Beyhan’s childhood Seders involved a long table with the elders at the head and the children at the end. Moving up to the head of the table means remembering those whose seats she now fills.
A Long Table of Memories

Beyhan’s childhood Seders involved a long table with the elders at the head and the children at the end. Moving up to the head of the table means remembering those whose seats she now fills.
For Turkish Jews, the Passover Seder meal always includes a variety of succulent vegetable and beef patties, which are prepared days ahead and are then warmed up in the oven during the Seder. My favorite of these Sephardic dishes is a seasoned ground beef and leek mixture formed into patties and fried—hence the name Albondigas…
Growing up, Beyhan’s breakfasts of salty caviar spread on toast weren’t like the other kids, but with a recipe from a favorite aunt, this dish tastes like family and good memories.
Being immigrants from Turkey, it was common in my family to have fish or salty meats with toast and tea in the morning. Perhaps our caviar wasn’t the expensive Russian kind, but we often spread salty tarama, or “carp roe,” on our toast instead of jelly. In the 1970’s ready-made taramosalata became available in markets. It tastes okay.…
[THANKSGIVUKKAH] Butternut squash is more than a gourd that shows up on produce stands every autumn. Beyhan was a teenager before she discovered that her mother made a favorite dessert from this surprise ingredient.
I always thought that the beautiful delight my mother served every Thanksgiving was some exotic pumpkin or sweet potato drenched in syrup and topped with chopped nuts. Who knew this glorious deep-orange delicacy, with the tender texture and hint of lemon was actually a weirdly-shaped winter vegetable!?! Butternut Squash Dessert is served room temperature and…