October 2022 - Secret Recipes

October 31, 2022

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Trick Or Treat

Happy Halloween! Additionally, Thank God Its Monday and, as such, #HappyMonday, too. I look forward to Mondays because they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you!

#TheRecipeDetective

Centuries ago, “happy” was never said in conjunction with “Halloween”. It was a day (or, rather, a night) to be feared, as many believed that this was when the borders between the realms of the living and the dead were opened to evil spirits.

Last year, I wrote about some of Halloween’s origins in my blog post, Americanized Halloween, and how it has changed, over the centuries; especially in America, going from a spiritual night to fear, into a non-religious, fright-embracing, candy-begging week/month-long event to market and celebrate it – American-style.

Halloween has come a long way from its origin, a couple thousand years ago; when it was a Celtic pagan ritual, with bonfires and costumes to welcome in the harvest and ward off evils spirits. The most prevalent change for observing Halloween in America started in the 1800s, with the influx of Irish immigrants that came here.

Popularity grew for celebrating the day with community parties and neighborhood gatherings for families and celebrators of all ages. Of course, retail marketing jumped on board to make it a fun (and profitable) celebration, with companies making and selling candy, costumes, decorations, and more. Even Hollywood cashed in on the new spirit of Halloween.

Communities and local media sources encouraged families to take the scariness out of what was once known as “All Hallows Eve” – or recreate it into a “fun fright”. The Americanized holiday that millions of people came to celebrate, focused more on fun activities and treats for kids and adults, alike; while still having bonfires and costumes – not to ward off evil spirits but, rather, to strengthen community ties.

By the 20^th century, parades, pumpkin festivals, pumpkin-carving events, and neighborhood “trick-or-treating” were also incorporated into the mix of fun, celebratory activities for Halloween. [To learn more about the origins of Halloween and how it came to be what we celebrate now, check out History.com.]

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

No Laughing Matter, a syndicated column by Gloria Pitzer (no date on reprint)

[Originally printed in her syndicated Food For Thought column, circa 1969]

HALLOWEEN TRICK IS FINDING WEIRD ATTIRE

EVERY YEAR, I KEEP hoping somebody will do something about Halloween costumes. Shopping for really weird costumes poses a problem when we are still offered the same monotonous choices we were given back in the Neo-Saddle-Shoe days of [my] own tarnished youth.

Somehow, I’ll locate those boxes in the attic that contain all the rain-soaked, Donald Duck outfits, Bozo suits, Frankenstein masks with missing elastics, and the gypsy attires. And if I do, I’ll be able to clothe an entire hippie colony for at least a year.

Somewhere, I also have a box of threadbare pillowcases stained with licorice and lipstick that didn’t wash out. However, if I’m lucky, I won’t have to give our 12-year-old a bag this year because he says he’s ‘going to eat the stuff right on the spot!’ And, if it’s an especially good year, he promises to save me all the chocolate Easter bunnies he gets. Mike told me not to worry about getting his sister a mask, ‘since Debi doesn’t need one!’

I’ve decided their father can take them trick-or-treating this year! I’m still quite hurt from the tactless comment made by the neighbor at the end of the block, who offered me the candy corn last year because he thought I had a sensational costume. Trouble was, I wasn’t wearing one! I looked like an accident, going somewhere to happen!

‘That’s my mom!’ Mike told the man. ‘But if you think she looks scary now, you should see her in the morning!’

That kid is going to get underwear for Christmas! In fact, a few more comments like that may turn me against honesty, altogether.

Actually, some of the costumes the kids have dreamed up, themselves, have shown more ingenuity than the manufacturers who produce kids’ costumes that are somehow programmed to self-destruct before a mother can find a safety pin to fasten the neck opening.

You’d think, for $2.98, they would at least put gripper snaps or zippers or supply you with their safety pins on those skimpy outfits. Do they care that a mother cannot locate a safety pin when she needs one, without summoning the aid of Mannix and Mr. Keane, Tracer of Lost Persons?

