Fond memories of my mother’s cooking and baking came to mind when I saw that In the Kitchen was Week 5’s writing prompt.

I recall that one of Mother’s favorite cookbooks was called “The Settlement Cookbook: The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” To prove I’m not making this up, I looked online and sure enough I found a picture of the cookbook and information about its history. I believe my sister has the cookbook now and the cover is long gone.

“The Settlement Cook Book is a complete cookbook and guide to running a household, compiled by Lizzie Black Kander, first published in 1901. The compendium of recipes, cooking techniques, nutrition information, serving procedures and other useful information was intended to support young women raising their families.” Wikipedia

As a young bride mother learned to feed a crowd as she fed hungry men who worked with dad during harvest times. As the granddaughter of Irish immigrants she made sure her meals included potatoes, usually boiled. As a farm family our main meal of the day was midday and called “dinner.” Mother would prepare a meat, potatoes, gravy, a vegetable, homemade bread or rolls and always dessert. Mother did not use herbs and spices to flavor the food; salt and pepper were her go to seasonings. The evening meal, called “supper,” was often leftovers. If there were not enough leftovers for a meal she would fix a “hotdish” made with tomatoes, hamburger and noodles, tuna casseroles on Fridays or chili in the winter. My brother Don was a fussy eater and she often boiled a weiner for him.

Much of our food was home grown as dad raised beef, hogs and chickens to feed his family. We always had a large garden and mother would spend hours during harvest time canning vegetables.

Mother loved to bake. She would bake loaves of bread and pans of rolls. There’s nothing like warm bread or rolls right from the oven with a slab of butter adding to the goodness! She used a huge crock bowl to mix the ingredients and would have the kitchen counters lined with pans of rising dough to be baked. Once in a while she would make a special pan of sweet rolls and frost them with a powdered sugar mixture. Yum!

My dad and brothers loved cookies and she made dozens and dozens of them in her lifetime. Chocolate chip were the most popular and she would use the recipe on the back of the bag. One of her favorite recipes was for “Marie Rebman’s white cookies.” Marie was a local woman with a very large family. Her recipe made more than the regular cookbook recipe. I don’t know how it came to be; if Marie doubled or tripled the recipe from a cookbook. She used a water glass to cut out the cookies. Mother did not like to spend time frosting cookies. She would top Marie’s cookies with a sprinkling of sugar before baking. For birthdays she would make an angel food cake, often confetti, and frost it. I remember her turning the cake pan over a pop bottle to cool making it easier to remove from the pan. She put some candles on it and we had a celebration! Of course the birthday person got to blow out the candles.

My mother’s rolling pin hanging over my kitchen stove

This rolling pin has rolled over many pie crusts and cookies in my mother’s kitchen.

We are a family of sweet eaters. One of my all time favorite treats was Mother’s homemade cream puffs. She could make a perfect cream puff and would fill it with whipped cream right from the milk can. Those delightful treats could compete with the Wisconsin state fair cream puffs.

Mother’s generation loved jello salads. She would prepare a jello salad, often with fruits or vegetables added to it for special occasions and holidays. There was more than one occasion where she forgot to serve her jello salad at the meal as it was usually in the refrigerator in the basement. The salad was moved to the kitchen refrigerator and served at the next meal.

Mother made tasty potato salad. Her secret ingredients were sliced green onions and chunks of boiled eggs. My brother-in-law Mike has come close to replicating her recipe. She used a recipe that was in her head and never written down.

Chili was another family favorite; again there was never a written recipe for it. After she passed away my brother Tim called me and asked how she made the chili. Where we grew up in Waupaca County, Wisconsin, the chili recipe included some type of pasta. It was never too spicy, seasoning was applied through tasting.

My intention when I started this writing prompt was to end with a copy of a handwritten recipe of Mother’s. She did not have a lot of handwritten recipes and I knew that I had none. When mother died my sister Jean became the holder of her cookbooks and recipes. She was able to find a handwritten recipe for pickles. We always had a huge crop of cucumbers because that was how we earned money for school clothes. I have memories of being out in the field in the hot sun picking “pickles.” (See recipe below.)

For many years after I left home I would call Mother in the afternoon and ask “if she was having anything good for supper.” She would always tell me yes, come on out. I treasure these memories still today, almost twenty years since she passed.

Sweet-Sour Pickles by Mary Flannery Fitzgerald