My grandma, Jean Cohen Goldman, was an incredible woman. Poised, proper, and caring, but also adventurous and tenacious — Grammy, as she’s known to me and my cousins — could do it all. As her niece Shari described her to me, Grammy was “a whirling dervish, in a very productive sort of way.”
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When Grammy passed away in 2018, I struggled to come to terms with the fact that I wouldn’t be able to talk to her, learn from her, hear her stories anymore. It troubled me that I would never get the opportunity to truly get to know her, adult to adult.
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This January, still wishing I could find a way to connect with Grammy now two years after her passing, I had a thought: In addition to being poised, proper, caring, adventurous, and tenacious, Grammy was a fabulous baker. When I think of my Grammy, I think of baked goods and decorative tin cans. I think of her refusal to let anyone lift a finger in the kitchen — unless, of course, they were grandkids who wanted to help with the baking. I think of powdered sugar-dusted brownies that had been waiting in the freezer for us to arrive from Michigan, and I think of bags of goodies tucked into our suitcases long after my mom said we had enough food for the drive home. I can’t call my grandma up anymore to ask about her life as a young woman in the 1950s. I can’t drive to Chicago and eat Knox Blox at her kitchen table while I try to convince her to let me help with the dishes. But, I realized, I can learn to bake her recipes.
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This project is my attempt at building a deeper connection with my grandma through baking. You can read more about the thought process behind this project in the introduction on pages 5 and 6 in the cookbook, which can be found on the “Cookbook” page at the top of this website. In short, though, I spent the last three months baking my grandma’s best recipes, talking to family members about her, and thinking about my family history in a new way.
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Losing loved ones is an unfair but unavoidable part of the human experience. I hope you’ll look at this project and think about the ways you can still connect to those who are no longer with you.
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Enjoy the cookbook, and happy baking!
~ Maya Goldman
About this project:
Hi! My name is Maya Goldman and I'm finishing up my senior year at the University of Michigan. I spent my childhood reading and writing and avoiding the kitchen at all costs. But when I finished my term as editor-in-chief of The Michigan Daily, University of Michigan's student newspaper, in January 2020, I had time on my hands. My newfound free time gave me the opportunity to connect with my grandma through one of her chief passions -- baking.
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