Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Balancing Business And Family

Thank God it’s Monday, again. I always look forward to Mondays, as they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you! Therefore, happy Monday.

Happy October and National Women’s Small Business Month, plus National Work and Family Month. It’s a perfect time to pay my mom tribute. To me, she was just “Mom”; but, to the world, she was Gloria Pitzer, the ORIGINAL “Secret Recipes^TM Detective”.

Mom was a talented writer, artist, publisher, promoter; plus crafter, homemaker, cook and more. She was also gifted at balancing her work and business and family. Mom’s taste buds and culinary skills, combined with her creative writing, artistic ability, and satirical humor, developed into her legacy of love, being the “Secret Recipes^TM Detective”.

She was bestowed that title in the 1970s by the audience and host of a popular Detroit area radio talk show, on which she regularly participated with her copycat recipes – offering those which answered other callers’ requests.

“Private Investigator of Secret Recipes” or “The Recipe Detective” are the names that my friends in radio and newspapers have given to me, and I enjoy living up to that assignment! – Gloria Pitzer

In a time, not unlike what we are in now – with political upheaval, low wages and high costs of living – Mom had found a unique niche in the food industry. She described her copycat cookery concept as “eating out at home”.

Mom enthusiastically set to work, every day, discovering how to mimic fast food & restaurant dishes at home, as well as various grocery products. If it saved her household money, she wanted to share it, helping others save money, too.

She was a trailblazer – developing her own copycat recipes and marketing her talents through newspapers and magazines, as well as local, national, and international television talk shows – but especially through radio talk shows.

For nearly 40 years, Mom was a regular on many radio talk shows, nationally and internationally. Local, Detroit area, radio talk shows, included “Ask Your Neighbor”, hosted by Bob Allison; “The Warren Pierce Show”, hosted by Warren Pierce; and “Listen to the Mrs.”, hosted by Art Lewis (which is still going, now available as a podcast).

Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 292)

BEHIND THE SCENES

‘PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR OF SECRET RECIPES’ and ‘The Recipe Detective’ are the names that my friends in radio and newspapers have given to me, and I enjoy living up to that assignment! I enjoy working with these recipe secrets, but most of all, I enjoy writing about them.

I’ve been writing all my life… Going way-back to when I was in grade school. I was always writing a book, or a poem or a short story. It was a way of life from my earliest memories – a way over which I seem to have no personal control!

I had to write… Preferably about what I knew best at the time. Little did I know that what I would come to know best would be cooking!

The one year that I spent at Michigan State (when it was still a college, mind you – you figure that out…), was one year in which I learned 2 important things – I could not pass my Creative Writing course and I was “kicked out” of Home Economics!

My Creative Writing instructor told me that I typed a neat looking paper and probably should be a secretary, for I would never make it as a writer. My Home Economics instructor advised me to spend the rest of my life having my meals delivered, for I was always finding fault with the way so many cookbooks were written.

I took a position with the J Walter Thompson Advertising company in Detroit, working as a secretary to the copywriters. I met my husband, Paul, there when he returned from a 4-year tour of service with the Air Force. We started dating and one year later we were married.

#SelfPromotionMonth

#PositiveAttitudeMonth

It’s also Self-Promotion Month and Positive Attitude Month. To succeed with the former, one must have the latter. Fortunately, Mom was blessed with both. She had heard an interview, with the “world’s most successful salesman”, a Detroit Chevrolet salesman. He believed whole heartily in business cards, placing them everywhere.

From this, Mom found it easy to drop her business cards into pockets of clothes, purses, and tote bags in the ladies’ fashion department at various stores; also in public phone booths and restrooms, and in others’ cookbooks in the bookstores. I remember helping her, too.

Additionally, in exchange for a self-addressed, stamped envelope, Mom gave 15-20 free, popular, sample recipes (which changed, periodically) and an order form for her available, self-published cookbooks and newsletter.

My Cup Runneth Over – And I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, pp. 54-56)

RADIO AND BOB ALLISON’S ‘ASK YOUR NEIGHBORS!’

RADIO TURNED OUT TO BE the most appropriate way by which we made people aware of what we were doing. Again, my involvement with the wonderful world of radio actually came about without any specific intention of becoming a regular part of the broadcasting field… I didn’t know I had what is considered a ‘radio voice’.

