Tag: ThankGodItsMondayDay

Posted on

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Transitory Traditions

Thank God it’s Monday once more and, as such, happy Monday, again, to everyone! I always 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

#GingerbreadHouseDay

Tomorrow celebrates another fleeting or transitory holiday tradition – which I remember from my childhood and happily continued with my own children, for many years. It’s the making of the old-fashioned, festive gingerbread house (aka: Christmas Candy House). Like most everything else, I think old traditions just evolve more than they fade away.

I’m a lover of old traditions but, like Mom, I’m also a lover of time-saving shortcuts. For instance, my kids weren’t crazy about the gingerbread used in the traditional candy house construction. Every year, most of the building went into the trash, after all the candies and frosting were picked off. I ate a few pieces of the house, myself, for old times’ sake.

However, so as not to let the gingerbread go to waste, anymore, we decided to replace it with graham crackers (as pictured below). That not only eliminated the waste problem but also happened to save me a lot of time, since making the gingerbread for the walls and roof was a lengthy process, itself. Here’s Mom’s Christmas Gingerbread recipe.

When I look back on my own childhood, so many of my favorite memories involved our family traditions mixed with our own new ones. Mom and Dad always succeeded at creating a lot of fun, holiday memories for our family.

I remember, as a kid, every year, helping Dad put together our artificial Christmas tree; sorting out all the branches by size and sticking them in the “trunk”, one by one. Afterward, Dad secured the tree to the ceiling and side walls with hooks and fishing line so none of us kids (or our pets) could knock it over.

Then Dad checked all the bulbs and put the strings of lights on it. Then we got to help Mom decorate it, which was always a family event, hanging the ornaments, tinsel, and candy canes. I remember stringing up popcorn for the garland, too.

Other decorations our family put up, included Mom’s little Christmas village on top of the piano and our empty stockings, which hung on hooks on the fireplace mantel, that were “magically” filled on Christmas morning with fruit, candy, and little trinkets.

Here’s a re-share (pictured below) of the top 10-plus stocking stuffers list that I made a couple of years ago. The order may have changed but, over the years, these popular stuffers steadfastly remain the same.

In our house, when I was growing up, a plate of cookies was customarily left out for “Santa” on Christmas Eve. Nowadays, those who still do this will often leave “Santa” a healthy snack, instead of cookies.

My siblings and I would try to catch Dad, taking the cookies, but never could. Yet, we’d always find the plate empty on Christmas morning. My own children tried to do the same, to no avail. Now that we’re empty nesters, we obviously don’t continue that particular tradition, anymore.

Along with decorating the house for the eyes to enjoy, traditional Christmas music was usually playing on the stereo for the ears to enjoy.

New Christmas songs come out in every genre, every year. Some people still prefer the old classics, some like the new songs, and others like a mixture of both. I prefer the latter, myself.

Mom also usually had many wonderful scents for the nose to enjoy, too. When she wasn’t cooking or baking, she often had a simmering pot of homemade potpourri on the stove, to give off all the scents of the season.

Here’s the traditional, holiday recipe (pictured below) Mom developed for “Simmering Potpourri”; which she shared in her self-published cookbook, Make Alike Recipes (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1991, p. 65).

After having children of my own, I always tried to carry on those traditions; while adding a few new ones of our own. Every year, all around the world, hundreds of millions of people commemorate the Christmas holiday with many different traditions.

American Christmas Traditions, as seen at TheSpruce.com, by Robin Bickerstaff Glover (Updated 3/20/19), lists many of the same wonderful traditions that my family enjoyed for decades.

The holiday celebrations, customs, and beliefs are incredibly diverse in America, alone, since we‘re a melting-pot-nation; where numerous nationalities, even within a single family, mesh together in harmony, mixing old and new customs together. Mom came from such a blended family, herself; where they celebrated both, Hanukkah and Christmas.

‘IF I GIVE OUR CHILDREN only one gift, it will be that I gave some practical sense of what is truly important at this time of year – not the gift, but the gathering of family and friends… Not the food, but the feeling of just being home… Never letting what we want be more important than what we need… Not complaining about [the] trivial… And always appreciating what we’ve already received before we can expect to receive more.’ – Gloria Pitzer, Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipes Newsletter (Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipes, St. Clair, MI; Nov-Dec 1990, Issue #147, p. 1)

One suggestion, for gift-giving ideas, when you don’t know what to give, is to follow the “Rule of 4” – something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read – which has always served me well, in the past. Another I shared recently, is to write your family’s story; using pictures and memories of past holidays, for instance.

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Christmas Card Cook Book

(Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipes, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1983, pp. 4-5)

[TRADITION AND FAMILY VALUES]

BREAKING THROUGH THE BARRIERS of tradition, we find a spirited acceptance of new family values. Occasions have replaced celebrations. Getting together has been replaced by being together!

Good food, comfortable conversation [and] warm hospitality have become more important to the family circle than reverence without reason, tolerance without tact, relatives without relationships!

The lovely part about Christmas for us, was always being together – with our friends, our good and dear neighbors, and our relatives; in a series of activities that began with Thanksgiving and tapered off around the new year.

It was hectic, but it was also many happy reunions, mixed well with spontaneous visitations that, had they been a part of the ordinary activities of the rest of the year, would not mean so much now! The food was simple, but ample. The food, I feel, should never be more important than the guests for whom it is prepared…

All of these preparations are a part of Christmas – but not the important part. The tokens only represent the real meaning – that of loving, of letting go of old grudges, of forgetting past hurts, of looking for something good (even though you don’t see it – until you do!)

Love, most philosophers conclude, is the highest level of thought. It is the logic of the heart. And no other season of the calendar year seems to reflect more of this feeling, this consolation to our woes, than the season of Christmas!

We reach out to others – and want them, in turn, to respond to us. Some of us do it with gifts that we buy or make and some of us do it with social gestures of food and hospitality.

While all of these traditions are renewed at this particular time of the year, the critics complain and the cynics look for reasons to begrudge us the pleasure of loving the season, renewing the fellowship of it – with family, friends and neighbors.

But that’s not unusual and we shouldn’t be surprised by the criticisms that try to take some of the joy out of the holiday traditions we follow – or create for ourselves. There are always critics, unfortunately, for those occasions in our lives when we wish to be glad about something…

So, on with the celebration – whether we choose to keep it quietly in our own personal fashion of religious customs, or whether we choose to make it festive and pronounced with the traditions of gifts and food. The point is, we are celebrating the season of hope…

It’s a time for loving – for expressing it [and] for offering it to others! How can something like that not be good! Our own traditions have not been very elaborate in our family, during the Christmas season; but the things we have always done to make the holiday more enjoyable, brought us pleasure.

So, we have continued with them. Whether you choose to follow traditions or to create some of your own, the underlying meaning is still there to express joy and LOVE – that incredible, curious logic of the heart!

LAST THOUGHTS…

I was really inspired by Mom’s writing when I collaborated with her during the last few years of her life to re-write her favorite cookbook, The Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd printing). We were hoping it could be re-published to inspire new generations in the “digital age” – and it has!

In January 2018, shortly before she passed away, Mom was so happy to hear that her cookbook went to print, again; being published, this time, by Balboa Press. The title had to be adjusted to Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective, but most of the book, remained close to the same as the original, 1982, first edition.

[Note: To get your own hard copy and/or eBook editions of Mom’s last cookbook, contact Balboa Press (see links below). They’ll make terrific Christmas gifts for anyone and everyone on your Christmas list!

Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (hard copy) is available for sale, at $20.99 each, through https://www.balboapress.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-001062252. It’s also available in eBook form, for $3.99, at https://www.balboapress.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-001062253.]

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

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

‘EVERY YEAR AT THIS time, we put our very best wishes together with some warm & worthy thoughts, and send them off to you, wrapped in sincere affection and the dearest hopes that this coming year gives you all you expect and derive from it.’ – Gloria Pitzer, Gloria Pitzer’s Secret RecipesTM Quarterly, Winter 1994/1995.

