Our annual celebration of Grandma Elsie & her well-known #PumpkinChiffonPie recipe
It's that time again – the holidays are just around the corner and as many of you know, the season begins with my favorite holiday: Thanksgiving. One of the many reasons I look forward to Thanksgiving is the season of Grandma Elsie's famous pumpkin chiffon cake Thanksgiving is special this year for a different reason.
We have had a tough year. And in difficult times it is not always easy to think about what to be thankful for, especially after a year like this.
But more than ever, I have spent time being grateful for what matters most: my family, extra time with my children (despite the challenges we all face of working and schooling from home !), Our health and my team at The Grossman Group.
As a company, we celebrated our 20th anniversary. We are grateful to have the opportunity to support our client partners in the many defining moments 2020 has presented, from the pandemic and social unrest to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace.
Despite the challenges we all face, we take great pleasure in helping organizations connect with their employees in new and meaningful ways, and having some difficult, but extremely important, conversations about the tough issues that we people deal with in their work and in their personal environment.
Get together for the holidays
As the holidays approach, I look forward even more to spending time with loved ones, homemade meals and new recipes. If you're like me, you've probably gotten to know your kitchen better over the past few months, and the task of preparing a Thanksgiving dinner is less daunting than it has been in years!
For those of you who don't know the story behind Grandma Elsie and her famous Pumpkin Chiffon Cake (the best I've ever tried), I'd like to share it. (For those of you who do, I hope you will treat me to a retelling to honor the woman whose generous spirit and tradition are behind the cake.)
Grandma Elsie and her special tradition
Instead of getting Christmas presents for friends and neighbors, Elsie Edelstein, whom I adopted as my grandmother, made pumpkin cakes and hand delivered them before Thanksgiving. The blessing, as she always said, lay in the production ("food brings people together") and in giving ("it is better to give than to receive!").
A tradition that began with a creative and thoughtful woman was quickly adopted by her daughters and grandchildren along with friends and neighbors.
And these are not old cakes.
These are the most delicious, delicious pumpkin pies you've ever had. Even people who don't like pumpkin pie love their now famous recipe (and you can too!). So no excuses – get out your grocery list and take out the ingredients to make Grandma Elsie's unforgettable cakes. You can find the recipe here.
Grandma Elsie's tradition is celebrated in the Grossman Group
For almost two decades, the Grossman Group has embraced its wonderful tradition by sharing its feelings with friends and colleagues in our network by passing on Elsie's famous recipes for cake and spice mixes.
They know it's a special tradition when customers call in early November and wonder if the agency is celebrating Grandma Elsie and if there's a new recipe this year.
The famous recipes
We also have some delicious additions to Grandma Elsie's reach suggested to us by a colleague, Brad Whitworth and his wife, Peg Champion. It turns out that Granny Elsie's famous spices aren't just a must for cakes.
Over the next few weeks we'll be posting some of these recipes (including a new one!) On the blog. So stay up to date!
We hope you will enjoy it.
Grandma Elsie, this is for you! Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving season.
– David Grossman