Mimi’s Homemade Sauerkraut

My paternal grandmother, Mimi, was an Orthodox Jew and her husband, my grandfather, Boppa, was a superstitious Irish Catholic. The lifelong love affair between these two strong-willed people had profound cultural and religious influences on me. Christmas was the highlight of the year for the whole family. It was a Catholic holiday, of course, but it was also full of secular revelry. Central to the festivities was a massive traditional Christmas dinner. The one oddity in this feast, sauerkra