IN CLOSING…

In honor of December, being National Pear Month, here’s Mom’s secret recipe for “Baked Pears Dessert”; which she originally shared in her self-published newsletter, Gloria Pitzer’s Homemaker’s Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 4 (April 1974) and later reprinted in her self-published cookbook, 25th Anniversary Issue of Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipes Newsletter – The First 12 Issues of 1974 (Secret RecipesTM, Marysville, MI; April 1999, p. 20).

#NationalPearMonth

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

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

December observes, among other things… National Write A Business Plan Month, Operation Santa Paws (which runs the 1st-24th), Root Vegetables and Exotic Fruits Month, Safe Toys and Gifts Month, Worldwide Food Service Safety Month, National Human Rights Month, and Universal Human Rights Month!

Today is also… National App Day and National Noodle Ring Day!

December 12th is… National Ambrosia Day and National Poinsettia Day!

December 13th is… National Cocoa Day, National Violin Day, and the U.S. National Guard Birthday!

December 14th is… National Bouillabaisse Day and National Alabama Day! Plus, it’s the start of… Christmas Bird Count Week[s]; a 3-week observance, starting on the 14th and running through January 5th. Additionally, as the beginning of the week before Winter Solstice, it’s also the start of… Halcyon Days – a 2-week celebration (14th-28th for 2023) of peace and tranquility, starting 7 days before the Winter Solstice (which is on the 21st for 2023) and ending 7 days after!

December 15th is… National Cupcake Day, National Bill of Rights Day, and National Wear Your Pearls Day! Plus, as the third Friday in December [for 2023], it’s also… National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day and Underdog Day!

December 16th is… National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day! Plus, as the third Saturday in December [for 2023], it’s also… National Wreaths Across America Day! Additionally, it’s… Las Posadas (which is a 9-day celebration, always on the 16th-24th)

December 17th is… National Maple Syrup Day!

#TGIM

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

…50 down and only 2 more to go!

Posted on

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Cookies Make Us Smile

Firstly, happy December. Also, thank God it’s Monday again and, as such, happy Monday to everyone. I personally look forward to all Mondays. They’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you!

#TheRecipeDetective

We’ve entered the final month of 2023. November seemed to come and go, in the blink of an eye. December usually follows suit, especially with all the many holiday celebrations going on throughout the month. As the old adage says, “time flies when you’re having fun.”

The first week of December always celebrates National Cookie Cutter Week AND today happens to be National Cookie Day, too. Cookies are wonderful! They are among many Americans’ top 10 favorite food choice lists. There are so many different types – “more than Carter has pills”, as the old adage says.

Some versions of cookies are called “breads”, “biscuits”, “bars”, or “squares”. Some cookies are “baked” in the oven, while others (called “no-bakes”) are “set” in the refrigerator or freezer. Cookies can be hard and crispy or soft and chewy. Some cookies are plain or coated in frosting, sugar, cinnamon, or the like.

They use an array of ingredients including, but not limited to butter, eggs, oil, peanut butter, various sugars, flours, oats, spices, and cocoas/chocolates. Many optional additions include coconut, peanuts, various nuts, candies, baking chips, raisins and dried fruits.

Mom created a wonderful, copycat version for Mrs. Field’s cookies many decades ago. That’s the recipe (pictured above, which I shared five years ago) that I chose to make for my own cookie exchange – as printed on her “Free Recipes & Ordering Information” sheets (from 2000), under the name “Mrs. Meadows”.

One of my earliest memories, from when I first started going to school, was of being afraid that no one would like me and that I wouldn’t have any friends. Mom gave me a lunch sack full of cookies to share, saying, “the quickest way to their hearts is through their stomachs.” I may be biased but I always thought Mom made the best cookies.

Mom said that if I shared the cookies with the other kids, I would undoubtedly make friends and it worked! In later years, when I became a mother, my own children struggled to make friends, as well. I did the same for them as Mom did for me and it still worked just as well to help them “break the ice” and make new friends, too!

There’s no doubt that cookies make people feel good. They are often used as a reward for children, as well as for adults, when doing good deeds, using good manners, and various other things. Cookies can put a ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy day like nothing else can.

Maybe the reason that Santa is so jolly is because of all the wonderful cookies he gets on Christmas Eve. Cookies make us smile. They make a bad day better. Mom said that cookies even “take the ‘bite’ out of a scraped knee and the ‘owie’ out of a bump on the head”.

There was a time when my youngest child was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. She was withdrawn and anti-social. She rarely smiled or showed any kind of emotion. But Mom could always pull her out of her shell, at least somewhat, with cookies! They were one of the few things that made her genuinely smile and even engage in a little conversation.

The following is Mom’s 1982 composition, on the subject of “Cookies and Candies”, as she originally wrote for that particular chapter in her self-published cookbook, Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (May 1982, 1st Edition), which is the cookbook (using the 3rd Edition, though) that I helped her to rewrite for a new digital generation.

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 214). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition)].

COOKIES AND CANDIES

COOKIES AND CANDIES really bring out the little child within us all. There is something almost rewarding about simple confections that the food industry has also been able to capitalize on the products of this division with great marketing success.

The first bakery marketing efforts, in the American frontier days, included delicacies of French origin, Danish breads and cakes, Austrian strudel and pies of truly colonial persuasion.

The candies, which were originally for special religious observances, have been taken into the fold of a prospering industry and have continued, despite repercussions of the critics, skepticism of sugar and artificial sweeteners, to please the public…

…When I compiled my favorite cookie and candy recipes for this section, I was really torn between what to keep and what to leave out. I wanted to share with you every single wonderful memory of a pleasing product, you could hopefully imitate in your own kitchen, as a compliment to the original…

…In cookie-baking, the spirit of ‘reward’ is still there, as it was when we were youngsters, and remains a tradition – we will always find a place and a reason for having a cookie jar in the kitchen…

…Years ago, when our 5 children were still in the sandbox set, holding tricycle symposiums in my flowerbeds and declaring our yard a national park for every child in the township, I had this ridiculous maternal notion that a cookie could cure countless conditions. So, I was wrong!

Cookies did not remedy a Barbie doll with a missing string in her back or a G.I. Joe without a backpack in the ‘complete accessory kit’, as promised in the catalog. But special cookies from a warm and sunny, semi-cluttered kitchen, did take the ‘bite’ out of a scraped knee and the ‘owie’ out of a bump on the head…

…Even though it wouldn’t bring the pet turtle back to life, a cookie and a kiss from Mom made the world seem a little bit brighter. I doubt that things have changed very much with mothers and their children since my own grew up… Even now…they all check the cookie jar with the same delight as they expressed when they were youngsters.

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

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

Cookie exchanges are just one of the many December holiday traditions in which numerous people still participate – but, like other traditions, those numbers are dwindling. I wrote a blog post about five years ago, Making Memories With a Christmas Cookie Exchange, regarding hosting a cookie exchange party.

It had its flaws but, for the most part, it went well. I had the best of intentions to host another one but I never made the time to make it a new tradition. The same can be said for a lot of things these days.

Speaking of holiday traditions (and making someone smile), this Saturday is Christmas Card Day. Recently, one of my local news programs, aired a story about how many traditions are going to the wayside, including mailing out Christmas cards. It seems that the younger generations continuously want to do away with our old traditions and create new ones.

I used to send out Christmas cards from me and my husband, by mail, every Black Friday. There were so many dozens of cards and the list of recipients grew every year, as did our family and circle of friends. It was just one of the countless traditions I picked up from my parents and grandparents. Now we hand many out to the people we see (or can see).

MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Christmas Card Cook Book (Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipes, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1983, p. 3)

CHRISTMAS CARDS

SENDING CHRISTMAS CARDS has always been a favorite tradition in our house. In 28 years, we’ve only sent store-bought cards twice. Every Christmas, other than that, we’ve made our cards. That was the one important tradition we followed – and still do…

What usually happened was that we had every good intention of confining our list to those who really were important to us [and] who we rarely saw during the rest of the year… I like to put newsy little notes inside that would bring old friends up to date with what we had been doing since we sent them our last Christmas card.

…I am one of those annoying sentimentalists who will, too, read every word of the long, newsy Christmas letters and the page-by-page accounts of how our friends have been doing since the last Christmas.

