She grew up there, the eldest of 10 children. Now she and her husband, Bob, have 11 children. And they still live in the same neighborhood, Torresdale, next door to her parents.
The Northeast has about a quarter of the city's population, but it has almost a third of its families with children at home. Roots go deep in the Northeast - and food is a big part of the picture.
As Philadelphians who live in the Northeast or elsewhere in the city know, the Northeast is different. It has a different look, a different feel - and a different food style. Nowhere can that food style be better appreciated - and nowhere is the Northeast's ethnic diversity more apparent - than in the homes of the region, even though new lifestyles are gradually turning ethnic home cooking into "special occasion" fare.
"We eat as a family, usually around 5 o'clock," said Carol Teklinsky, a Rhawnhurst resident and the mother of two. "If my husband is going to be late, we try to hold off."
But, she concedes, those meals seldom include the kinds of foods that her Polish grandmother used to make. Now the golobki, pierogi and such are served more often on holidays, while daily meals tend more toward broiled fish, baked potato and a fresh, steamed vegetable.
"We are eating more vegetables and salads and fish, the things that are healthy for us. The children love seafood. And we eat a lot of chicken and pasta," says Teklinsky, 33. On the days when she works at her part-time job, the family may eat out rather than heat up frozen dinners. When they do, she says, she chooses a neighborhood pizza place or a seafood or fast-food restaurant.
"My grandmother really cooked from scratch when I was a kid," said Marsha Richman. "She cooked all the Jewish kosher delicacies - kreplach, gefilte fish, blintzes. She was an old-fashioned Jewish cook from Russia.
