![]() Lina, one of the amazing cooks at Spread’s catering kitchen, has gotten pretty adept at making these. These, along with uncooked trays of stuffed grape leaves, baklava, and spinach pies, were her insurance that she would never be in the unsavory position of not being able to feed an entire army, if one happened to appear at her door step on short notice. When the family converged on Grandma’s house one last time, after she had passed away in 2016, we found a freezer filled with parcels of grape leaves, picked fresh from her garden in springtime, delicately stacked between paper plates, slipped into zipper bags, and filed away for use another day. The family would flock to the platter like seagulls to French fries after a Giants game at Oracle Park. She would squeeze a lemon over the top, place the platter on the table with a bowl of yogurt, flecked with dried mint, to eat with them, fatoush salad, vermicelli pilaf and, of course, pita bread. In one very dramatic act, my grandmother would drain the liquid off the large bubbling pot, place her Desert Rose China serving platter upside down over the top, carefully flip the pot over, and lift it off to reveal a steaming plate of dark green rolls, with tender pieces of lamb and slivers of garlic tumbling down the sides. Stuffed grape leaves were the hallmark of family gatherings at Grandma Lilian’s, the piece de resistance after building our appetites nibbling away at spinach pies, baba ganoush, olives and pita bread. ![]() You would be hard pressed to find an aunt, uncle, or cousin in my family who disagrees. Kathleen Thompson Hillįor me, no aroma is more synonymous with home, and my grandmother’s house in particular, than a pot of lamb-stuffed grape leaves, in a lemony brine, simmering away on the stove. Enjoy her family recipe for stuffed grape leaves. Note: In a late email from Cristina Topham, she said “We’re setting our official opening date as May 13 - figuring we got keys on April Fool’s Day, why not push our luck opening on Friday the 13th? Right where Sonoma Eats used to be in Boyes Hot Springs.
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