compete with the finest chefs in Europe and the best short-order cooks New York City has to offer.

Each could satisfy a table of one with a grilled cheese sandwich and a piping hot bowl of chicken soup in less than 15 minutes. Just as easy, they could prepare traditional Polish fare -- sausage and sauerkraut, potato and cheese pierogi, golabki (stuffed cabbage) -- for the entire Holy Name congregation in a single afternoon.

When I took leave from the U.S. Navy back in the mid-1980s, I always got dinner invitations from my grandmothers.

Grandma Lemanski made me golabki -- until the day I finally had the nerve to tell her I hated cabbage. From that day forward she served me my favorite dish -- spaghetti and meatballs -- and her famous banana-nut cake with buttermilk frosting for dessert.

Grandma Happy often surprised me with homemade pierogi, which she meticulously shaped and stuffed despite having debilitating arthritis in her hands. She then sent me home with two dozen more to support my pierogi habit until my leave ended.

Audio slideshow: 2009 Treats 'n Trunks at Fletcher Field

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With a pair grandmothers like that, is it any wonder that I enjoy cooking, too?

Every time I take up my post behind the little barbecue at Fletcher Field, like I did again this past Sunday, somebody inevitably tries to take over.

"It's not fair that you have to cook for every event," is usually what the person says to me.

Just like my grandmothers, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: 6/hoover [Member]

I love Pierogi's. My grandmother made them every year for Christmas with my mom's help. Now I make them with my mom every year and look so forward to having them for Christmas. We alway make enough to last the winter. Sometimes they just don't make it past January. They are so addicting when they are homemade. During the year when we crave pierogi's, we will go the the Polish Banquet hall on 15 mile and Dequindre. They also make good potato pancakes. They are the only place that can duplicate my mom's. In a few weeks we will start out pierogi making and I can't wait.

Permalink 10/27/09 @ 10:16