Grandma Ruby Tom and her grandkids Katherine, Marat, and Sean ring in the Chinese New Year together. Ruby prepares jai (here's her recipe), a healthy Buddhist vegetarian stew (and a good luck food!) that comprises 16 ingredients. Each ingredient is separately wok-cooked, then added to the pot, making this a Chinese New Year labor of love. (Ruby also gave us her recipe for Chinese New Year cake.) Ruby was introduced to us by Chowhound Melanie Wong. Thanks, Melanie!

You know her by many names: YaYa, Nana, Bubbe, Gangy, Grandma. Cooking with Grandma celebrates family traditions. If you would like to nominate a San Francisco–based grandma for our series, please email Blake Smith with your contact information.

You know her by many names: YaYa, Nana, Bubbe, Gangy, Grandma. Cooking with Grandma celebrates family traditions. If you would like to nominate a San Francisco–based grandma for our series, please email Blake Smith with your contact information. Bertha Lee/Charley Patton song courtesy of the Internet Archive.

This is a special episode of Cooking with Grandma, featuring four generations—Kay, Kathy, Astrid, and Kaatje—who pick blackberries and make jam together. To make your own jam, use this CHOW blueberry jam recipe, substituting blackberries for blueberries. Special thanks to the crew at Eat Real for introducing us to Kathy Kensinger and her family.

You know her by many names: YaYa, Nana, Bubbe, Gangy, Grandma. Cooking with Grandma celebrates family traditions. If you would like to nominate a San Francisco–based grandma for our series, please email Meredith Arthur with your contact information.

You know her by many names: YaYa, Nana, Bubbe, Gangy, Grandma. Cooking with Grandma celebrates family traditions. If you would like to nominate a San Francisco–based grandma for our series, please email Meredith Arthur with your contact information.

You know her by many names: YaYa, Nana, Bubbe, Gangy, Grandma. Cooking with Grandma celebrates family traditions. If you would like to nominate a San Francisco–based grandma for our series, please email Meredith Arthur with your contact information. Skinnay Ennis song courtesy of the Internet Archive.

Watch as Irma Zigas cooks with her grandson Caleb, preparing her own take on Passover brisket (here's her recipe). There’s love, there’s respect and teaching, there are disagreements over chopping onions—it’s family. Caleb and Irma aren’t kosher, and neither is this recipe, but it’s the one Irma’s been making since her anti-Vietnam, pro-women’s-rights activist days, when she needed to bring the family together but couldn’t spend hours in the kitchen.

You know her by many names: YaYa, Nana, Bubbe, Gangy, Grandma. Cooking with Grandma celebrates family traditions. If you would like to nominate a San Francisco–based grandma for our series, please email Blake Smith with your contact information.

You know her by many names: YaYa, Nana, Bubbe, Gangy, Grandma. Cooking with Grandma celebrates family traditions. If you would like to nominate a San Francisco–based grandma for our series, please email Meredith Arthur with your contact information.