I don’t know if fewer cards are being sent at Christmas since postage became so expensive – or if we simply don’t know that many people. The tradition, however, seems to be fading…

LAST THOUGHTS…

Mom wrote that last excerpt in 1983. Forty years later, people are still commenting, similarly, about how those same traditions still seem to be going out of style. But are they really – or are a lot of them just evolving like everything else, in life? Michigan is number one, in Christmas tree sales; thus, the tradition of getting a real tree for Christmas endures, here.

Christmas cards are still being sent. However, more are sent electronically, now, instead of hard copies that are handed out and/or mailed through the post office – what the younger generation nicknamed “snail mail”. And homemade cookies continue to be terrific gifts, putting a big smile on every receiver’s face. Plus, they’re still great, for making new friends!

IN CLOSING…

In honor of National Cookie Cutter Week AND today, being National Cookie Day, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Greenfield Village Cookies”; as seen in her self-published cookbook, The Original 200 Plus Secret Recipes© Book (Secret RecipesTM, Marysville, MI; June 1997, p. 13).

#NationalCookieCutterWeek

#NationalCookieDay

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

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

December observes, among other things… National Pear Month, National Write A Business Plan Month, Operation Santa Paws (which runs the 1st-24th), Root Vegetables and Exotic Fruits Month, Safe Toys and Gifts Month, Worldwide Food Service Safety Month, National Human Rights Month, and Universal Human Rights Month!

Today is also… National Dice Day and National Sock Day!

December 5th is… National Sacher Torte Day!

December 6th is… National Microwave Oven Day, National Gazpacho Day, and St. Nicholas Day!

December 7th is… National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, National Illinois Day, and National Cotton Candy Day! Today is also when Hanukkah/Chanukah Begins – which changes annually (December 7th-15th for 2023)!

December 8th is… National Brownie Day! Plus, as the second Friday in December (for 2023), it’s also… National Salesperson Day!

December 9th is… National Pastry Day!

December 10th is… Dewey Decimal System Day, National Lager Day, National Human Rights Day, and Nobel Prize Day!

#TGIM

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

…49 down and only 3 more to go!

Posted on

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Family Fables

Thank God it’s Monday and not just any Monday, as it’s also Cyber Monday. Thus, happy online shopping 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

#FamilyStoriesMonth

Family fables filled the day last Thursday, as we all gathered together to feast on roasted turkey and all the fixings. “Remember when…” seemed to start many conversations about past holiday gatherings; mostly regarding the food, people, and traditions.

I have a sign, hanging proudly, near my kitchen table that reads: “There’s a room in every home where the smallest events and biggest occasions become the stories of our lives.” That they do! By the way, my table is the same one (pictured below) that I grew up with in the 1960s and 1970s. Thus, a lot of memories are made and shared here.

The kitchen table seemed to be my family’s favorite gathering place to play games, eat, and talk. Conversations were usually about the current events happening in our lives, as well as making plans for our tomorrows; and creating what became, at least for me, some really great family stories.

In our household, every holiday and family festivity, even the smallest ones, were celebrated with food! Even before Mom became the Secret RecipesTM Detective, I always thought she was an amazing cook. But she was also a very good story teller (and writer).

#NationalLifeWritingMonth

Along with and related to Family Stories Month, November is also National Life Writing Month! According to NationalDayCalendar.com…

“The goal of National Life Writing Month is to encourage people to write about themselves and their life as they have experienced it thus far (it’s sometimes known as Memoir Writing Month.) Now is the time for you to dedicate yourself to writing personal and family stories, memories, traditions, significant events, and anything else you feel is worth adding to your life story.”

Mom wrote about her own life (and our family’s lives) for most of her life. Her devotion to journaling was inspired by the 1946, Warner Brothers’ movie, Devotion. Mom’s self-published book, called My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989), wasn’t just her life story but also our family’s saga.

Mom used to share highlights of our family’s happenings in everything she published. She always considered it to be just a natural thing to do, sharing her family’s news with her readers, because she felt like they were her family, too; and, at least in her generation (and previous ones), that’s what families did – keeping in touch, with their own family stories.

I’m grateful to know some of my own family’s fables from Mom’s stories, written in her many self-published books and newsletters. I found even more among the pictures and memorabilia in Mom’s scrapbooks and shoe boxes of old letters and greeting cards that she and Dad (and both of their moms) had saved from our relatives, over the decades.

I wish I could go back in time and record all the old, family stories I used to hear from my grandparents and their siblings whenever we gathered together for family celebrations. Before Mom passed away, while dealing with Dementia, she often reminisced about our ancestors from her old memories.

She couldn’t understand how she could remember her childhood so clearly, like it happened yesterday, but couldn’t remember who she saw or spoke to the previous day. If only I had written her stories down or, better yet, recorded our conversations. We always tend to think there’s time for that later – but then it’s gone in the blink of an eye.

Over 30 years ago, Mom wrote in one of her newsletters (Nov./Dec. 1992, 159th Issue) of how she and Dad planed, for a Christmas present to me and my four siblings, to make a cassette recording of the two of them talking about their life together and their most dearly remembered and cherished moments over the decades.

They also intended to discuss the memories they had of their grandparents, whom we (my siblings and I) never got a chance to know. There was also going to be other stories about our current family, as well as past generations, that we could pass on to our own future generations.

I so wish they had followed through with that gift. It would’ve been a priceless gift, at least to me, and probably to my own children and my grandson, too. Family is very important to us, as it was to both Mom and Dad. If only hindsight was foresight! I wish now, that I had recorded Mom’s stories about our family’s ancestry, during her last few years.

We always tend to think there’s time for that later…but then, in the blink of an eye, that time can suddenly be gone. I need to do something like that for my own children, before it’s too late! I’m grateful to at least have Mom’s published stories about our family and ancestors.

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

Excerpts by Gloria Pitzer, as seen in…

My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989)

[A FAMILY STORY]

THE EXPERIENCES we have encountered in building this family enterprise of ours, this cottage industry that has been our only source of income since August 1976, have occurred while distributing recipe secrets through radio broadcasting and newspaper exposure and our own publishing efforts.

If someone can benefit from our experiences, all the better! Mostly, though, this is just a story of our family – our five children, our grandchildren – and how we made a dent in the hard shell of the publishing industry… (p. 2)

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! (p. 12)

EVERY DAY, IN OUR OFFICE – and/or home, because it’s hard to separate the two, is the fact that things here are quite unpredictable! The layout of the newsletter is done – as I described it before – like a patchwork quilt, [as] are the books, at best, for there is not enough really ‘quiet’ time in which to carry out a major project.

Mostly, it is a day filled with pleasant interruptions – …the grandchildren dropping by to see us… or a radio station calling and asking me to fill in at the last minute! There are visits from the rest of the family, a phone call from my mother once in a while, when she needs somebody to talk to, and I am always a ready listener.

There are the discussions over how to handle the particular problem with a shipping order, or how a dish should be coming out that doesn’t! Countless things occur in this office (and/or home) that contribute to the overall picture. (p. 94)

THE FIVE CHILDREN are now able to at least recognize good food when they see it, if not be able to prepare it themselves, thanks to all of the help I enlisted from them in the kitchen as they were growing up…so we can always look forward to their being with us for holiday dinners, which is ‘bring-a-dish-to-pass’ style with this family. To have the whole family together is a very special occasion! (p. 116)

My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, p. 112)

REALISTIC SOLUTIONS

I applaud the straightforward impulse that says, ‘if someone needs help give it.’ – Gloria Pitzer

IT’S A SAD SITUATION but dealing with the problem and finding a way to solve it, to me, is better than ignoring it so that it can’t interfere with the harmony associated with the other experiences we encounter and even enjoy.

Part of dealing with problems in life is that we never fully understand why life is hard on us when we’re doing our best right along – to be the best we can be to do the best we can do. The shock of being hurt or rejected or deprived, drives us each to seek solace from a sympathetic listener.

Maybe, being a good listener is the best we can offer someone with a problem; and, maybe, that’s why God gave us two ears, but only one mouth, so we would listen twice as much as we talk!

