Julie & Julia—Middle-Eastern Style:

The Bonners Cook It Up

by Robin Bonner

A Legacy
When Anaise Asousa Bonner was a young girl in the 1930s, her family’s home in west Philadelphia was without a refrigerator. Her mother stored food in a literal “ice box.” She’d choose a chicken from a wire cage at the local butcher shop, have it killed, then take it home to singe and pluck the feathers in their kitchen. She’d buy a sea bass from the fish vendor peddling his wares through the neighborhood and scale it herself. And, there in her small kitchen, she’d feed her family of seven with stuffed grape leaves, laban, baklava, and other delicacies from the Old Country. (Johara and Constantine came to America from Greek families living in Jerusalem.) A lot has changed in 70 years, but the recipes have not.

Well, over the years, Anaise grew up, married, had three children, and watched them grow up, marry, and raise families of their own. She now has eight grandchildren. Throughout her life, Anaise cooked her mother’s Greek specialty dishes, and at 80, she’s still making them. But, do any of her progeny, their spouses, or their children make stuffed grape leaves? Rice pilaf? Green beans and beef? Of course, you say? Well, sadly, the family recipes have not been passed on. Until last week.

When Mom celebrated her 80th birthday last November (see This Woman Deserves a Party, in the Winter 2008–2009 issue), Gary and I announced our family’s gift to her: a family trip to California, to the home of our older daughter Amie and her husband Todd, in the desert north of Los Angeles. Working around everyone’s calendars was difficult, and our plans finally came together for August. We would spend four days at Amie’s—touring the wineries of Santa Barbara County, exploring the Tehachapi Mountain Festival and a ghost town built by a colleague of hers, and (finally!) making time for cooking lessons with Grandmom. After all, those special recipes had to be passed on to the next generation!

Julie & Julia, Mom, and the TSA
We toyed with the idea of a family cooking event when we planned the trip last spring, but with the debut this summer of the film Julie & Julia—dual memoirs of French chef Julia Child and foodie/blogger Julie Powell, who worked through Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking over the course of a year—we simply had to do it. And, the timing was perfect to also see the film together in California!

In preparation, Mom gathered her recipes together, perused the lot, chose a few she thought would be doable in several hours, and decided to bring the grape leaves with her—this is the one special ingredient that not every supermarket carries. She wasn’t leaving it to chance that she could find them in the Mojave Desert. So she emptied a jar of the green leaves, blotted them dry with paper towels, gathered them into a zip-lock baggie, and stuck the green leafy mass in her carry-on luggage.

Airport security, however, thought they were something else.

So, at 6:30 a.m. in the Philadelphia Airport, Mom had a lot of explaining to do about why she was trying to smuggle a bunch of green leaves to California. She finally convinced everyone she just wanted to show her granddaughters (and daughter-in-law) how to stuff them (with rice and meat). It was just the beginning of a long and eventful trip. . .

The Big Day
By Sunday, we had visited the Tehachapi Mountain Festival, done our food shopping, and that morning burned tumbleweeds in Amie and Todd’s yard. (Yeah, really). We were ready for more excitement. Out came the grape leaves.

When Mom gets on a roll, she’s single-minded. I had to convince her to put on the brakes and wait for the rest of us, to do even the prep work. We didn’t want to miss a trick. Out came my laptop—I had to get the recipes down, exactly the way Mom made them, for all posterity (and don't you think she didn't edit and re-edit them later). The guys were sent out on errands, and a bottle of grenache mysteriously appeared. (As Sarah said, “You can’t cook without wine!” even if it was only 10:30 in the morning and none of our recipes called for it.) We donned our aprons. We were ready.

Unlike Julie’s ordeal in the film, we cooked only 3 recipes, not 524. And, we did it in 3 hours—not 365 days. First, Mom prepped the grape leaves—they’d have to soak for an hour before we could stuff them. Then, we worked on the Green Beans and Beef, the Middle-Eastern answer to Boeuf Bourgiugnon. While it cooked, we went back to the grape leaves, stretching them out to dry a little, sorting the good ones from the defective (too small, torn, and so on). After all, we wanted our Stuffed Grape Leaves to turn out perfect! Mom’s fast to the draw, so it was hard to keep up with her. But, she had too many leaves to do them all herself, so we all were able to get into the act.

As the Green Beans and Beef simmered in the Dutch oven, Amie’s kitchen filled with a wonderful, heady aroma, adding to effect of the wine. We had to keep our wits about us, though, because it was difficult to pin Mom down on quantities—she did everything by feel: She made the rice pilaf by stir-frying pieces of very fine egg noddles, then adding rice and continuing to stir-fry, and then covering everything with water. But, how much water? About a finger’s width above the rice. It was directions like that that we had to nail her down on—How much water is that? A quarter inch? A half inch? A quarter cup? A half cup? We ran around behind Mom estimating quantities as she whipped up the recipes. After all, Mom didn’t learn to cook with measurements—her mother estimated everything. It will be interesting to duplicate them on our own—and something tells me we’ll still need to adjust things a bit.

Mangia! Mangia!
After all that culinary excitement (and wine), some of us needed naps, and the afternoon thankfully offered some down time. But, we were up and at ‘em for an early dinner, when we rolled out Mom’s signature dishes: Stuffed Grape Leaves, Green Beans & Beef, and Rice Pilaf. We weren't going to be able to make the Laban (it’s too time consuming), so we had picked up some low-fat plain yogurt at the supermarket to top the grape leaves. It would have to suffice. Amie and Todd cracked open a bottle of syrah from their store, and we all toasted Grandmom. A lot of “oohs” and “aahs” could be heard between the munching and snippets of conversation. Everyone was (of course) focused on their plates.

Afterward, dishes were washed and leftovers stored (Amie and Todd would be eating grape leaves for a while—good thing they freeze well), and we made ready to head out to the theater to see Julie & Julia. I had seen it with my friend Lauren McKinney earlier that week (she’s writing a memoir that focuses on food, and I had suggested that we see it together), so I had a leg up on the group. Mom didn’t care for the double plot, but as she said, it was a “must see” film, so she was glad to be there. Must-see is right: Award-winning actress Meryl Streep portrays award-winning chef Julia Child in her “younger years,” as she develops her cooking/writing career (predating her TV cooking show, which I recall having seen as a kid). I will go to almost any film featuring Streep, and I was curious about Child. I found writer Julie Powell endearing. Between the food, the French vistas, and the comedy, I think everyone was happy. A perfect recap to a perfect day.

Winding Down
Continuing our cooking theme and further celebrating Mom’s birthday, we spent our last day in California touring a few wineries in Santa Barbara County (Sunstone, Gainey, and Bridlewood), then dining at Le Chene, near Valencia, known for its French cuisine. Our mental transition from grape leaves on Sunday to fruit of the vine on Monday was an easy one, aided by Julie & Julia Sunday evening. Good food and drink, and the people who bring them to us, are always reasons to celebrate.

Recipes
Stuffed Grape Leaves
Green Beans & Beef
Rice Pilaf


Robin C. Bonner is editor of Empty Nest. For more about Robin, see About Us


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