52 | SEPTEMBER 26 • 2024 

ANNIE’S STUFFED 
CABBAGE 

(RECIPE MAKES 30 ROLLS)

Ingredients:

2 large cabbages

Meat Mixture

1½ lbs. ground chuck

1 medium potato

1 small onion

2 eggs

1 Tbsp. ketchup

Lawry’s Seasoned Salt (1½ tsp. or to preference)

garlic powder (1½ tsp. or to preference)

Gravy

2 15-oz. cans tomato sauce

¾ can water (use one of the tomato sauce cans)

4½ Tbsp. lemon juice

2 large onions

½ cup black raisins

1½ cups brown sugar

paprika (1½ tsp. or to preference)

Directions: 
Make the gravy: Slice two large onions 
into half rings. Put all ingredients into 
a pot or roasting pan large enough 
to contain 30 stuffed cabbage rolls 
squeezed next to each other. Mix all 
gravy ingredients together.
Make the meat mixture: Place the 
ground chuck in a large bowl. Grate 
the potato in a food processor using a 
grating attachment and add to the meat 
in the bowl. Grate the onion in a food 

processor or grate on the small holes of 
a box grater. Add the onion, including its 
juice, and the remaining meat mixture 
ingredients to the bowl of meat and 
potatoes, and mix until combined.
Put the cabbages in a large pot and 
cover them with cold water. Bring the 
water to a boil, and after a minute or 
two (no longer as the outer leaves 
could become mushy), pour out the 
boiling water into a colander. Remove 
the cabbages (they’ll be hot). Pull off 
each leaf carefully so it doesn’t rip. Thin 
out the spine of each leaf using a knife, 
so the leaf is foldable. Divide the meat 
mixture into 30 even handfuls.
Place a cabbage leaf on your work 
surface. Place one handful of the meat 
mixture at the bottom of the leaf. Fold in 
the sides, and then roll the leaf. Place the 
roll into the roasting pan or pot, seam-
side down, on top of the gravy. Repeat 
for remaining leaves. Spoon some of the 
gravy onto each roll.
Cover the pan/pot with a lid or 
aluminum foil. 
Bake at 350°F for 2 hours.

These days, Randa knows her way around the kitchen. 
Randa and her husband, Richard, married for 53 years, 
have lived in West Bloomfield for the past 39 and are 
active members of Temple Israel, where Randa previously 
served as sisterhood treasurer. 
“Richard entertains me; he’s the one who plans the trips 
and the events that we go to, and I just follow him like a 
little puppy,” she jokes. “He’s in charge of all the season 
tickets,” which they have to the Detroit Tigers, the Fisher 
Theatre and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. 
Their older daughter, Carolyn Blechman, also lives in 
West Bloomfield with her husband, Andrew. Carolyn 
and Andrew are parents to Gabriella “Gabby,” 7, and 
William, 3. Randa and Richard’s younger daughter, Emily 
Feldman, lives in New York City.
Passing down family tradition was a big factor in 
Randa’s efforts. Her family history books include ones 
filled with genealogy, but there’s also the Sukkot book, 
which contains pictures and text showcasing year after 
year of the Feldmans’ sukkah starting in 1989, when 
Richard first built one. Every year since, Richard has 
assembled the sukkah, and Randa’s cooked for the Sukkot 
meals, and the book now displays memories of Randa, 
Richard, Carolyn, Emily, friends and, more recently, the 
grandchildren, celebrating in it.
Randa wasn’t alone in her interests. “Carolyn has 
played an active role in the books,” she explains. “Emily 
immediately made a recipe binder for herself,” containing 
many of her mother’s recipes, after Randa organized hers. 
Emily already prepares various dishes she grew up 
with, including mandelbroit and blintz soufflé, and both 
Carolyn and Emily, who mutually love their mother’s 
kreplakh, hope to start making those in the future. When 
Randa and her daughters prepare them now, “making 
them is an all-day event.”
Beyond books and binders, Randa carries on tradition 
every Friday evening when the family gathers around 
the Feldman dining room table for Shabbat dinner, after 
which Randa and Richard attend Shabbat services at 
Temple Israel with granddaughter Gabby in tow. Gabby 
started joining her grandparents each week during 
the pandemic when the services were virtual, and she 
continued once they returned to being in person. Her 
Bubbie Randa proudly notes “she knows all of the songs.”
The theme of passing down tradition was even visible 
in a storyteller doll collection in the Feldman living 
room. Each clay figurine of an adult includes children 
sitting or otherwise positioned around them, receiving 
information. As Randa, ever the teacher, says, “They’re 
making sure, just as we do, that all the kinderlakh know 
their history.” 

Watch Bubbie’s Kitchen at thejewishnews.com. 
This episode is sponsored by JSL.

continued from page 51

ROSH HASHANAH
BUBBIE’S KITCHEN