The basic value system of today’s family has change so drastically since the 1940s and 1950s, when my generation was growing up… Today’s value system includes a majority of ‘part-time parents’, idealistic relationships; impersonal… attitude… in the guise of educators, news commentators, journalists and counselors.

All of what I had added to the recipes in my newsletter over the years was leaning in this very direction. I wanted to touch people with real issues about everyday concerns and simple feelings. I still do.

LAST THOUGHTS…

Every family has a story to tell – in fact, many stories. They can be pieced together from old pictures, cards, and letters. You can also find your ancestors and their stories through various online sources. It’s the perfect time to research and write about your family’s stories. It’s a great gift for the next generation to cherish, as well as to add to and pass on.

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

IN CLOSING…

In honor of Thursday, being National Mousse Day, and Friday, being National Pie Day, here’s Mom’s secret recipe for “Lemon Cream Mousse Pie”; as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 240). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition)].

#NationalMousseDay

#NationalPieDay

#CyberMonday

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

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

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

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

November observes, among other things… Banana Pudding Lovers Month, National Diabetes Month, National Fun with Fondue Month, National Gratitude Month, National Inspirational Role Models Month, National Native American Heritage Month, National Novel Writing Month, National Peanut Butter Lovers Month, National Pepper Month, National Pomegranate Month, National Raisin Bread Month, National Roasting Month, Spinach and Squash Month, Sweet Potato Awareness Month (See also February), and National Vegan Month!

Today is also… National Bavarian Cream Pie Day and National Craft Jerky Day!

Tomorrow is… National French Toast Day! Plus, as the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (for 2023), it’s also… National Day of Giving!

November  29th is… Electronic Greetings Day! Plus, as the Wednesday after Thanksgiving (for 2023), it’s also… National Package Protection Day!

Thursday, November 30th is… National Personal Space Day, National Mason Jar Day, and National Mississippi Day!

Friday kicks off the month of December, which celebrates (among other things)… National Pear Month, National Write A Business Plan Month, Operation Santa Paws (which runs the 1st-24th), Root Vegetables and Exotic Fruits Month, Safe Toys and Gifts Month, Worldwide Food Service Safety Month, National Human Rights Month, and Universal Human Rights Month!

December 1st is also… National Eat a Red Apple Day, National Day With(out) Art Day, and Rosa Parks Day! Plus, as the first Friday in December [for 2023], it’s also… Faux Fur Friday and National Bartender Day!

December 2nd is… National Fritters Day, National Mutt Day, and Special Education Day! Plus, as the first Saturday of the month [for 2023], it’s also… National Rhubarb Vodka Day and National Play Outside Day (which is always the first Saturday of EVERY month)!

Sunday, December 3rd is… National Roof Over Your Head Day! Plus, the first week of December also celebrates… National Cookie Cutter Week!

#TGIM

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

…48 down and only 4 more to go!

Posted on

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Easy As Pie

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

The most common denominators, among all the year’s celebrations, are people and food!

Pies are the most common choice of dessert with which to celebrate, especially during these November and December holidays. Pies can also be a savory main dish. What makes a pie a pie is that it has a (flaky) pastry crust. It is typically baked in a shallow, round pan called a “pie pan” (or “…dish” if you use Pyrex or other similar glass style).

[NOTE: New Yorkers call their pizzas “pies”, however, that doesn’t make them actual pies, since they’re not made with flaky pastry dough – nor are Eskimo Pies, Cottage Pies, and Shepherd’s Pies actual pies for the same reason.]

Did you know that about 186 million pies are sold in grocery stores, yearly. Around 50 million of those are pumpkin (equaling almost 27% of the sales). Those pies are mostly consumed in November and December, for the holidays. However, America’s number one selling pie (all year) is apple, coveting MORE than 27% of the total pie sales.

Apple pie is considered to be a national American symbol – along with baseball and Chevrolet (according to the once famous commercial for the latter). Incidentally, even though Michigan doesn’t produce the most apples – as I wrote, last month, in ‘Michigan Apples’…

…that honor goes to Washington, as we come in third, behind New York. However, I read somewhere that Michigan slices more apples than any other state – mostly for apple pies, which are an all-American staple.

Incidentally, Michigan’s unofficial “State Dessert Pie” is a toss-up between apple and cherry – depending on where you poll. The Traverse City area (and the northern Michigan region) is famous for its cherry crops (and wine)! However, apples are the more abundant crop throughout the state, over all.

According to Wikipedia.com, the first known dessert pie (as found in an ancient, written recipe) was invented by the Romans around 6000 BC, while the first savory (meat) pie may have originated in Egypt, before 2000 BC.

Apple and pumpkin pies (in that order) may be the top two favorites of American pie connoisseurs, but rounding out the top five preferences, according to the consensus I found in searching for Americans’ “top five pie choices”, were also cherry, pecan, and blueberry.

2018 Cherry Tree, Photo by Laura Emerich

I suppose any one is popular, depending on where you survey, as every state has their own favorite “State Pie”. Thus, I expanded my search to Americans’ top 10 favorite pies. From this, I also found key lime, rhubarb, strawberry, peach, and Mississippi mud pies were included on the favorites’ list – along with the top five I already mentioned above.

[NOTE: According to Marie Callender’s website, their most popular pie is Lemon Meringue. My youngest daughter works for a popular, south-eastern Michigan pie company. Their most popular pie (here) is their Michigan 4-Berry, which includes tart cherries, blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries.]

Incidentally, here’s a little tidbit of Michigan trivia – this state is considered the “cherry capitol” of the world, as 75% of the tart cherries (commonly used in pies) are produced right here, in Michigan! Utah and Washington come in at a distant second and third place, respectively.

Speaking of pies, here’s Mom’s editorial on “Pies and Pastries” for that chapter in her self-published cookbook, Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1982). That’s the cookbook, using my (1983) 3rd Edition, which I helped her to rewrite for the new digital generation.

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 237). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]

PIES AND PASTRIES

IN EARLY AMERICAN TAVERNS, our 1st restaurants in this country, pies were not beautiful nor fancy – but they were good. The custom of baking pies in round, shallow pans (rather than in deep square or oblong pans) originated here for reasons of economy, to stretch scarce food supplies.

Originally comprised of “left-overs”, the colonial American pie was not a dessert, but a side-dish. The colonial cook lined the pan with scraps of bread dough or Hardtack (see Index for my recipe) and filled it with scraps of meats, fruits, nuts, sauce and any other edible “left-overs”.

Fillings, meringue, toppings and garnishes make the easiest recipes look as if it took you all day. Embarrassed by a pie crust that is pale in color with the texture of a biscuit? Simple secrets for copying the restaurant recipes are no longer a mystery to even the beginning cook.

The experienced cook will probably wonder why they hadn’t thought of these tricks sooner. If fast food reminds you only of the franchise restaurants – look again, for these pie and pastry recipes will renew your interest and your enthusiasm in being creative in the kitchen by making pies you thought only a bakery could produce.

Some cooks still insist that “take-off crusts” give apple pies an even better flavor. Sliced apples are arranged in a pastry-lined pie pan, and the top crust is laid on top, but not sealed to the under crust.

When the pie is baked, the top crust is gently lifted off, sugar and spices are sprinkled over the filling and the top crust is carefully put back in place. In experimenting with this colonial technique, I discovered that my Crisco Crust recipe, in this chapter (see Index), works very well.

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

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

Both of my grandmas were expert pie bakers, as were their own moms, it’s no wonder Mom became one, as well. I can’t say I carried on the tradition, though. The idiom “easy as pie” certainly doesn’t refer to the ease of baking one, as that requires some time, effort, and skill (for it to be good). Thus, the consensus is that it must refer to the ease of eating one.

According to Wikipedia.com, the first recorded pie eating contest was supposedly a charity fundraising event, during 1878, in Toronto, Ontario (Canada). Pie baking contests have been going on for many, many decades, as well. Countless years ago, I remember my grandma (mom’s mom), telling me about winning 1st place in a pie-baking contest for her apple pie.

