My grandmother is a goddess.

You may have read my posts already about this amazing woman, but I can't sing her praises enough. Last weekend I spent some time with her, and I realized that many of my "eccentricities" can be traced directly to her. (not all of them, Dad...don't worry). There is so much to learn though, and I have taken to video-taping her each time we meet.

This time we went grocery shopping, home decor shopping, gossiped, ate lunch, and enjoyed each other's company.

Looking into her freezer I took stock of what I was going to bring back to Brooklyn and ultimately, Roy's belly.

This is what her freezer looks like. A veritable vault of goodness. (this was taken AFTER I looted and selected some treats for myself). Everything is labeled with the item name, date created, and often times, intended recipient.

My grandmother will be 93 this summer and she constantly tells me that she cooks all the time because she doesn't have anything else to do. I don't buy it. I know that she loves to make and distribute her treats to friends and relatives. In fact, much of our time together each week is spent driving to one of her friends houses to deliver a much treasured container of chopped liver.

I have always LOVED her liver. It's amazing. It was not until recently, however, that I really learned to appreciate her "muffins". In my family, people make fun of them and have for years. They're homemade bran muffins, and because grandma Lill is a health nut, she uses applesauce instead of oil or something nuts. I think there is soy milk in them, or super skim or something weird.

She used to pawn them off on us and they'd go uneaten--more accurately untasted--until they'd be tossed or fed to the dogs.

Roy was actually the first person on record to physically take them and also consume them. I followed suit and am now a very big fan.


But I am not really going to tell anyone--except you, but who are you going to tell--because I'm keeping these babies for myself.

(this is a video of her making our lunch...smoked salmon on fresh bagels, with onions, capers, tomato and cream cheese--she recommends Tofutti):

No deliveries, no way.