Trying to find safety pins for Halloween costumes in October is as likely as finding D batteries for Christmas toys in December!

Naturally, all my good suggestions went out the window, so the kids tried to put their own costumes together and I’m supposed to act surprised, when they come calling at our house Halloween night. Now, maybe I won’t be able to recognize my offspring, but one thing’s for sure… I can certainly identify my sheets!

Or, if you’ll excuse the pun – they don’t have a ghost of a chance of fooling me!

When I was growing up, in Algonac, in the 1970s, I remember having fun with my family going to the annual Halloween parties at our local Lions Club, where Dad was a member for at least a decade. They’d have costume contests for adults and children, a bonfire, arts and crafts activities, family “hayrides”, carnival-like games (such as bobbing-for-apples), music and dancing.

There was also a big bring-a-dish-to-pass smorgasbord of wonderful food and treats. Did you know that food is the most common denominator in almost every observance or celebration – in any country – regardless of culture or religion?

Mom usually made our costumes until we were big enough to create our own. I can remember various years, dressing up as a ghost, witch, black cat, scarecrow, hobo, Raggedy Ann, and an angel. I also remember making popcorn ball treats, with Mom, to take to school for Halloween parties. (See recipe in “Last Thoughts”, below.)

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – The Kitchen

Thank God Its Monday, again! #HappyMonday to everyone. I personally look forward to all Mondays because they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you!

#TheRecipeDetective

I love October as much as Mondays. It celebrates so many subjects related to Mom, among them are National Book Month, National Cookbook Month, Eat Better & Eat Together Month, National Women’s Small Business Month, National Work and Family Month, Positive Attitude Month, Self-Promotion Month, and even National Kitchen & Bath Month.

#NationalCookbookMonth

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

https://www.balboapress.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-001062253

#NationalKitchenAndBathMonth

The kitchen can often be the ultimate deal maker or deal breaker for most home buyers. It was a very important factor for my parents (particularly Mom, of course). More and more, people with families are looking for homes with large kitchens that have room within for the family dining table – rather than there being a formal, separate dining room.

My family’s favorite gathering place has always been the kitchen. It was the place where we all gathered to eat, laugh, and talk about the day’s events. I have a sign on a wall by my own kitchen table that reads: “There’s a room in every home where the smallest events and biggest occasions become the stories of our lives.” It’s so true!

Since 2020, the importance of the family kitchen increased ten-fold. The dining table became more than just a place where we ate our meals. It became the family’s epicenter, even more so than the old normal. It functions as an office and classroom desk/work area, as well as a wide array of other things.

#WomensSmallBusinessMonth

#WorkAndFamilyMonth

But that’s not new to my family, as we grew up with Mom’s Secret Recipes business growing and taking over the whole dining room of our house in Algonac. Of course, the kitchen was another hub for all of her recipe developments, also. Mom wrote a lot of articles about the kitchen and its importance to the cook as well as to the family unit.

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, p. 66)

COME INTO THE KITCHEN

THE KITCHEN – IT’S THE BEST place to be when we’re home! You’ll notice that even current home designers are getting away from the formal dining room area, the same way auto designers are abandoning the limousine, the regal and roomy sedans, with their plush interiors, for more functional models.

Homes are becoming more functional in design, as well. In our continuing efforts to economize, to restrict energy sources and to b ring the family back to the warm, bright openness of a country kitchen, we have rediscovered the personal advantages of the best room in the house.

Oh, there will always be the sleek and satiny modern designs of circles, rectangles, and dimensional art forms in the immaculate whites and the startling blacks and the platinum trim and aluminum coldness of contemporary décor.

But the classic country kitchen is coming back where there is one large working space close to the appliance area and also open to the informal, large eating area.

One kitchen design that I truly enjoyed and wished I had thought of it years ago, was a portion of one wall in the eating area that had a shoe molding frame glued to enclose one area that contained a haphazard arrangement of family snapshots, superimposed, over early school drawings by their children; a few post cards depicting a favorite vacation spot when the kids were little and bold handprints of each child, with their names lettered beneath.

