Happy Monday, again. I LOVE Mondays. They’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you.
Recycling is not a new concept. “Waste not, want not” is a centuries old proverb that encourages frugalness. Having grown up during The Great Depression, Mom and Dad were part of “The Silent Generation” [born 1925-1945], raised by parents from “The Lost Generation” [born 1890-1915].
They learned at very young ages, don’t waste anything. Prices were high (for those days) and incomes were low; thus, they’d find creative ways to repurpose leftovers instead of throwing them out.
“Grandma’s cookery appears to let nothing go to waste. The broth from Judge Burns’ hens also made the gravy for the stew, the meat portion made the sausage and the bones from the carcass were ground fine and buried in the vegetable plot in the back of the firewood shed.” – Gloria Pitzer, Eating Out At Home Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Sep. 1981, 12th Printing, p. 25)
Currently, inflation, tariffs, and supply shortages are driving up prices and the cost of living. Newer generations are taking “waste not” a step further by “going green” – an environmentally conscience and sustainable lifestyle – recycling waste, conserving energy and water, and making/growing/raising their own food.
A big reason for the return to a “repurpose, reuse, recycle” routine is that we’re running out of room to put all the waste that we go through – which has grown exponentially since the wide-spread use of plastic began in the 20th century. Given our current trend, I think more of us want to learn about and practice recycling, as well as homesteading skills.
“A cookbook should reach out to the reader as if it is written by a FRIEND for another friend! In my 28 years [1956 to 1984] in the merry mishaps of mealtime management, I found that most professional food writers can deal better with recipes than they can with the readers. They failed to give us pertinent bits of information relative to the way leftovers should be stored and for how long these should be kept – or the advisability of freezing the foods and for how long.” – Gloria Pitzer, Gloria Pitzer’s Mixed Blessings – Recipes & Remedies (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; March 1984, p. 11).
Mom was always very crafty at repurposing, reusing, and recycling items to keep them out of the garbage and, thereby, not having to unnecessarily pay for things that could be easily made out of or into something else.
For example, as in the picture below, Mom often turned her old purses, with their many pockets and compartments, into “cases” for holding and organizing things like art supplies, activity books, Barbie’s clothes and accessories, and so on. Mom’s ideas were endless – and so was her supply of purses.
As a child, my all-time favorite Christmas gift was a beautiful rag doll that Mom made for me from old nylons and clothes scraps, “styling” yarn into pig tails for the hair and adding various buttons and more yarn scraps for the facial details. She made one for each of my sisters, too. I think Debbie still has hers.
Mom often made clothes and linens for our dolls out of material scraps from our own worn-out clothes and linens. Those were also used for patchwork, quilting, and other sewing projects. She also made furniture for our Barbies, using cardboard jewelry style gift boxes and small food boxes covered in contact paper or material scraps.
As for food… I don’t remember there ever being anything leftover, let alone wasted, when I was a kid. We ate a lot. With the Secret RecipesTM Detective, being our mom and cooking all of our meals and making all of our treats while testing her recipes – how could we not! Even the “duds” (that didn’t exactly match the original products) were so good!
Did you have leftovers after your Thanksgiving feast that were discarded? Keep in mind for the next big holiday meal – it’s only a short time away – soups, casseroles and pot pies are wonderful ways to recycle those refrigerator-bound leftovers.
Remember, when leftovers get past the point of safe consumption but are not yet to the point of a “penicillin science project” then composting is another way to recycle the food scraps, benefitting your garden. The exceptions for food composting are meat and dairy products, which aren’t good for the plants, but I hear they make great chicken feed.
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in… No Laughing Matter
By Gloria Pitzer, The Recipe DetectiveTM
VITTEL STATISTICS – or How to Salvage Leftovers!
IN ORDER TO PREVENT our kids from eating us right into bankruptcy, I’ve been, literally, forced to salvage food in the refrigerator by trying to camouflage it. Just last week, I made a banana look like a ballpoint pen and hid a stack of sliced cheese in an old stationary box.
When our 15-year old discovered them in the refrigerator, I assured him it was for writing letters to those people who deserved a cold shoulder from me. Several [readers] have written, asking me what I do with leftovers. I realize leftovers can be a problem but, in my case, I can hardly remember what they’re like.
With five, fully-powered, automatic food disposals, walking around disguised as ‘Problem Eaters’, this house hasn’t seen a leftover in years. Leftovers are not my problem – having enough to go around the first time is! I keep telling them, ‘Please! Eat like there IS a tomorrow!’ But they don’t listen.
There was a time when I could have equated their appetites with a compliment to my cooking, but that was before I saw them eat [Kellogg’s] Pop Tarts© without removing the wrappers… They are problem eaters, alright; but the problem is they never stop eating!
There are some things they will avoid, like brown spots on an apple, as well as the core and the stem. Neither will they eat parsley flakes or dry minced onions. They also have an adversity for whatever might be good for them, like green vegetables.
[That] means it’s perfectly safe for me to conceal Twinkies© in a box [from frozen] Brussel sprouts or Nabisco’s [Nilla] Wafers in a box that once contained prunes. I’ve even hidden Christmas cookies so well that it wasn’t until we went to a 4th of July picnic that I discovered them in the cold drink thermos.
