By Dawn Lerman, JNS.org

In My Fat Dad: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Family, with Recipes, New York Times wellness blogger and nutritionist Dawn Lerman shares her food journey, and that of her father, a copywriter from the Mad Men era of advertising. Recipes include some of her grandmother’s traditional Jewish dishes, and healthier versions.

Growing up, I always looked forward to the Jewish holidays, even though my family was not very religious. Those were pretty much the only times we had real food in our house.

After my family moved from Chicago to New York when I was 9 years old, my maternal grandmother, Beauty, would send me a recipe card every week with a $20 bill.

“If we cook the same dish at the same time, we will always feel connected,” Beauty would say.

While my mother normally had an aversion to spending time in the kitchen, she enjoyed the holiday preparations and loved filling our home with guests, food, entertainment and music. My parents always had an exotic group of friends. My mother said most people looked at the religious days as holy days, but she looked at them as a festive gathering. Anyone who did not have plans was invited, religious or not.

It was only when I was invited to spend a holiday weekend with my best friend that I realized how unusual my family’s holidays really were. During dinner, classical music played softly in the background, and the table was set with fine linen and gold-rimmed plates. Before we ate, we held hands and my friend’s dad made a prayer in Hebrew over the wine and challah bread. I loved how her father spoke, as he explained the meaning of each ritual. The blowing of the shofar, the throwing of bread in the water, the dipping of the apples in the honey, and the reason we would soon be fasting for Yom Kippur.

When I told my mom about my wonderful weekend, she said it reminded her of her own holidays growing up. She remembered how Beauty would iron the tablecloth, polish the silverware, grate the potatoes for the latkes by hand, and debate for weeks whether to make a sweet kugel with raisins or a savory kugel with broccoli.

She remembered how Beauty would hold her hand as they stirred and tested the chicken soup with her big wooden spoon that hung over the stove, and how my grandfather, Papa, would get so excited when he walked in the door and smelled all of the food. My mom’s face softened as she spoke, and I began to cry.

I was not sure why I cried. I am not sure if I cried because my mother seemed so different at that moment, or if I cried because I wanted her to hold my hand and love cooking with me as much as my grandmother did with her. I wanted my mom to understand the things that were so important to me, and I wanted her to nurture me in a way that maybe she couldn’t.

But it was the beginning of a Jewish New Year; so instead of wanting my mom to be someone other than who she was, I passed her one of Beauty’s recipe cards before we both recited in unison Beauty’s famous words, “You know, you can find your heritage in a bowl of chicken soup!”

1 chicken (3 1/2-lbs.), cut into 8 pieces, most of the skin removed
4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
4 ribs celery, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 medium yellow onion, quartered
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1-inch piece fresh ginger, finely grated
Handful of fresh dill, chopped
2 tsp. ground turmeric
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Garlic powder

Add four cups of cold water to an 8-quart stockpot; set over high heat and bring to a boil. Add the chicken and cook until foam comes to the top. Spoon off the foam, reduce the heat to medium-low, and add the carrots, celery, parsnips, sweet potato, onion, garlic, ginger and dill.

Simmer the soup for two hours and add 8 cups of cold water, a cup at a time, as needed. As the soup cooks, the liquid will evaporate and the soup will thicken. Check the soup every 30 minutes to remove any film that rises to the top.

Stir in the turmeric, salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste, and remove the pot from the heat.

Remove the chicken and the vegetables from the soup, and pull the chicken meat off the bones. Ladle the broth into bowls and add the desired amount of chicken and vegetables to each. Yields 12 servings.

Related: Nutritionist Dawn Lerman comes to Dayton

To read the complete October 2016 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.