The other walls were tastefully decorated with framed favorite recipes and measuring utensils and baskets that were really used, every day, rather than portray the useless object of décor. It was a warm and workable kitchen that reflected a family as a unit rather than the individuals.

There was no reflection of a magazine layout for a swanky and impersonal organization in that room. Every inch of it said, ‘Welcome!’ If you were a stranger when you entered, you were a friend before you left.

It’s been another year, in which many of us have been dealing with an overload of stress and anxiety. Food tends to be one of the few things that usually comfort us in trying times. That’s probably another top reason why the kitchen is, more often than not, considered to be one the favorite rooms in a house. In fact, it’s often regarded as the HEART of the home.

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Passion To Profit

Thank God Its Monday and, as such, #HappyMonday, once again, to everyone! I look forward to every Monday because they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with all of you!

#TheRecipeDetective

NOTE: Apparently, I sometimes get my Mondays mixed up – as I just realized this morning that my post from last week was supposed to be the one I had wrote ahead of time for this week, because I was going on a little vacation. So this is the post I meant to put up last week…

Expanding on last week’s blog post, I’d like to continue discussing some of October’s observances in relation to Mom – National Book Month, National Cookbook Month, National Women’s Small Business Month, National Work and Family Month, National Self-Promotion Month, and National Positive Attitude Month.

#PositiveAttitudeMonth

Mom’s passion for writing began when she was about 10½ years old. She was greatly influenced by the 1946 Warner Brothers movie about the Bronte sisters, called ‘Devotion’. That’s when she started journaling on a daily basis.

In fact, Mom continued journaling throughout the rest of her life; which amounted to over 71 years of hand-written chronicles full of thoughts, ideas, faith and positive attitude – now that’s DEVOTION! Mom often thought about writing “the great American novel”. However, fate always took her writing in another direction.

It seemed that every writing contest Mom entered and won was usually for something she wrote, in relation to food. She always trusted that God was guiding her to where she needed to be.

#WomensSmallBusinessMonth

After writing a variety of homaker-focused columns for newspapers, directly and syndicated, for about 15 years, Mom discovered a completely new niche in the food industry. She called it copycat cookery – imitating “famous foods from famous places” at home.

Her readers loved it and wanted more, requesting her to imitate their favorites; but the food industry advertisers didn’t like it, requesting her editor stop it. Mom decided to quit, and went home to start her own business, developing and writing recipes to imitate a variety of favorite fast foods, junk foods, restaurant dishes, and grocery store products.

#WorkAndFamilyMonth

She involved all of us kids and eventually Dad, as the small family business, run from our dining room table, grew and grew. Mom started her small family business, selling her recipes individually; printed on 4” x 6” index cards, suitable for easy filing. Her collection quickly grew to hundreds of recipes.

#NationalBookMonth

#NationalCookbookMonth

To better offer her growing catalog of “secret recipes”, Mom started writing, illustrating and (with Dad) self-publishing about 40 cookbooks (+/-), between 1973 and 2002. In that time, she also wrote and self-published a few “Food for Thought”/positive attitude books. Additionally, from January 1974 through December 2000, she penned & illustrated hundreds of newsletter issues.

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

My Cup Runneth Over And I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, p. 53)

RISKS – THE HARD ROAD TO SELF-SUFFICIENCY

THERE ARE MANY RISKS involved with going into business for yourself, no matter what product or service you intend to offer. If I had thought more about the risks, than I did about the possibilities, I never would have moved an inch toward doing any of the things about which I now write.

My husband is not a risk-taker. I am. We complement each other well. He still becomes uneasy and anxious about every new idea I have for another book or another project, on the basis that ‘we can’t afford it.’

I have learned, over the years, to keep many of my projects to myself until they are completed, which in the long run, saves Paul from worrying unnecessarily about something that will very likely turn out well, and keeps me from worrying that Paul is worrying.

