Do you have old recipes that are special to you? Do you get them out once in a while and just touch them? I have so many old recipes in boxes, books, tablets, written on napkins from restaurants, copied as Mom listened to WRMN, recipes that she kept from her mom and her grandma and great grandma.....and now they are mine.....and I treasure them. I love to see how the handwriting of each woman has similarities. I love the old "good" ones that are spattered with the ingredients of the recipe. My grandma always wrote her recipes on a stenographer's... (spiral at the top)... pad. She never used a recipe card. I can see her today, jotting down a recipe from a friend over the phone. Her "Church ladies" were all good cooks. Grandma sang in the 1st Methodist Church Choir and the ladies were multi talented..... beautiful musicians and wonderful cooks. Mom came by her talent in the kitchen easily. Her mother could make a meal out of leftovers like no one else. Mom could too. I asked her many times...."Why do you try new recipes when your old ones are so good?" My Dad was the apple of her eye...she just wanted to please him with beautiful food.
This time of year brings back so many memories of my Mom in the kitchen. There she would be in her apron with pockets. No music playing but WRMN might be playing on the radio. The recipe shows...as she called them. Oh, wouldn't she love the food channel on TV? There would be a counter full of flour, sugar, butter, spices, nuts, dried fruits, chocolate etc. New cookies would be tried and if they didn't suit her...they were never to be made again. For a woman who didn't like to make cookies in her early years, she made so many in her later years. Two of her favorites that come to mind are Luscious Lumps....a cookie with mini chocolate chips that has cornstarch as one of it's ingredients, and Skillet cookies...a sticky date and nut filled creation. I don't remember her making fussy cookies that required rolling out...she was more of an earthy woman in the kitchen...enjoying the ones that you could put together easily and turned out delicious.
I miss her most at this time of year. Every time I get a holiday recipe out, I think of her. I have followed in her lead....by trying new recipes. I think of my question to her that could apply to me now, "Why do you try new recipes, when your old ones are so good?"
Balisha
