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, to everyone.
Happy February! This is National Bake for Family Fun Month, among other things.
Since the 1970s, with the exception of 2020 (during the widespread Covid restrictions), about half of families rarely ever eat any meals together. About 40% no longer get together even once a week for a good, old-fashioned, family unit, Sunday supper.
For the most part, family ties undeniably strengthened in 2020, as families spent more time together, preparing as well as sharing their meals. It’s a special bonding time between family members, preparing a meal or special treat. However, when restrictions were lifted, most people went quickly back to their old habits and busy lives.
The best part of the quality time that family members spend together in the kitchen, are the memories that are shared and the new ones that are made. My oldest daughter recently mentioned these kind of memories to me, laughing about the sibling rivalry over who got to lick the spoon or the bowl.
Some of my own happiest childhood memories are of baking a variety of sweets with my mom – cookies, cakes, pies, and sweet breads. So many people have happy childhood memories of baking something in the kitchen with their mom and/or other family member(s).
Mom used to write a series of stories, in her books and newsletter issues, about “Grandma’s Backdoor Bakery”, based loosely on decades old kin-folklore of Dad’s grandma in West Virginia, who operated the business out of her own home to help make ends meet, while raising many children and running a farm, as well.
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Eating Out At Home Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Sep. 1981, 12th Printing, p. 25)
LIVING AT HOME
(A story by Gloria Pitzer, based on kin-folklore.)
CROOKED PATH WAS a mid-western, sage brush hamlet, settled shortly before the Civil War by pioneers in covered wagons. Grandma was born there a few years after the war – the oldest daughter of her father’s second marriage.
Fortunately, for Grandma, her father dabbled in a little of this, a little of that; owning the saloon in town, a boarding house, and the town’s mercantile [store]. Her diary tells how she learned to cook at the boarding house, where she met Grandpa, who was renting a room there.
He married her in the parlor – much against her parents’ better judgement. On her 16th birthday and on her 17th birthday, they were blessed with the births of their first two of eleven children – six boys and five girls.
We were never quite certain what work Grandpa was in, but it took them from the plains of Nebraska to Ohio, to West Virginia and, eventually, to Michigan, with abbreviated residencies in Pennsylvania and Indiana.
From her ‘Recipe Journal’ notes, it seemed clear that Grandma’s ‘Backdoor Bakery’ supported the family’s income rather substantially for many years. Grandpa was probably a professional handyman from what we’ve been able to piece together from Grandma’s ‘Recipe Journal’.
She made meticulous notes on recipes, to the effect: ‘This is the pie I baked from the California lemons that Gus Maxwell gave Pa for fixing his plow.’ [Another entry said:] ‘The hens Pa got in payment for the book cases he made for Judge Burns made a fine stew, good soup, and six loaves of chicken sausage.’
[Another said:] ‘The sack of brown sugar Yostman gave Pa for mortaring up his stove pipes made a good caramel pie – sent to ailing Bessie Forbes, down the road.’ From studying the quill-pen entries, I gather that work was the most essential part of life 80 years ago.
By contrast, today’s workmanship is inferior to anything produced by the craftsman of yesterday. I wonder why people, today, are so unhappy with their own work – as if the tedium of labor is not really the problem.
Isn’t it typical that those who hold work to be without value are, themselves, empty? To imply, today, that work is without meaning is actually to also imply that life is without meaning – which most of our social influences do rather thoroughly.
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.
Apparently, Grandma and Grandpa were considered among the prosperous of their community because they were productive, although never wealthy. At least, we do know that they were indeed happy.
But the definition of ‘happiness’ in Grandma’s own handwriting was: ‘Happiness sometimes comes from ignorance – from not knowing how much better our life might be.’
One of the aunts confided that Grandma placed great importance upon the strength of her family and the respect they gave their father because her own life, with her parents, was less than memorable.
Her life centered around her family – the heart of which seemed to be the kitchen. Their nourishment, however, was not food but love that came from ‘actions’…
Family is one of the most important gifts we’ll ever have in life. Both of my parents felt that way, as did their own parents. Me and my husband and our children feel the same way, too. However, somewhere along the way, generations have made “family time” less important.
We should celebrate our family every day and cherish the time we can spend together. Celebrating family-togetherness in the kitchen or around the table, is just one of those things we should do every day – rather than on special occasions. Food is more than just one of life’s necessities. Nothing brings families or people, in general, together more than food.
You could say we love food almost as much as we love each other. Like I’ve said before, “Any reason to celebrate, is a reason to celebrate with food…” (Feb. 24, 2020) would make a great ad slogan, as about 99% of everything in which we rejoice is celebrated with food.
MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, p. 12)
WHAT’S VALUABLE – THE FAMILY
THE FAMILY IS IMPORTANT to this troubled world that seems not to know what direction to go in for comfort and relief. So, I cater, in our publications, mostly to this family, with all of the old-fashioned values I can gather and still not sound corny or even ‘preachy’!
That for which I am most grateful, however, as I see how our family has worked together in helping us to build this dining room table enterprise into a substantial and professional operation, is the friendship that has grown over the years between [Paul, me and] the five children…my cup runneth over!
Stay-at-home parents and homemakers have, for many decades, started their own home-based businesses so they could raise their families, while also helping to make ends meet, financially. Mom integrated me and my siblings into her home-based, mail-order, recipe business in a variety of ways, helping her with those things that our various ages could handle.
We were baking memories and having fun as a family long before National Bake for Family Fun Month became a “thing”. Unfortunately, the reason it even became a “thing” was because family bonding started disappearing, as families got busier with their individual lives. That’s when fast and convenient became the new “things”.
Now, since the Covid-19 restrictions of 2020, there are so many groups forming with a focus on saving old traditions, while renewing and strengthening the bonds of the family unit. A family dinner night – or a breakfast or luncheon, depending on the family’s matrix, at least once a week, can revive the family bonding process.
LAST THOUGHTS…
This month is also the 37-year anniversary of Mom’s FIRST appearance on ABC’s “Home” show (1988), where she got to meet Wally Amos, the famous cookie maker. He was so impressed with Mom’s imitation of his cookies, he kindly asked her to promise that she’d never go into the cookie business.
Mom’s appearance was so successful, she was invited to be on the show again, 3 years later, in March 1991. According to Mom, that episode did not go as well, for her. I wish I could find copies of those “Home” show episodes.
Mom’s good friend, Carol Duvall, helped in getting her on the new show, as she had a crafting segment on it, too. That’s also where Mom met Jackie Olden, who she first knew from her quarterly recipes newsletter in the mid to late 1970s. Later, Jackie hosted a radio talk show on WGIL-Radio, in the Mission Hills, CA area.
Next week is the annual observance of Random Acts of Kindness Week. Plus, coming February 17th, is… National Random Acts of Kindness Day. Again, I must reiterate that these are celebrations we should practice every day of the year – not just on one day or even seven days but 365 days a year.
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 [email protected]. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective.
IN CLOSING…
Since it was recently National Soup Month and tomorrow is National Homemade Soup Day, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Chuck’s Chowder” (like Chuck Muer’s restaurants); as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 131). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition)]. As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.
P.S. Food-for-thought until next Monday…
February observes… National Fasting February, An Affair to Remember Month, Black History Month, National Canned Food Month, National Creative Romance Month, National Great American Pies Month, National Bird Feeding Month, National Cherry Month, National Grapefruit Month, National Hot Breakfast Month, National Library Lover’s Month, National Snack Food Month, and National Weddings Month – among other things.
This week celebrates, among other things… Burn Awareness Week.
Today is also… National Carrot Cake Day. Plus, as the first Monday and start of the first full WORK WEEK of February (3rd-7th for 2025), it’s also the start of… Pride in Food Service Week.
Tomorrow is… National Thank a Mail Carrier Day.
Wednesday, February 5th, is… National Weatherperson’s Day and World Nutella Day. Plus, National Boy Scout Anniversary Week is always February 5th-11th. Additionally, the US Snow Sculpting Week is a five-day celebration that always starts on the first Wednesday in February (5th-9th for 2025).
February 6th is… National Frozen Yogurt Day and National Chopsticks Day. Plus, as the first Thursday in February (for 2025), it’s also… National Optimist Day.
February 7th is… National Fettuccine Alfredo Day and National Send a Card to a Friend Day. Plus, as the first Friday in February (for 2025), it’s also… National Wear Red Day and Bubble Gum Day. Additionally, National Marriage Week is always February 7th-14th.
Saturday, February 8th, is… National Boy Scouts Day and National Iowa Day.
February 9th is… National Bagel and Lox Day and National Pizza Day. Plus, as the second Sunday in February (for 2025), it’s also… National Pork Rind Day and Super Bowl Sunday (which isn’t an official holiday – yet).
The second week of February (9th-15th for 2025) observes… National Kraut and Frankfurter Week, Freelance Writers Appreciation Week, National Secondhand Wardrobe Week, Great American Pizza Bake, National Jell-O Week, Take Your Family to School Week, and the Westminster Dog Show at Madison Square Garden – which is always the week of Valentine’s Day.
Have a great week!
…5 down and 47 to go!