Some people experience a certain let-down, after reaching what they consider ‘the top’. When they finally reach the Everest of their ambitions [and] make it to the top, they start to wonder why they were in such a hurry to get there anyhow.

Like Lee Iacocca, who was only in his mid-40s when he was president of the Ford Motor Company, writes in his autobiography, [that he had] no idea what he was going to do ‘for an encore’! I have never had to worry about this, fortunately.

When I have been asked about goals or destination, it is been my feeling that every corner I turn has a new goal, a new destination awaiting us. I have never thought of any one point as being the top. Life has so many wonderful opportunities for each of us to take advantage of, that it does not seem reasonable that I should give myself the limitations that would determine just how far I should be able to go.

Because this was never a hobby, never WORK, never a job, I have had no problem with the worry or concern that accompanies a position from which one expects to retire. I would not want to give up what I have been doing since I was a child [writing].

It would be unfair to have to give up doing something that has also brought so much pleasure and good information to so many people. It was, however, only when I realized what I should be writing about and what I should be sharing with the readers – what I knew best – that things really began to happen.

Of course, my husband wisely reminds me, when someone asked about writing their own cookbook, that WRITING it is the easiest part. Knowing how to SELL it is the hard part!

#SelfPromotionMonth

LAST THOUGHTS…

‘Find a job you enjoy doing and you will never have to work a day in your life.’ – Mark Twain

I believe that if you can find something you love to do and turn it into a career, you’re very lucky. I’ve found many interesting reads online, over the past few years, regarding how to find hobbies that make you happy and how to generate income from them. Here are just some of the ones I’ve enjoyed reading.

‘10 Tips To Turn Your Hobby Into A Business’ (updated 5/2/22) by Stephanie Vozza at LegalZoom.com

‘It’s Never Too Late To Start A New Hobby’ (updated 5/27/22) by Elena Peters at MakingMidLifeMatter.com

‘20 Productive Hobbies That Will Make You Smarter And Happier’ (no date) by Chris Haigh, at LifeHack.com

‘30 Best Profitable Hobbies That Make Money’ (updated 9/7/22) by Sara, the dreamer at GatheringDreams.com

Perhaps, you’ve already travelled that road and are looking to retire but don’t want to totally give up what you love doing. Consider the opposite route, as in ‘How To Run A Business As A Hobby’ (no date) by Christian Fisher at SmallBusiness.Chron.com.

IN CLOSING…

In honor of October, being National Apple Month, here’s Mom’s secret recipe for Apple Bread; as seen in her self-published cookbook, Gloria Pitzer’s Mostly 4-Ingredient Recipes (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; April 1986, p. 100).

#NationalAppleMonth

P.S. Food-for-thought until we meet again, next Monday…

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

#NationalCookbookMonth

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

October 10^th is… National Angel Food Cake Day, National Cake Decorating Day (as well as being National Bake and Decorate Month), National Handbag Day, and World Mental Health Day! Plus, as the second Monday in October (for 2022), it’s also… Native American Day and Columbus Day! Additionally, it’s also the start of… National School Lunch Week!

October 11^th is… National Sausage Pizza Day, as well as it being National Pizza Month and National Sausage Month!

October 12^th is… National Vermont Day, National Freethought Day, National Farmer’s Day, and National Gumbo Day! Plus, as the second Wednesday in October (for 2022), it’s also… National Take Your Parents To Lunch Day, National Curves Day, and National Stop Bullying Day (as well as it being National Bullying Prevention Month)! The Wednesday of the second FULL Week in October is also… National Fossil Day!

Thursday, October 13^th is… National Train Your Brain Day, National Yorkshire Pudding Day, and National No Bra Day!

October 14^th is… National Dessert Day, as well as it being National Dessert Month!

October 15^th is… National Shawarma Day, National Cheese Curd Day, National I Love Lucy Day, and National Grouch Day!

