Our eighth book was entitled The Armenian Way, written by James M. Dourgarian. He is the brother of one of our Club Members….Lynne. We were so pleased that the author “Jimmy” joined us for our meeting and luncheon. We had an Armenian feast and he said he’d been longing for Armenian food and that it was all very good.
https://yourpartytunedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Jacks-pilaf-recipe.pdf
Joanne and Dee Dee
This book is a memoir of sorts and speaks of how his family grew up in Los Angeles and later moved to Stockton in Northern California. There were 6 kids, 4 boys and 2 girls. Lynne was a twin, Her twin brother is Eddie. So according to Jimmy they all had nicknames given to them by him. His oldest brother was Bob The Tormentor, Lynne was The Liar, Ed the Snitch, Tom was Cry Baby and Joanie, (the baby) well she was the chosen one. Apparently Jimmy had a nickname too given to him by his Dad….Jim the Stupe!
I’ve known Lynne and her family for over 40 years and she has been one of my closest friends. Our sense of humor is similar in that we can be sardonic and tacky but also very loyal friends which is why it killed me when I first saw the chapter dedicated to her.
Lynne
We hated Lynne!
He goes on to say why they hated her but mainly because when they moved to Stockton she got her own room and the 4 boys had to share. It just took me by suprise and I cracked up. Seriously though in our discussion about the book we talked about how so many families were immigrants and all came to America to start a better life for their children and we also talked about how birth order can come into play into every family……whether you are the oldest, the baby or somewhere stuck in the middle.
We all made Armenian dishes and they were excellent. Lynne made Manti, which is an Armenian meat filled dumpling that is shaped like a boat. There is a funny story in the book about her mother Kathleen making it for the family but it is so time consuming that she decided to make one BIG boat and it got burnt and was a sad disappointment.
For dessert we had an Armenian apple chunk cake that Joanne made
.https://dinnerthendessert.com/armenian-apple-chunk-cake/#wprm-recipe-container-10713
If you are interested in purchasing Jimmy’s book it is available on Amazon. He currently lives in Concord and also buys and sells antique books. He is a big James Steinbeck fan.
