metro
Bring
On The
Dough
Annual kreplach-
making marathon
unites generations
through love and
stories.
The annual kreplach-a-thon: Lauren Marcus Johnson and niece Sydney Marcus are in the kitchen, while friend
Mona Greenbaum, grandmother Ruth Marcus and granddaughter Isabel Johnson, 7, work on assembling kreplach.
Barbara Lewis
Special to the Jewish News
K
replach were everywhere in the Marcus home:
on the kitchen table, on every counter, in big
pots on the stove, on the dining room table.
It was a Sunday afternoon in July, the annual Marcus
family kreplach-a-thon.
For more than 35 years, Ruth Marcus has been gath-
ering first her children, now her grandchildren, in her
kitchen to make hundreds of kreplach, the meat-stuffed
dumplings that elevate a bowl of simple chicken soup into
something ambrosial.
Ruth grew up in Baltimore enjoying kreplach made
by her grandmother, Lillian Miller (known to her great-
grandchildren as Mema). When the Marcuses moved to
Southfield in 1978 — no kreplach! Luckily, Mema came
for a visit and taught Ruth her recipe and technique.
Making kreplach has been an annual tradition ever since.
The dumplings are small, and the Marcuses pack them
up by the dozen in sandwich bags so they can be frozen
easily. Some go to friends, but most are enjoyed by the
family at their weekly Shabbat dinners, starting at Rosh
Hashanah. The last batches are consumed at Purim.
"Once you're doing this much of a potchke (fooling
around), you might as well do enough for a year!" Ruth
says.
Mema's memory is a potent force. It's Mema's rolling pin
that used to roll the dough on a tablecloth that she gave to
Ruth for a shower gift. A china plate that came from Mema
holds some of the filled dumplings waiting to be boiled.
The recipe is simple enough: a dough made from flour,
egg and water, with a filling made from ground beef,
chopped parsley, and onion. But then there are the secret
ingredients, which granddaughter Isabel Johnson, 7, of
West Bloomfield, ticks off — "love and telling the stories:'
For Ruth's grandchildren, the kreplach marathon is a
highlight of the summer. Sydney Marcus, 18, timed her
visit home to Oak Park from Colorado, where she's going
to college, to include Kreplach Day.
Cooking with grandchildren is a great opportunity to
share family lore, Ruth says. Isabel and her sister, Olivia, 5,
never knew Mema, but they can tell the story of how Mema
came to America when she was 8 and her sister was 4.
24 July 25 • 2013
Grandchildren Olivia, 5, and Isabel Johnson, 7, and
Sydney Marcus, 18, watch as grandmother Ruth
Marcus shows them how to cut the dough.
Lauren Marcus Johnson drops the uncooked kreplach
into boiling water.
The sisters lived with their grandparents on a farm in
a little village in Russia, Isabel says.
Mema's father was already in America. She and her
mother and sister were going to join him. A wagon took
them to the train, and Mema's feet dangled off the back
of the wagon. She waved goodbye to her bubbie and
zaydie, knowing that she'd never see them again because
she was moving to America.
A rhythm develops. Mix the dough, mix the filling,
knead the dough, roll the dough, cut squares with a
pizza cutter, put a dollop of meat on each square, fold
the squares into triangles and crimp the edges, boil the
Mona Greenbaum stuffs the kreplach as David Marcus
puts the finished ones in bags for freezing.
kreplach, drain the kreplach, fill the bags, mix more
dough, mix more filling ...
Ruth's daughter, Lauren Marcus Johnson, mother of
Isabel and Olivia, who's been making kreplach since she
was a toddler, supervises the boiling. Ruth's husband,
David, is the chief packager. Family friend Mona
Greenbaum of West Bloomfield sits in the dining room
with David, making a batch of kreplach for her own
family.
Isabel samples a krepl and grins. "Every year they get
better!" she says.
❑