October 16^th is… National Sports Day, National Liqueur Day, National Dictionary Day, and Department Store Day! Plus, as the third Saturday in October, it’s also… National Sweetest Day! Additionally, as the week of October 16^th, it’s… National Food Bank Week, which goes with it also being… National Tackling Hunger Month!

#TGIM

https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-thank-god-its-monday-day-first-monday-in-january/

…42 down and 10 to go!

October 10, 2022October 17, 2022

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Happy Place

Thank God Its Monday and, as such, #HappyMonday to everyone! I personally look forward to all Mondays because they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you!

#TheRecipeDetective

NOTE: Apparently, I sometimes get my Mondays mixed up – as I just realized this morning [Oct. 17^th] that I mixed up my posts for this week and next, as I had wrote one ahead of time because I was going on a little vacation. Sorry! Mistakes happen…

October is so beautiful, when all the colors of fall are ablaze – that’s my “happy place”. A happy place can be an actual location – or anything that makes you feel happy when you think about it, visualizing it in your mind. There are so many simple things in life that make us happy and bring us inner peace. Most don’t even cost a thing!

Seeing the trees change colors in the fall, taking a walk in nature, sitting on the banks of a lazy river, feeling the sun shining on your face, having coffee and conversation with close friends, playing with your kids/grandkids, helping a friend, and dancing to your favorite song like no one is watching you are just some examples.

#WorkAndFamilyMonth

‘Find a job you enjoy doing and you will never have to work a day in your life.’ – Mark Twain

It’s not very often that you’ll hear someone say, “work is my happy place.” However, when you love what you do, like Mom, as I discussed in last week’s blog entry, it’s certainly a possibility. Mom’s writing made her happy and gave her inner peace. So much so, it turned into her legacy of love.

She always described her newsletter as being like “getting together for coffee…with friends.” Designing and writing it was her happy place. It was with a heavy heart that she retired her newsletter in December 2000, after 27 years of self-publishing it.

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Mixed Blessings – Recipes & Remedies (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; March 1984, p. 6)

INNER PEACE

‘HOW TO ATTAIN INNER PEACE’ is always the message most critics take pleasure in degrading when a new book on ‘self-improvement’ makes the bestseller list. They somehow make it sound like being able to ‘attain inner peace’ is a fault that one should avoid or try to correct.

They somehow make it sound corny and unappealing. They really shouldn’t go to all that trouble to put down a potentially good idea – even if it does border on the humanly impossible condition. The only people I know, who have attained inner peace, are dead!

However, I do know a lot of people who are perfectly happy with themselves and the quality of their life and seem to feel good about who they are, what they have, how they relate to others. They don’t have to go looking for happiness. It has a way of finding them!

This is the kind of person who is certainly not exempt from turmoil or problems or burdens, but how they handled their situations and how they expressed themselves to others, it occurred to me, was a recipe in itself.

I made notes on the various ingredients that appear to comprise their good feelings and found the observations were worth sharing, since this is the age of the frustrated individual, the ‘don’t-get-me-involved’ community of strangers.

When you come across the person who you know can help to ease the burden, make a problem less overwhelming, and they are asked to give information that they obviously can contribute, don’t be surprised if their answer is ‘how-should-I-know?’

[‘…Mixed Blessings…’] is made up of a number of columns I wrote and tried to sell on a weekly basis to a number of newspapers. They weren’t interested. However, each time I shared some of these with our radio friends, there were requests for copies of the essays, with even more interest than we had for our recipes.

The time seems right now that all of these columns, or essays, should be put into a book, because I see more and more evidence of people not caring about each other as much as they should – as much as they could.

#PositiveAttitudeMonth

Living a happy life is feeling true joy in how you live your life, trying to make the very best of it. Mom thought of happiness as the “secret sauce” that adds flavor to our best efforts and intentions. It’s widely believed that happy people are generally more positive and have more success at achieving their goals.

Having a happy place to go to, for at least a little while, even if only in our minds, actually helps us to better put things in perspective. It distract our minds away from negative, stressful thoughts. Another benefit of having a happy place is that it’s a mood-booster, increasing feelings of gratitude, as well as decreasing anxiety and panic.