I had never heard my own voice, at least, recorded. Heaven knows, our five kids will, to this day, even in their adulthood, testify to the fact that, on occasion, during their upbringing, I have been known to discover conditions that would prompt me to accelerate vocally in a pitch that only dogs in the next county could hear!

My introduction to radio began with Bob Allison and [his] nearly 30-year-running [at that time] ‘Ask Your Neighbor’ show. I was folding diapers at the kitchen table, waiting for my favorite, daily segment of ‘My True Story’ to come on the air, when, instead, WWJ announced that it had been replaced with a NEW show.

This new show turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. To this day [as written in December 1989], almost every Monday morning is a visit with Bob Allison and his neighbors…

When ‘My True Story’ was replaced by Bob Allison and his ‘Ask Your Neighbor’ show, weekday mornings, I was, at first, very disappointed. [Recipes,] household hints and problems around the house that you cannot solve yourself, seemed like just too much homemaking information to please me.

I soon, however, became ‘hooked’ on the show; as almost everybody does, to the point that, on Fridays, when Bob would sign off and say he would talk to us again on Monday, I was spending the weekends, just looking forward to the show on Monday.

I called the show about two or three times a month for the first year or two to ask questions of Bob’s ‘neighbors’ that my newspaper column readers were asking me. When I could not find the answers from consulting other sources, I knew I could rely on Bob Allison’s ‘neighbors’ to come up with the right answers for me.

In return, I would often then phone in an answer that I occasionally had in reply to one of their questions or recipe requests. Bob did not recognize my voice as a regular caller until I had initiated the newsletter…

He asked me where the recipe came from, which I was giving in reply to one of his listeners requests. That is how his program always worked. Nobody simply calls in a recipe because they like it. They must, first, be replying to a request made by another caller and, secondly, must have personally tried the recipe.

On rare occasions, Bob will accept a recipe that is NOT tried by the caller, providing it comes from a truly reliable source or has been asked for and not answered for a long time…

This is what has always made Bob Allison’s format so unique, when compared to others like it on the air. In mentioning that the hamburger sauce recipe would appear in the next issue of my monthly newsletter, which I had given in response to one of his listeners previous requests, Bob reacted with great interest and curiosity.

‘You have a newsletter, do you?’ He asked. ‘Well, tell us about it and how much it is and where our neighbors can get it.’ That was all it took to get us well-acquainted with Bob’s ‘neighbors’ and, in no time at all, our subscription orders went from a few to many.

Incidentally, October is also National Book Month and National Cookbook Month, as well as Eat Better & Eat Together Month.

40 years of cookbooks & newsletters by Gloria Pitzer

LAST THOUGHTS…

Thanks for visiting! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my memories of my mom, her memories, and other related things. For questions or comments, email me at [email protected]. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective.

IN CLOSING…

Since October is Italian-American Heritage Month, National Pasta Month, AND National Seafood Month, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Shrimp Scampi, like Olive Garden’s”; as seen in her self-published cookbook, The Great Imitator’s Cookbook (Secret Recipes^TM, Marysville, MI; October 1999, p. 46). As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.

#ItalianAmericanHeritageMonth

#NationalPastaMonth

#NationalSeafoodMonth

P.S. Food-for-thought until next Monday…

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

#NationalDayCalendar

#NationalCookbookMonth

#NationalBookMonth

#WomensSmallBusinessMonth

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

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

Today is also… National Chocolate Covered Pretzel Day, National Frappe Day, and National Inner Beauty Day. Plus, as the first Monday in October (for 2024), it’s also… National Consignment Day and National Child Health Day.

Additionally, the first full Mon.–Fri. work week in October [7^th-11^th, for 2024] is… Customer Service Week. Moreover, the first Mon-Sun week in October [7^th-13^th, for 2024] is… Financial Planning Week.

Tuesday, October 8^th, is… National Fluffernutter Day, National Hero Day, and National Pierogi Day.

October 9^th is… National Moldy Cheese Day. Plus, as the second Wednesday in October (for 2024), it’s also… National Take Your Parents To Lunch Day, National Curves Day, and National Stop Bullying Day.

#TakeYourParentsToLunchDay