Another tidbit of pie trivia is that a 9-inch pie, with a raw fruit filling, will take about an hour or more to bake; while pre-cooked fillings take less time. Also taking less time to bake are the single-serve, (6-inch) mini pies, which take about half the time of the 9-inch ones.

Mom used to say that she relied on her “kitchen angel”, to help with her pie baking – but I believe she was just as talented, at making pies, as her mom was… and, in my biased opinion, Grandma was VERY talented!

MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Mixed Blessings – Recipes & Remedies (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; March 1984, p. 129)

[Reprinted from Gloria Pitzer’s self-published cookbook, Reliable Recipes For Reluctant Cooks (1983).]

OUR GUARDIAN ANGEL [aka: Kitchen Witch]

THERE IS AN OLD European custom that places an ornamental Dow, dressed like a witch, in the kitchen of every cook who wishes to see her culinary talents protected. I have, in my time, seen many an ugly kitchen witch and just as many cute witches.

But what do I know about a kitchen witch? I claim not to be superstitious. What I really need in MY kitchen is not a witch – but a guardian angel. It’s not that I am unfamiliar with the kitchen witch.

My cousin, Shirley Cohen, in Van Nuys [CA], sent me my first witch several years ago and the benevolent doll dangled comfortably from the ceiling over the sink for a long time, until her strings snapped, and she fell headlong into a pan of Pine-Sol scrub water and drowned!

She was promptly replaced by another that my friend, Flo, gave me. But her string also snapped one day without any warning, and she tumbled head over heels into a sink of soaking supper dishes.

The next witch in my kitchen (and I disregard that visit from my mother-in-law) was for a very brief duration! She fell off the wooden spoon she was riding and into a blueberry pie cooling on the drain board! So my present contentment is now confined to furthering the notion that kitchen witches are out and guardian angels are in!

Mine is special. I call on my guardian angel to keep me company whenever I’m in the kitchen alone, preparing a favorite dish. I talked to her! Well, maybe to somebody else it sounds like I’m talking to myself, but it’s like ‘thinking out loud’ – except that one makes you an idiot and the other a genius!

But sometimes you have to talk to somebody! Why not to somebody who is not apt to interrupt you as a family of teenagers are prone to do! Guardian angels make very good listeners. Sometimes that’s all it takes to make your burdens lighter!

LAST THOUGHTS…

#NationalGratitudeMonth

#InspirationalRoleModelsMonth

Thursday, as you gather around your turkey feast with family and/or friends, try not to let the commercialism of the other up-coming holidays interfere with your heart-felt thoughts of gratitude. As for me, I’m eternally grateful for everything that both of my parents gave me and taught me, throughout my life. They are my most inspirational role models.

IN CLOSING…

In honor of November, being National Peanut Butter Lovers Month, AND today, being National Peanut Butter Fudge Day, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for Peanut Butter Fudge (from her “Seize Chocolate Fudge” imitation); as seen in her self-published cookbook, Gloria Pitzer’s Mostly 4-Ingredient Recipes (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; April 1986, p. 69).

#PeanutButterLoversMonth

#PeanutButterFudgeDay

ADDITIONALLY, from page 7 of the same book, here’s Mom’s EASY-AS-PIE, no-bake, 4-ingredient, “Peanut Butter Pie” recipe!

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

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

November observes, among other things… Banana Pudding Lovers Month, Family Stories Month, Gluten-Free Diet Awareness Month, National Diabetes Month, National Fun with Fondue Month, National Life Writing Month, National Native American Heritage Month, National Novel Writing Month, National Pepper Month, National Pomegranate Month, National Raisin Bread Month, National Roasting Month, Spinach and Squash Month, Sweet Potato Awareness Month (See also February), and National Vegan Month!

This week also observes… National Deal Week, which starts the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (22nd-28th for 2023). Plus, it’s also… National Game & Puzzle Week and Better Conversation Week.

Today is also… National Child’s Day!

Tomorrow is… National Gingerbread Cookie Day and National Stuffing Day!

Wednesday, November 22nd is… National Cranberry Relish Day! Plus, as the day before Thanksgiving (for 2023), it’s also… Tie One On Day and National Jukebox Day!

November 23rd is… National Cashew Day, National Eat a Cranberry Day, and National Espresso Day! Plus, as the fourth Thursday in November (for 2023), it’s also… Thanksgiving Day!

November 24th is… National Sardines Day! Plus, as the day after Thanksgiving (2023), it’s also… National Day of Listening, National Native American Heritage Day, National Black Friday, National Buy Nothing Day, and National Maize Day!

November 25th is… National Play Day with Dad, National Parfait Day, and Shopping Reminder Day! Plus, as the Saturday after Thanksgiving (2023), it’s also… National Small Business Saturday!

Sunday, November 26th is… National Cake Day!

#TGIM

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

…47 down and 5 to go!

Posted on

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Kindness Is Contagious

Thank God it’s Monday once again, thus, happy Monday to all! I continually 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

#WorldKindnessDay

#WorldKindnessWeek

November is a fantastic time of year. It’s special in so many ways – especially in connection with my memories of Mom. Besides it being… Family Stories Month, National Gratitude Month, National Inspirational Role Models Month, National Life Writing Month, and National Novel Writing Month – it’s also… National Young Reader’s Week!

Moreover, TODAY is World Kindness Day and this whole week is also World Kindness Week! Mom often wrote about all of these things in her syndicated columns and “Food-for-Thought” articles, which she always patchworked into her cookbooks and newsletters, between all of her copycat recipes and household hints.

I think being kind is another one of those observances we should also celebrate daily. We’ve been taught, since we were little, the “Golden Rule” – being kind to each other. Kindness is contagious and it also begets more kindness.

According to Wikipedia’s interpretation of Fulghum’s All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, the author “explains how the world would be improved if adults adhered to the same basic rules as children, i.e. sharing, being kind to one another, cleaning up after themselves, and living ‘a balanced life’ of work, play, and learning.”

It’s a shame that the simple act of being kind isn’t normal behavior for everyone. Why is being kind forgotten by so many after they leave kindergarten? Bullies seem to start blooming, like bad weeds, as early as adolescence. Like Mom, I often wonder, “Why can’t we, all, get along?”

My parents’ kindness is only a small example of how they were inspirational role models to me. I’m very grateful that my ancestry is full of infectiously kind people who inspired it in their offsprings and others. I’m proud to do the same, inspiring kindness in my own children, as well.

‘No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.’ – Aesop

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Mixed Blessings – Recipes & Remedies (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; March 1984, p.15)

KITCHEN DESIGN

COOKING IS ONE OF THOSE personal accomplishments that afford us all the opportunity to express ‘talent’. We love being approved of. In fact, we eat it up! It’s the little pat on the back that gives us the incentive to continue trying. And where else, but in the kitchen, can you try to win approval with such satisfying results!

I’m very partial to my kitchen because it is the one place in our home where I feel the most comfortable! Whether I’m there alone, working on a recipe, or sitting at my desk, looking for inspiration on a new article I’m writing, or sharing a cup of coffee with a neighbor or a friend, who’s dropped by – it’s my favorite room!

I have a desk in the kitchen right next to the [glass] door-wall that overlooks the yard. Our daughter, Debbie, and our son-in-law, Jim, gave me a flowering Crab [Apple] tree last Mother’s Day, which they planted right in the middle of the yard. I can enjoy it’s flowers each spring; also the very long bare, red branches during the autumn and it’s snow-covered limbs all winter.

It’s my sundial, by which I observe the seasons and the changes involved with this natural wonder. While the Scotch pines around this little tree never change, never go through the transition of bud to blossom to barren branches and then buds again, I can see the contrasts that are parallel to our own personal predicaments.

Some things, places – and yes, even people – never seem to change, while others go through budding and blossoming and withering away, only to come right back to life again in the sunshine of human kindness as does my tree in the sunshine of the seasons.

I’ve spent my entire life being a writer. It’s not what I do, but what I am. I love every minute of it, and by writing about what I have come to know best – cooking – it occurs to me that having a desk in my kitchen was awfully appropriate.