The consensus of what makes most peoples’ lives happy is credited to family and relationships, topping the “lists”. Other popular sources for having a happy life include loving what you do and who you are, thinking positively, being optimistic, and being grateful. Dad would say, “happy wife – happy life”; but Mom believed in “happy spouse, happy house.”

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Work And Family

Happy October and #HappyMonday to all! Thank God Its Monday – every week, I look forward to Monday; as they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you!

#TheRecipeDetective

October is special in so many ways besides being one of the most colorful months in Michigan. In relation to my mom, the Secret Recipe Detective^TM, it’s also, among other things, National Eat Better & Eat Together Month, a subject of which I discussed in last week’s blog entry, as it relates to family bonding.

In addition and still in relation to Mom, October also observes National Book Month, National Cookbook Month, National Women’s Small Business Month, National Work and Family Month, National Self-Promotion Month, and National Positive Attitude Month!

#WomensSmallBusinessMonth

In a time, similar to these days – with political upheaval, low wages, and rising costs of living – Mom quit her job as a columnist at a local newspaper, after finding a niche in the recipes industry that people wanted and needed and being told by her editor to stop fulfilling it, as it was upsetting their food industry advertisers.

Mom went home to start her own “paper”, combining her humoristic cartoons with tips, tricks, and hints; as well as her “Food for Thought” and “No Laughing Matter” columns, in addition to her copycat cookery concept for “Eating Out At Home” – designed like a classic quilt, with pieces of this and that put together with love to create a functional work of art..

She “went to work” at home, every day, discovering how to recreate our favorite fast food & restaurant dishes from regular pantry items and without any special gadgets or appliances. She often incorporated the help of me and my siblings (and, later, Dad’s help); thereby, creating a small, dining-room-table, cottage-style, family business.

#WorkAndFamilyMonth

Mom’s copycat cookery didn’t stop at fast food and restaurant dishes. She also created imitations for shelf-stable groceries and freezer products purchased at the supermarket, as she discovered more things to make at home and thereby save money.

If something saved our household budget money, she loved to share it with others to help them save money too. She often referred to it as literally and figuratively having your cake and eating it too!

Mom’s trailblazing copycat cookery concept began in the 1970s, developing and writing her own recipes, as well as self-publishing them. Plus, she self-promoted her talents through newspapers and magazines, as well as through local, national, and international TV and radio talk shows.

#NationalCookbookMonth

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, p. 36)

HOW SECRET RECIPES^TM BEGAN

IT WAS THE WORST possible time to launch a new business. The unemployment rate was terribly high. There was a newsprint paper shortage. There was a gasoline shortage. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to at least try to have my own publication, however.

My confrontation with the editor at the Times Herald over the cheesecake recipe [like Sarah Lee’s], was probably the best thing that ever happened to me – us, as a family, in fact. I was forced to finally do something that, until then, I had only talked about doing because the advice I had listened to was bent on having somebody else handle my work.

Of course, I could not tell Paul what I was going to do – that I was going to publish a newsletter and I was going to try and sell subscriptions to it all without the help of the [publishing and syndicating] agencies to which I had previously been turning.

I was determined to make this idea work because I knew it was a good idea! It was a service that was needed and one that I could provide without ever having to leave the children again. With the help of the Almighty, I had every confidence that turning out a recipe newsletter was going to be something that would bless everyone concerned: me, the readers, the products mentioned, the reviews of restaurants – every idea was a blessing!

#SelfPromotionMonth

Mom’s favorite way to market her ground-breaking recipes was through radio talk shows. For nearly 40 years, she was a regular weekly or monthly guest on numerous radio talk shows, geared toward working homemakers all over the country and internationally. She promoted herself, her copycat cookery concepts, along with her recipes, books, and newsletter.

