My Mom's Cookbook

Index Page:  my mom, Irma Peck

 

 

 

My mother was a creative cook and could make anything taste good.

Like many farm wives, my mother was part of the Home Extension Association.  

 

 Once a month the farm women would meet at one’s home, listen to a lesson presented by two of their group about foreign countries and foods.  

 

It was a time to socialize, eat, and bring home interests, and some gossiping.

 

My mother was part of a committee that put together the first cookbook:  Pick County (Illinois) Homemakers’ Favorite Recipes, 1982.

 

.recipes

 

 

 

I  hope the recipe shows. Let me know if it doesn't.

 

 On winter afternoons, Mom, my sister, and I made massive amounts of these.  When one brother cut through the kitchen to the porch, he grabbed two handfuls. He had big hands.

Please note:  heavy wear

Cookbooks were more common when Mom was a young mom. and liked to use different books.  One of the older books, the pages were fragile, couldn't be used. Most of the time, Mom didn't use them. She had them memorized.

Does any blogger here remember cookbooks, had some?  

This is a post that I write, and re-write. This was 2012, I think.  I'm going to make mincemeat pie. It is raining outside, time to preheat the oven.

Platitudes revolt

 

Karen growled and muttered an assortment of foul words in her car, driving over speed limit.  Her visit to Mom and Grandma had not provided the affirmation and comfort she had hoped it would.

Bill had packed up his stuff in the night and was gone before she woke up.  Note:  I’m outta here, bitch…and the last word was written in bold letters. Now, Karen needed to share her pain.

She had been in Mom’s kitchen, sipping on peach herbal tea.  Mom was kneading bread, taking loaf after loaf from the oven.  These would go to the homeless shelter.  Grandma was sitting quietly while knitting baby blankets for preemies at the local hospital.

Karen had been trying tell of her woes and ask for advice when the litany began.

“You know, honey, the darkest hour is just before the dawn. You’ll do fine.” This one came from Mom.

“Such is life,” Grandma added. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!” She dropped a stitch, but caught it time.

Mouth open, Karen had looked from one face to the other, listening with disbelief.

“Yes, sweetie. God has a plan for you…you just don’t know it yet!...and then…It is what it is…Time heals all wounds…Life doesn’t give you things you can’t handle…It could be worse…It wasn’t meant to be…There are plenty more fish in the sea…Everything happens for a reason..

When Karen’s grandma said “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”…

Karen had leaped to her feet and raced to her car.  She skidded out the driveway, narrowly missed the mailbox.  This found her flying along the freeway with profanity tailing after her.  Her thoughts were not kind.  If she ever heard one more mindless platitude, she would vomit.

Source

The italicized and underlined phrase is from Wednesday Words, where bloggers can play and experiment with the words or prompt. This group is from April 2015. I would normally highlight other Wednesday Words and their contributors, but I screwed it all up. Sorry.

Aunt Till lying in state

The coffin of Great Aunt Tilly lay in state in the funeral home, surrounded by family, who mourned her passing.  Whispering between themselves, their depth of sorrow was on display.  

She was quite the grand personality…Well, she was one stingy b…When Tilly entered the room, who could ignore her?…she was evil, downright ev…she was the best mother…

No one could say with certainty when the door creaked open and a slow dense fog rolled in along the floor.  No one could describe how the temperature fluctuated between cold and colder.

Screaming, all stampeded from the funeral home to their cars and roared away.

Andrew Jones, the undertaker, and his son Richard were speechless at first. Then Richard cleared his throat, “Well, you don’t see that every day.”

This is a post from Dec. 2015. The underlined words come from Wednesday Words from that time.These were provided by River. The problem of using words from an old post  is that  they can be peculiar.  River-driftingthroughlife@blogspot.com, Elephant'sChild at  myjustsostory.@blogspot.com.often provide some great words.