Mind you, I’m not all that crazy about cooking; by default rather than decision, I have learned more about it than any other skill I’ve attempted.

‘We should be caring about the food for thought that can nourish our fragile human spirit feeding our famous affections as we feed our physical bodies. The keep-your-distance, look-out-four-yourself, don’t-get-me-involved emotional menu that has fed our unfeeling society for many years, desperately needs to be sweetened with the milk of human kindness and the yeast of understanding.’ – Gloria Pitzer, Gloria Pitzer’s Mixed Blessings – Recipes & Remedies (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; March 1984, p.116)]

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. 92)

PEOPLE EXPECT…

WHENEVER SOMEBODY HAS MENTIONED to me that they are surprised that the newsletter or the recipe books include non-recipe material, I usually replied, ‘I’m surprised that you’re surprised!’ Food for the table and food for thought should, and often do, go hand-in-hand.

In our publications there will always be room for the kind of material that is humorous and uplifting – as the case may be. I respond easily to the unusual, if it has a beneficial influence on others and find it a joy to share such information.

The response is always encouraging. I am still hearing good comments on the little book we sent out in the fall of 1988, entitled ‘Good Thoughts And Things To Smile About’, which we did not sell, but GAVE to those people we felt we should express appreciation for their kindness and attention either to our work or to our family.

The little acts of overcoming the annoyance, impatience, indifference, apathy, that sometimes seem to be so much a part of our day – can make an enormous difference in the quality of our lives.

This may not always seem easy, but each false tendency can be detected and rejected because it is wholly without foundation. Genuine love, caring, alertness and patience replace annoyance, indifference, apathy and impatience.

Kindness helps others feel valued. Showing even the smallest amount of kindness can go a long way. Many believe that acts of kindness can potentially change lives – not only the lives of the receivers, but also those of the givers, and in more ways than one!

Being kind is renowned to have physical and mental health benefits for, both, givers and receivers. It’s an essential part of an evolving and growing society, bridging divides like race, religion, gender – even politics. It empowers personal energy and self-esteem, making us happier, which is good for our hearts; thereby, helping us to live longer.

‘Greatness is measured by kindness… real worth is measured by consideration and tolerance of others.’ – B.C. Forbes

EVEN MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Mixed Blessings – Recipes & Remedies (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; March 1984, p. 245)

GIVE ME A REASON…

WE LIVE EACH DAY as if we were truly immortal. Of course it gives us the tendency to put off so many little kindnesses, so many little considerations, so many compliments to which those we care about are entitled.

So much of what we should do, but don’t, is due to our having so many tomorrows to foolishly count on, when our now’s are what really matter! We can talk about the ‘if-only’s’ until we’re blue in the face but were not going to change a thing.

It’s just daydreaming in reverse! I would rather spend my daydreams on the ‘what-can-be’ than on the ‘if-only’, for in those ‘what-can-be’s’ my fondest hopes come true. Dreams don’t always coincide with reality, nor do they always prove to be practical, but hopes do!

Hopes our wishes we sometimes call faith. It’s not the mortal ego that manufactures self-serving, self-will, but rather the faith that the heart creates in order to keep from breaking. The secret of seeing our hopes realized is not in eliminating our troubles, but in out-growing them.

Bering a burden is easier when we do it willingly – but it’s even lighter when there are two to share the load. The least we can do is promise ourselves we’ll try, considering that an ‘I’ll try’ sure beats ‘I can’t’, any day of the week.

I’m always amazed at how much inner strength I can find in my weakest moments if somebody is there to encourage me to do better, to want to BE better than I’ve been. For the first several years that we were married, Paul found it very difficult to be encouraging, as if he was supposed to be a kind of disciplinarian, in order to reinforce his position as the head of the house, the breadwinner, the stronger of the two of us.

I see now that it was the way he was brought up – not just being influenced by his family, but by the attitudes of the 1940s and 1950s, when women were not supposed to be equal to men nor, heaven forbid, superior in any way.

The only ingredient that was missing from what I thought could be an otherwise semi-perfect union between us was a sense of humor, seasoned lightly with a sense of forgiveness. If he could be satisfied with my not being perfect, then surely I could accept him for the same reasons. There was an awful lot of false pride being swallowed in those days.

LAST THOUGHTS…

No doubt – being kind changes lives, for the better. It doesn’t cost anything and it has a positive ripple effect that encourages receivers to pay it forward, becoming givers, as well. You can read about a lot of the great health benefits that kindness generates at RandomActsOfKindness.org – The Science Of Kindness.

IN CLOSING…

In honor of Thursday, being National Fast Food Day, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Loose Hamburger, like National Coney Island”; as seen in her self-published cookbook, The Original 200 Plus Secret Recipes© Book (Secret RecipesTM, Marysville, MI; June 1997, p. 42).

#NationalFastFoodDay

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

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

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

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

November observes, among other things… Banana Pudding Lovers Month, Family Stories Month, Gluten-Free Diet Awareness Month, National Diabetes Month, National Fun with Fondue Month, National Gratitude Month, National Inspirational Role Models Month, National Life Writing Month, National Native American Heritage Month, National Peanut Butter Lovers Month, National Pepper Month, National Pomegranate Month, National Raisin Bread Month, National Roasting Month, Spinach and Squash Month, Sweet Potato Awareness Month (See also February), and National Vegan Month!

Plus, this week is also…  Dear Santa Letter Week, which is always the second week of November.

Today is also… National Indian Pudding Day!

Tomorrow is… National Family PJ Day, National Pickle Day, and National Spicy Guacamole Day!

November 15th is… National Bundt (Pan) Day, National Philanthropy Day, National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day, National Spicy Hermit Cookie Day, National Raisin Bran Cereal Day, and America Recycles Day! Plus, as the Wednesday of American Education Week (for 2023), which is always the week before Thanksgiving, it’s also… National Educational Support Professionals Day!

November 16th is… National Button Day and National Indiana Day! Plus, as the third Thursday of November (for 2023), it’s also… the Great American Smoke-Out!

November 17th is… National Baklava Day, National Take A Hike Day, National Homemade Bread Day!

November 18th is… National Vichyssoise Day!

November 19th is… National Carbonated Beverage With Caffeine Day! Plus, as the start of the week of Thanksgiving, it’s also… National Game & Puzzle Week and Better Conversation Week (19th–25th for 2023).

#TGIM

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

…46 down and 6 to go!

Posted on

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Inspirations and Gratitude

Happy November and Thank God Its Monday again. Thus, happy Monday to everyone! I really look forward to Mondays, as they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with all of you!

#TheRecipeDetective

#NationalGratitudeMonth

#InspirationalRoleModelsMonth

November is, among other things, National Gratitude Month and National Inspirational Role Models Month. I am personally grateful that Mom was such an inspirational role model to me. Everyone should have a good example to follow. That also means that some of us need to BE good examples, too.

In previous blog posts, I’ve often written about how Mom inspired me – as a writer, artist, crafter, homemaker, cook, mother, and so on. A variety of artistic and creative skills seem to run in my family, particularly from Mom’s side. If there is such a thing as an “artistic gene”, I’m very grateful that my family and I are fortunate to have it.

‘MY MOTHER IS ANOTHER good example I’ve followed. Her best gift, and greatest asset, is that she’s always been a patient listener and a wise advisor. She was absolutely loyal to my father… The world could turn [its] back on her children, but she would always be there for [us] when we needed her. She’s given me an example that’s going to be tough to equal.’ – Gloria Pitzer, This is not a Cook Book (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1986, p. 8)

#FamilyStoriesMonth

#NationalLifeWritingMonth

#NationalNovelWritingMonth

#NationalAuthorsDay

November also celebrates… Family Stories Month, National Life Writing Month, and National Novel Writing Month – among other things. Wednesday, the 1st, was also… National Authors’ Day!

These are all things Mom would celebrate, herself; just as these are all things that also celebrate her – as a mom, as well as being the ORIGINAL Secret Recipes DetectiveTM. Mom was always grateful for the opportunities she was given to inspire others in the kitchen, as well as in writing.

