Thank God it’s Monday, once again. I love to celebrate Mondays because they are my 52 Chances, each year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you. I missed last Monday, due to unforeseen circumstances. Therefore, I wish you a double happy Monday, today.
Happy April to everyone, as well. A week ago, Sunday, we celebrated Easter – a religious observance that symbolizes the promise of salvation and, according to Google AI, “triumph over death, offering Christians hope, forgiveness, and the opportunity for spiritual renewal.” By the way, April is similarly National Month of Hope.
Easter is the Christian reflection of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. However, it is also often associated with early spring and the rejuvenation of life on Earth, which is why its modern-day festivities are more often decorated with spring flowers, butterflies, eggs, and rabbits – symbols of rebirth and fertility.
But that’s not all. There are so many more things to celebrate, particularly during the month of April. According to my go-to-source for national observances, NationalDayCalendar.com, April’s national observances include numerous things that Mom enjoyed celebrating, too.
“If food habits need to be modified in some way, the psychological framework of eating must also be considered. Food is the essence of hospitality; it’s given away as gifts. Food is associated with celebrations and holidays. Food has emotional connotations.” – Gloria Pitzer, Gloria Pitzer’s National Home News (National Home News, St. Clair, MI; Vol. 5, No. 9; September 1978, p. 7).
Some of April’s national observances are Keep America Beautiful Month, Lawn and Garden Month, National Garden Month, National Humor Month, National Poetry Month, National Fresh Celery Month, National Soft Pretzel Month, National Pecan Month, and so many more.
However, every day is a celebration – literally and figuratively. If it’s not a national observance or federal holiday, maybe it’s somebody’s birthday or some other special event that’s being celebrated. I’ve written several blog posts about making Sunday Suppers a weekly celebration with family.
On any given day, you might be celebrating a wedding, an engagement, a graduation, a baby shower, a house warming, a retirement, a reunion; as well as starting a new business. Even a memorial is now considered a celebration, thus, it is now referred to as a “celebration of life”.
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipe Report (Secret Recipe Report, St. Clair, MI; Issue 86, February 1981; p. 1)
CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION
WE’RE USED TO celebrating an occasion – a special holiday, an anniversary, or birthday. But have you ever thought of just celebrating Life! Life IS a celebration, you know; and what a better way to honor the experience than with a practical celebration of good food, warm friends, pleasant talk without having to go to great expense.
The trouble with entertaining is that most people really believe they have to make the food the center of the attention before they can invite somebody over. Any food for entertaining is hardly ever as practical as what you would serve to the family the day before payday.
Some wouldn’t dream of serving meatloaf. Yet we have a dream of a company [meatballs] recipe using the very same ingredients you would use in a practical, but nutritious, family-budget meatloaf, in this issue. It’s all in how you prepare it and present it – not one bit expensive – as company food goes!
Mom loved any reason to celebrate any day (even pickles). She adored making fun of silly celebrations in her cartoon panels like International Pickle Week, for having seven days of honor while mothers got only one day. She specifically enjoyed tomorrow’s celebration for National No Housework Day, created by Thomas and Ruth Roy in the 1980s.
Mom celebrated every day, in some way, especially with food, and inspired others to do the same in all of her newsletter issues and books. She believed, as do I, that nothing gathers people together more than food and any excuse for a gathering will do.
Thus, I wrote a slogan over six years ago: “Any reason to celebrate, is a reason to celebrate with food.” Mom was one of the biggest advocates for celebrating everyone and everything – even food, itself.
“The celebration of the moments worth remembering continues to have its place.” – Gloria Pitzer, Gloria Pitzer’s Secret RecipesTM Quarterly (Secret RecipesTM, Marysville, MI; Winter 1994/95).
She made mealtime a celebration in our house. If company dropped by, Mom celebrated them with food – always whipping up something simple to offer them to eat and yet it was always grand in presentation. No one ever left our house hungry. I do the same thing.
Mom invented the copycat cookery concept in the early 1970s to celebrate famous foods from famous places, right at home. She celebrated every imitation she created of a popular dish or food item. She referred to her groundbreaking style of cookery as “Eating Out At Home”, which was also the title of one of her early self-published cookbooks.
The more food imitations she developed, the more her fans clamored for additional ones. That alone gave Mom reason to celebrate because critics of the “fast food” and “junk food” industries thought that her copycat cookery concept was a fad that wouldn’t last long. However, it was only the beginning of a revolutionary crusade in the food industry.
MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 6). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
[INTRODUCTION – HOW SECRET RECIPESTM BEGAN]
I DO, WITH RECIPES, what Rich Little does with voices! Imitating the “Secret Recipes” of the food industry has been an exciting experience for me. The critics felt that “fast foods” and restaurant dishes were not worth the effort to duplicate at home, when you can just as easily buy the products already prepared!
The critics who contend that “fast foods” are “junk foods” and not good for us, have probably never prepared these foods themselves.
Certainly, they have no access to the closely guarded recipes from the food companies that created these dishes, as there are only a few people in each operation that are permitted the privilege of such information!
So 99% of the critics’ speculations are based on their own opinions. To know what these dishes contained, they’d have to be better chemists than I, as I have tested over 20,000 recipes with only the finished product as my guide to determine what each contained.