I’ve hidden Oreos© in a tall, brown jar marked ‘NOT TO BE TAKEN INTERNALLY!’ I’ve tried to salvage enough of tonight’s pot roast to make tomorrow night’s stew, by wrapping it in a damp towel and trying to pass it off, on a lower shelf of the refrigerator, as my ironing.
When I discovered the three empty quart bottles that had, only moments before, contained ginger ale; it wasn’t difficult to expose the guilty person. It was the one [from whom], when he opened his mouth, I could hear the ocean roar!
I tried to frighten them away from what is loosely termed JUNK, like chips and doughnuts and pizza snacks; but they refuse to listen to how their teeth will rot and acne will make them unpopular.
Already, our 15-year old is supporting a 30-cents-a-day candy habit! [Note: In the early-to-mid 1970s, that was a LOT of candy!]
Just yesterday, in fact, I found the following reminder taped to the refrigerator: ‘Mom, we’re out of Pop Tarts again.’ I was very upset. The note had been written with the very last banana on the only slice of cheese!
Critics thought Mom’s copycat concept was a passing fad. They were so wrong. Not only did her concept last, it magnified after its inception in the early 1970s. She carved out such a creative new niche in the food industry that it quickly became quite popular.
In fact, the concept was so appealing that it inspired a new movement of foodies. Copycats were popping up, left and right, copying the ORIGINAL copycat, in terms of subject matter. Unfortunately, some were also plagiarizing her work.
As we found, after her FIRST appearance on “The Phil Donahue Show” in 1981, more than a million people wrote to us, wanting to know more about making their own fast food, junk food, and grocery products at home.
Mom was a trailblazer, with her “copycat cookery concept”. But she also wrote about how to stretch food, reinvent leftovers, and make many grocery products at home – some of which she learned from her mom and mother-in-law. If it saved money on her family’s grocery budget, she was compelled to share it with others like herself.
MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipes Newsletter (Secret RecipesTM, Marysville, MI; August 2000, Issue 215, p. 6)
INSPIRATION
MY OWN INSPIRATION to become a better cook than I was, originally came from the two most important influences in my young life, my mother and my mother-in-law. From my mom I learned the elegant, artistic presentation of even the most humble leftovers and the joy of making any meal an occasion rather than a ritual.
From my mother-in-law, I learned (while we were living with Paul’s parents), the art of practical food preparations, preserving and canning techniques not always found in the popular cookbooks… How to make your own ingredients when you were out of something.
And so, by combining the lessons learned, from both women, I became an accomplished cook (and much against my better judgement). Since then, inspiration has come to me from various other sources, including the big, boring, generic cookbooks.
These recipes are always a challenge to try and “Pitzerize”, condensing the lengthy number of ingredients into only a few and arrive at a similar result. It’s something you will become accustomed to doing once you have used “Secret RecipesTM” for a while.
Whatever requires, for instance, tomato sauce, vinegar, and a little sugar makes use of ketchup, instead – a good replacement of 3 ingredients. Likewise, others will occur to you as you continue to cook. If inspiration doesn’t come to you immediately, give it time and, with practice, I promise it will.
LAST THOUGHTS…
Thanks for visiting!
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my memories of my mom, her memories, and other related things. Next week, I’ll continue the recycling theme with trending “Thriftmas” ideas. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at therecipedetective@outlook.com. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective.
IN CLOSING…
In honor of TODAY, being National Brownie Day, here’s Mom’s secret recipe for “Shiny Top Brownies”; as seen in her self-published cookbook… Gloria Pitzer’s Mostly 4-Ingredient Recipes (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; April 1986, p. 54). As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.
P.S. Food-for-thought until next Monday…
The month of December observes… National Pear Month, National Write A Business Plan Month, Root Vegetables and Exotic Fruits Month, Safe Toys and Gifts Month, Worldwide Food Service Safety Month, and more.
This week continues to celebrate… Operation Santa Paws (which runs through the 24th).
Tomorrow is… National Pastry Day and Christmas Card Day.
Wednesday, December 10th, is… National Lager Day and National Human Rights Day. It’s also… National Human Rights Month and Universal Human Rights Month.
Thursday, December 11th, is… National App Day and National Noodle Ring Day.
December 12th is… National Ambrosia Day, Gingerbread House Day, and Poinsettia Day. Plus, as the second Friday in December (for 2025), it’s also… National Salesperson Day.
Saturday, December 13th, is… National Cocoa Day and the National Guard Birthday.
Sunday, December 14th, is… National Bouillabaisse Day and National Alabama Day. Plus, it’s the start of… Christmas Bird Count Week, which is a 3-week celebration that always starts on the 14th.
Additionally, as the week before Winter Solstice (Dec. 21st, for 2025), it’s the start of… Halcyon Days, which starts 7 days before the Solstice and ends 7 days after it. Moreover, it’s also when… Hanukkah/Chanukah Begins (for 2025).
Have a great week!
…49 down and only 3 more to go.