Mom liked to describe her newsletters as being like a visit from a friend – as you sit at the kitchen table, having coffee, discussing various topics of the day and sharing household tips and recipes. I would describe it, simply, as Mom’s “happy place” and her “legacy of love”.

In the early years of her home-based business, Mom sold her recipes for a quarter each, printed on 4”x6” index cards, from a mimeograph she kept in our laundry room. It didn’t seem to take long before her recipe library grew to hundreds, through requests from fans of her writing.

Within a few years, she went from recipe cards to monthly newsletters and multiple cookbooks; seemingly in the blink of an eye, as her recipes collection grew from hundreds to thousands. Over the years, it evolved into what finally became known as Secret Recipes^TM – her legacy of love!

#NationalCookbookMonth

I find it so ironic that over the decades, since Mom officially launched her Secret Recipes^TM enterprise, in 1973, so many people have imitated her, the ORIGINAL copycat cook. However, not all have given Mom the appropriate credit due her for being the first to uncover the supposed secrets of the food industry, imitating “famous foods from famous places” at home! Kudos to those who have, though!

#NationalBookMonth

LAST THOUGHTS…

Friday is (for 2022), among other things, National Body Language Day and World Smile Day; which go hand-in-hand, as a smile is part of body language. It’s welcoming, soothing, friendly – even contagious, as Mom described in her self-published book, This is not a Cook Book! It’s Gloria Pitzer’s Food for Thought (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1986, p. 43).

#WorldSmileDay

YOU’VE MADE A FRIEND

A SMILE IS the universal, unspoken language between us. Some people smile more easily than others, but a smile is as good as a hug. I just LOVE people who smile a lot! Even when I’m shopping or [when Paul and I are] walking around the campgrounds on one of our abbreviated ‘get-aways’ with our motorhome, I find myself smiling at people I have never seen before, and they smile back. It’s contagious!

People don’t smile as much as they should! I’ve noticed lately how seldom strangers smile at each other in shopping centers and restaurants and other places where average folks mingle or pass. It occurred to me that there was nothing to lose by smiling and nodding at people as I shopped or glanced across a restaurant to other tables.

A surprising thing happened! Grim looking faces spontaneously responded with smiles and nods, as if they were trying to place me or recall where we might have met before. It was just wonderful!

IN CLOSING…

In honor of this being National Chili Week and October being National Chili Month, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for California Chili; as seen in her self-published cookbook, Sugar-Free Recipes (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; Nov. 1987, p. 93).

#NationalChiliWeek

#NationalChiliMonth

P.S. Food-for-thought until we meet again, next Monday…

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

#NationalCookbookMonth

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

Today is also… National Techies Day and National Boyfriend Day! Plus, as the first Monday in October (for 2022), it’s… National Consignment Day and National Child Health Day! Additionally, as the start of the first, full, Monday-through-Friday workweek in October, it’s also… Customer Service Week!

Tomorrow is… National Cinnamon Bun Day, National Taco Day, National Golf Lover’s Day, and National Vodka Day! Plus, as the first Tuesday in October (for 2022), it’s also… National Eat Fruit At Work Day!

October 5^th is… National Rhode Island Day, National Do Something Nice Day, and National Apple Betty Day (as well as being National Apple Month)! Plus, as the first Wednesday in October (for 2022), it’s also… National Pumpkin Seed Day and National Walk to School Day, while it’s also… International Walk To School Month!

October 6^th is… National Orange Wine Day, National Plus Size Appreciation Day, National German-American Day (as well as being German-American Heritage Month), and National Noodle Day (as well as being National Pasta Month)!

October 7^th is… National Chocolate Covered Pretzel Day (as well as being National Pretzel Month), National Frappe Day, and National Inner Beauty Day!

October 8^th is… National Fluffernutter Day, National Hero Day, and National Pierogi Day! Plus, as the second Saturday in October (for 2022), it’s also… National Chess Day, National Costume Swap Day, and I Love Yarn Day!

Sunday, October 9^th is… National Moldy Cheese Day!

#TGIM

…40 down and 12 to go!