Where it all began

My maternal Grandma makes delicious home cooked Sunday 'dinners'.  For those of you not from the south, this is not referring to the 6:00 p.m. meal, but rather the one in the middle of the day :)   

We did not go home this Thanksgiving like we have done in year's past so I tried my hand at some of my grandma's recipes.  She was so gracious enough to give me a cookbook when I got married with some of my favorite recipes that she makes.  Like with most grandmas I know, there's one small problem... she doesn't measure a thing and knows it's 'right' by the look of it.  Hmmm.... As you can probably suspect, my Thanksgiving meal didn't turn out 'Just Like Grandma's' because I made them based on her recipes and not by the bountiful knowledge of years and years of experience she has perfecting these recipes.  When people asked how it went, my response was "Well, it wasn't horrible."  Haha!  Well, it wasn't.  But it sure wasn't Grandma's cooking.  The macaroni was a little dry, hers is moist and creamy.  The meatballs had a little too much vinegar, hers are crisp and wonderful.  The one thing that did turn out just. right. were her candy coated pecans.  I used a combination of pecans and walnuts and when I tasted hers at Christmas, mine were just the same!  Regardless of the fact that my meal wasn't as good as hers, it was still worth the attempt just so I could tell her I tried.  Her face lit up with pleasure and delight. She has passed down great treasures and memories to me.  Quite the gift.  Free to her, but priceless to me!

Now, where does my habitual substitution-savy come from?  Why, my paternal Grandma of course!  A woman raising four kids on a meager teacher's salary had to stretch the buck.  My grandpa's slogan "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" was how they ran their house.  If she didn't have a certain ingredient, she would substitute what she did have.  My dear paternal Grandma is no longer with us, so when I got married my aunts and uncles came together and made a scrapbook of some of her favorite and most used recipes.   She didn't have fancy recipe cards, just simple notecards where she jotted down the ingredients.  My favorite ones are the cards that have the recipes, but way down in the 'how-to' section she often would tell us what she substituted with or what makes an equally great substitution.  Some of my favorite memories of her are when I used to stand on a stool beside her in their small kitchen and cook with her in the summer time.  Her kitchen was never big, but it was full of love.  An equally great memory, Jesus' birthday cake.  Every Christmas she would have a birthday cake that she would adorn with candles and we would all sing Happy Birthday to.  What a great way to remind us all the true meaning of the magical holiday.  Although all I have are memories now, rest assure her legacy remains.  No matter how big my kitchen may be, there's always room to cook with love.

And so my passion began.  I want to build up my skills, test out my grandma's tried and true recipes, and try new creations and remember where to find the recipes later on, so that I can share these special moments with my children and grandchildren.  Food brings us back to the happy times and makes us all family.