“Fast foods” are not “junk foods” unless they’re not properly prepared. Any food that is poorly prepared (and just as badly presented) is junk! Unfortunately, “fast food” has carried a reputation, by default, of containing ingredients that are “harmful” to us.
Yet they contain the same ingredients as those foods served in the “finer” restaurants with wine stewards, linen tablecloths, candlelight, coat-check attendants, and parking valets; which separate the plastic palaces of “fast food” from the expensive dining establishments.
One “eats” at McDonald’s, but “dines” at The Four Seasons. Steak and potato or hamburger and French fries – the ingredients are practically the same. How they are prepared [and presented] makes the difference!
In the early 1970s, I was trying to juggle marriage, motherhood, homemaking and a newspaper column syndicated through Columbia Features, when it seemed obvious to me that there wasn’t a single cookbook on the market that could help me take the monotony out of mealtime.
There was not a single recipe in the newspaper’s food section that did not smack of down-home dullness! “Okay,” they said at the newspaper I worked for, “YOU write the column on foods and recipes that YOU think would really excite the readers and make them happy!”
I did, but that didn’t make the Editors happy, because it made their advertisers miserable. When I was told that I’d have to go back to monotonous meatloaf and uninteresting side-dishes that made mealtime a ritual rather than a celebration or “pick up my check”, I told them to “MAIL it to me!” I went home to start my own paper!
These days, all of the holidays – from New Year’s Day to New Year’s Eve – plus, all of the special events and other reasons for gatherings are, in some fashion, marketed in and by the food industry. Easter is #4 on the top 10 list of celebrated “Public Holidays in the United States”, according to Wikipedia, which are as follows:
- Christmas
- Thanksgiving
- Mother’s Day
- Easter
- Independence Day
- Halloween
- Father’s Day
- Valentine’s Day
- Patrick’s Day
- New Year’s Day (& Eve)
Other unofficial “holidays” include notable sports events that Americans like to celebrate with food, drinks, and friends (whether or not they follow it throughout the season), including the NFL’s “Super Sunday” (season finale), Nascar’s “Daytona 500” season opener, and Major League Baseball’s season opener.
Memorial Day, which is just around the corner, has become a full weekend celebration for the unofficial start of summer and Labor Day is now a full weekend celebration for the unofficial end of summer – favorably observed with backyard barbeques or picnics in a park or at a beach – or even with a small vacation getaway.
Americans love to celebrate anything and everything especially with others. Therefore, remember what I always say: “Any reason to celebrate, is a reason to celebrate with food…” – adding, today, “…family and friends”, as well.
LAST THOUGHTS…
Thanks for visiting! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my memories of my mom, her memories, and other related things. 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 last Monday, which I missed, being National Caramel Popcorn Day, here’s Mom’s secret recipe for “Caramel Corn Popcorn Crunch”; as seen in her self-published cookbook, Secret Make Alike Recipes – Revised (Secret RecipesTM, Marysville, MI; May 1997, p. 59). As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.
PLUS, in honor of TODAY, being National Peach Cobbler Day, here’s Mom’s secret recipe for “Peach Cobbler”, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipes Newsletter (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Sep.-Oct. 1991, p. 8). As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.
P.S. Food-for-thought until next Monday…
Monday, April 6th, was also… National Hostess Twinkie Day, New Beer’s Eve, and National Teflon Day.
Tuesday, April 7th, was… National Beer Day and National Coffee Cake Day.
Wednesday, April 8th, was… National All is Ours Day.
Thursday, April 9th, was… National Cherish an Antique Day and National Chinese Almond Cookie Day.
Friday, April 10th, was… National Cinnamon Crescent Day, Encourage a Young Writer Day, and National Siblings Day.
Saturday, April 11th, was… National Cheese Fondue Day, National Pet Day, and National Submarine Day.
Sunday, April 12th, was… National Colorado Day, National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day, and National Licorice Day.
TODAY is… National Make Lunch Count Day and National Scrabble Day. Plus, as the start of the second full business week [Mon.-Fri.] of April (for 2026), it’s also the start of… National Library Week.
Tomorrow is… National Gardening Day, National Pecan Day, National Reach as High as You Can Day, and Look Up at the Sky Day. Plus, as the Tuesday of the second full week in April (2026), it’s also… National Library Workers Day.
April 15th is… National Banana Day, National Glazed Spiral Ham Day, National Rubber Eraser Day, National Take a Wild Guess Day, and National Tax Day. Plus, as the Wednesday of National Library Week (for 2026), it’s also… National Bookmobile Day.
April 16th is… National Eggs Benedict Day, National Orchid Day, and National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day. Plus, as the third Thursday in April (for 2026), it’s also… National High Five Day. Additionally, as the third Thursday of the second quarter (for 2026), it’s also… Get to Know Your Customers Day. [NOTE: it’s also the 40th anniversary of Jeopardy (1986) using Mom’s research on a German breakfast dish in one of the “answers”.]
Friday, April 17th, is… National Cheeseball Day and National Haiku Poetry Day.
Saturday, April 18th, is… National Animal Crackers Day and National Columnists’ Day.
Sunday, April 19th, is… National Amaretto Day, National Garlic Day, National Hanging Out Day, and National North Dakota Day. Plus, as the start of the third full week of April (for 2026), it’s also the start of… National Volunteer Week.
Have a great week!
…15 down, 37 to go!