‘I LOVE THE ATTITUDE of George Burns, who was always an inspiration to everyone, of every age! Doing what we like best, whether we succeed or not, is what keeps us going and keeps us happy. I cannot imagine doing something badly that I enjoy doing. So, of course, we do our best at something we enjoy, because that is part of the satisfaction of doing it – seeing the good that results from our efforts.’ – Gloria Pitzer, My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, p. 94)

Writing was probably the biggest love of Mom’s life (other than Dad and us kids, of course). The authoring seed was planted in Mom’s soul decades before her Secret RecipesTM business began. The seed bloomed into a legacy when she became the “Secret Recipes DetectiveTM”.

By the way, it was her growing fan base from Bob Allison’s “Ask Your Neighbor” radio show (in the Detroit area), in the 1970s, who first dubbed Mom with the afore mentioned title. Mom loved it! She definitely stood out, among all the Betty Crockers of that era.

‘I’ve had so many good examples to follow – I’ll try to be one, myself, to somebody else.’ – Gloria Pitzer, This is not a Cook Book… (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1986, p. 8)

Mom loved talking about how writing made, for her, a worthwhile living; but, she always added, it especially made living worthwhile. She loved helping others find that joy in recipes and writing, too. Mom was often asked about how Secret RecipesTM began.

I’ve shared several times about how Mom’s love affair with writing began in 1946, at the age of 10, when she saw the Warner Brother’s movie, Devotion. That’s when she began journaling, daily (for over 70 years). Like I’ve said before, that’s real DEVOTION! She aspired to write the great American novel, as any young writer does.

But fate took her writing talents in a different direction, authoring a cookbook every year for 40 years and a monthly newsletter for 27 years. It’s not as easy an endeavor as it may seem. Like blogging, it requires a regular production schedule and a long-time commitment. For success and longevity, it also entails a lot of devotion and promotion.

In promoting her business and products, Mom was inspired by “the world’s most successful salesman”, at that time (in the 1970s), who was a Chevrolet salesman from the Detroit area…

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. 43)

MARKETING INSPIRATION

TO MAKE THE MIMEOGRAPH pay for itself, I even printed up my own business cards on it, using dime-store construction paper and then cutting the cards apart with scissors until I had neat little stacks of about 50 [each] and a total of 200 or 300 cards.

These I distributed at the mall whenever and wherever we might be in one. Paul didn’t know I was doing this, at first, either, or he would’ve disapproved. It was unprofessional and risky, but I thought anything was worth a try and what I could do ‘quietly’ until I could prove it was either a mistake or benefit, would have to be my little secret.

Well, actually, the kids were a part of that secret too. I had heard an interview on TV or radio with ‘the world’s most successful salesman’, who was a Chevrolet salesman in Detroit and who believed heartily in business cards, placing them everywhere and anywhere that it was allowed.

From his story, I found it was easy to drop my card into the pocket of a bathrobe in the ladies’ wear [areas] in the department stores and in the purses and tote bags, on public phone booth stands, [in] restaurant restrooms, even in cookbooks in the bookstores.

From these, you’d be surprised, we DID hear from people who wanted to know about my recipes, which was the first experience I had with public response. What I had at that time was a little book entitled ‘The Better Cookers Cookbook’ [1973], as opposed to our current popular book, ‘…Better Cookery…’ [1982].

…I fondly remember going to the mall with Mom and my sisters, often, to distribute her business cards, while shopping; which was usually followed by lunch in Hudson’s dining room. Mom loved to taste-test their newest menu offerings and write reviews about them, developing her own imitations of them, at home. And I loved to help her!

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

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

The Better Cookery Cookbook (1982), mentioned above, is the one I helped Mom rewrite (using her 1983, 3rd edition) for a new digital audience. The project began in 2015 and took a couple years to complete. It was re-titled, Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective, and published by Balboa Press (Jan. 2018), just before she passed away.

Aside from being one, herself, Mom had many inspirational role models. Besides her own mother and mother-in-law (and the Bronte sisters), there were also famous comedians, actresses, and authors such as Carol Burnette, Lucille Ball, Erma Bombeck, Carol Duvall, Elsie Masterton, Peg Bracken, and Irma Rombauer, who inspired her.

Mom designed her newsletters (and cookbooks) like warm, comfortable quilts; combining her original recipes, for her copycat cookery concept of “Eating Out At Home”, with her humoristic cartoons, household and gardening hints, cooking tips and tricks, “Food for Thought” ideas, and her previously syndicated, “No Laughing Matter” columns.

All of her creations were uniquely put together, with love and devotion, producing functional works of art; as Mom wanted them to be just as “at home” on the coffee table as they were on the kitchen counter. There was nothing else like it, on the market, back then.

MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Secret RecipesTM Newsletter, Issue #218 (Secret RecipesTM, Marysville, MI; November 2000, p. 2)

GRATEFUL FOR THE STRUGGLES

SOMETIMES, JUST FOR A moment – other times, for much longer. Nonetheless, we have to deal with each struggle as it arises. We don’t analyze what’s going on. We don’t blame other people for our pain. We don’t justify our fears, today, by regretting what took place in the past.

We’re dealing with our attitude right now – right where we are, in the present moment. We don’t worry about what will or won’t occur in the future. We are capable of making some good decisions when we are called on to make them. Whether we did or not in the past is in the past.

We’re not the same person, today, we were then. We’re not even the same person we were yesterday, but we are learning lessons all of the time. Melody Beattie [who wrote ‘The Language of Letting Go’] says [in her book], ‘Our past is a series of lessons that advance us to higher levels of living and of loving.’

Among other things, Mom was always grateful for her fans – her readers & radio show listeners – who kept her inspired with their endless requests to find the “secrets” to making this dish or that grocery product at home (and, preferably, at a lesser cost.)

Mom was also very grateful to all the media sources (newspapers and magazines, as well as radio and TV talk shows) that interviewed her and wrote and talked about her new twist on recipes in the food industry, especially in the “fast food” area.

LAST THOUGHTS…

Every day we have an opportunity to be an inspiration to someone else. Something else Mom inspired in me is my passion to continually learn new things. Besides being grateful for something every day, Mom would also promote learning something new every day.

From that, I’ve determined, every day is a defining moment for every one of us. Every day experience, faith and knowledge, all together, influence our personal evolutions.

IN CLOSING…

In honor of November, being Banana Pudding Lovers Month, here are TWO of Mom’s secret recipes for “Pistachio Pudding Cake” and “Pistachio Pudding Frosting” that can be easily “Pitzerized” into “Banana Pudding Cake And Frosting”.

Both recipes are from her self-published cookbook, Gloria Pitzer’s Mostly 4-Ingredient Recipes (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; April 1986, p. 67). I hope they inspire you to recreate in your kitchen!

#BananaPuddingLoversMonth

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

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

November’s month-long, food-related celebrations include… Gluten-Free Diet Awareness Month, National Diabetes Month, National Fun with Fondue Month, National Peanut Butter Lovers Month, National Pepper Month, National Pomegranate Month, National Raisin Bread Month, National Roasting Month, Spinach and Squash Month, Sweet Potato Awareness Month (which is also in February), and National Vegan Month!

Today is also… National Nachos Day!

Tomorrow is… National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day!

Wednesday, November 8th, is… National Cappuccino Day, National Harvey Wallbanger Day, and National Parents As Teachers Day! 

Thursday, November 9th, is… National Scrapple Day and National Louisiana Day!

Friday, November 10th, is… U.S. Marine Corps Birthday, National Forget-Me-Not Day, and National Vanilla Cupcake Day!

Saturday, November 11th, is… National Sundae Day and Veterans Day!

Sunday, November 12th, is… National French Dip Day, National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day, and National Chicken Soup for the Soul Day! As the start of the week of November 13th (12th-18th for 2023), it’s… World Kindness Week.

Plus, as the beginning of the second week in November, Sunday kicks off… Dear Santa Letter Week and National Young Reader’s Week. Additionally, as the week before the week of Thanksgiving (12th-18th for 2023), it’s also the start of… National Book Award Week.

#TGIM

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

…41 down and 7 to go!

 

Posted on

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Happy Halloween Eve

#ThankGodItsMonday, again. Thus, #HappyMonday to all! 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 you!

#TheRecipeDetective

We’re almost at the end of October. Today’s Halloween Eve (aka: Devil’s Night) and tomorrow, Halloween will be kicking off October’s farewell party. Incidentally, October is also Halloween Safety Month.

Whether you celebrate Halloween by trick-or-treating through a neighborhood or hosting or attending a party – who doesn’t love dressing up and pretending to be someone (or something) else for one day/night? It brings out the kid in us.

There was a time when Halloween was revered as a demonic day. Just like every other holiday, it seems, we’ve Americanized it – into a celebration of imagination; embracing the scariness and thrills of old folklore stories. It’s probably the most creative holiday.

Halloween has become such a star of the fall celebrations, it’s surpassed Thanksgiving’s fame. You could say it’s probably just as popular as Christmas is among the winter celebrations. Retail marketing has launched many campaigns making it a fun (and profitable) celebration. Even Hollywood cashes in on the Americanized spirit of Halloween.

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 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!

Communities and local media sources encouraged families to take the scariness out of what was once known as “All Hallows Eve”. Americanizing the holiday put the focus on FUN, with activities and treats for everyone; while still enjoying bonfires and costumes, but as parties to strengthen families and community ties – not to ward off evil spirits.

By the 20th century, parades, pumpkin festivals, pumpkin-carving events, scary movies, corn mazes, haunted houses, and neighborhood “trick-or-treating” were incorporated into the mix of fun (and frightening) activities, for celebrating Halloween.

The 21st century added “Trunk-or-Treating” parking lot gatherings for safe and fun community events geared toward the family. Simultaneously, it took haunted houses to a whole new level of bone-chilling thrills and terror, for those who like to indulge. Check out the Detroit area’s own Eloise Asylum, voted #5 in the country and #1 in the state.

[NOTE: To learn more about the origins of Halloween and how it came to be what we celebrate now, check out History.com.]

MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Food For Thought, a syndicated column by Gloria Pitzer [circa 1973]

EVERYDAY IS HALLOWEEN AROUND HERE!

WHERE WE LIVE, in ‘Halloween Heights’, trick-or-treat is nothing to get excited about. I mean, explaining mischief to the kids in this neighborhood is like trying to explain sex to Dr. Reuben. With the kids on our block, Halloween is a way of life; religiously observed on any day that has the letter ‘Y’ in it!

Last year, we rushed out and bought 100 pieces of penny candy. A lot of good that did! The first kid who rang our doorbell wanted to borrow a cup of bullets. The year before that, nobody rang the doorbell… Somebody had stolen it.

And to think that when we first moved into this neighborhood, from the ‘big city’ 8 years ago; things were so dull all we had to look forward to was our dentist appointments. We couldn’t wait until some families moved in, with children for ours to play with.

Imagine our surprise when we got our wish but learned that those kids gave incentive lectures to pickpockets. They carry their BB guns around in violin cases. Even their sweatshirts are inscribed with slogans like ‘Boris Karloff is a SISSY!’ ‘The mafia wants to join you!’ And… ‘Do unto others before they do it unto you!’

Halloween to these kids is about as exciting as Girl Scout Thinking Day is to the Godfather. They don’t have time to fool around with child’s play. At least, not until they’ve finished putting up all of their signs, reading: ‘KEEP ON THE GRASS!’

I don’t understand them at all. Halloween used to be a marvelous time for masquerading and mischief when our parents would take us to the Five-and-Dime to select a costume and warn us not to fall for the first ugly face we see.

The kind of costumes we used to wear for trick-or-treat would completely turn off today’s kids. After all, they dress that way for school every day. There was always something so wonderfully scary about when we were kids. The kids in this neighborhood aren’t scared by anything.

They aren’t afraid of their parents. They aren’t afraid of the police. They’d probably run Godzilla out of town if they had the chance! For the kids in this neighborhood, doing a good deed is making a contribution in your name to local crime statistics.

Be careful! If one of them ever asks you for the time, it means they want your watch! Listen! Because of the kids in this neighborhood, my Avon lady sends me my order BY MAIL!

Remember how kids used to swallow goldfish as a teenage prank? Well, around here the kids swallow piranhas! Fortunately, though, they haven’t bothered me much. Somebody told them the syndicate has a contract on me – and they didn’t realize that it meant my column was being carried in newspapers across the country.

It wouldn’t do any good to pass out candy to these kids, this Halloween. By the time they ring the bell, we look through the peephole, unfasten the lock, slide back the bolt, unhook the chain, leash-up the German shepherd, disconnect the burglar alarm, and open the door – it would be Thanksgiving!

LAST THOUGHTS…

In a few weeks (the 23rd), it’ll be Thanksgiving. Two weeks after that, is the start of Hanukkah (Dec. 7-15, for 2023); which is followed, in another two weeks, by the Winter Solstice and Yule observations (on Dec. 21st). Those are quickly ensued by the Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s celebrations, as well.

Blink your eyes and suddenly the Super Bowl festivities will be upon us, followed quickly by Fat Tuesday (aka: Mardi Gras) and Valentine’s Day, a few days later. Before you know it, we’ll also be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, which is closely followed by the celebration of the spring equinox.

The one common denominator in almost all of these great celebrations is food!

IN CLOSING…

In honor of this still being October and National Dessert Month, as well as National Apple Month, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Apple Square Pan Pie” [inspired by Marie Calender’s (Los Angeles, CA)]; as seen in her self-published cookbook, The Copycat Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; April 1988, p. 75).

[NOTES: Mom’s Butter Crust recipe, mentioned in this recipe, can be found on the Recipes tab of this website. Additionally, I first shared this recipe, in 2020, on Kathy Keene’s ‘Good Neighbor’ show, which used to air on WHBY (Appleton, WI), before she retired.]

#NationalAppleMonth

#NationalDessertMonth

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

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

October is still observing… Eat Better & Eat Together Month, German-American Heritage Month, Italian-American Heritage Month, National Applejack Month, National Bake and Decorate Month, National Chili Month, National Cookie Month, National Fire Prevention Month, National Book Month, National Cookbook Month…

#NationalBookMonth

#NationalCookbookMonth

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

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

…National Kitchen & Bath Month, National Pasta Month, National Pickled Peppers Month, National Pizza Month, National Popcorn Poppin’ Month, National Pork Month, National Pretzel Month, National Sausage Month, National Seafood Month, National Women’s Small Business Month, National Work and Family Month…

#WomensSmallBusinessMonth

#WorkAndFamilyMonth

…Pear and Pineapple Month, Polish American Heritage Month, Positive Attitude Month, Rhubarb Month, Self-Promotion Month, Spinach Lovers Month, Tackling Hunger Month, and Vegetarian Month – and so much more!

Today is also… National Candy Corn Day!

Tomorrow is also… National Caramel Apple Day. Plus, it’s still National Caramel Month AND National Apple Month. In honor of all three, here’s a bonus, free recipe, for your Halloween treat – Mom’s imitation of “Caramel Apples” like we had at Disney World (Los Angeles, CA); as seen in her self-published cookbook, Top Secret Recipes Al’a Carte (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Sept. 1979, p. 11).

#CaramelAppleDay

#NationalCaramelMonth

#NationalAppleMonth

November 1st is… National Authors’ Day, National Calzone Day, National Cinnamon Day, National Deep Fried Clams Day, National  Cook For Your Pets Day, and National Vinegar Day! Plus, as the first Wednesday in November (for 2023), it’s also… National Stress Awareness Day! Additionally, it’s the start of… National Fig Week, which is always November 1st-7th.

#NationalAuthorsDay

November 2nd is… National Deviled Egg Day and National Ohio Day! Plus, as the first Thursday in November (for 2023), it’s also… National Men Make Dinner Day (must cook… no BBQ allowed!)

November 3rd is… National Housewife’s Day and National Sandwich Day! Plus, as the first Friday in November (for 2023), it’s also… National Jersey Friday!

#NationalHousewifesDay

November 4th is… National Chicken Lady Day and National Candy Day! Plus, as the first Saturday in November (for 2023), it’s also… National Bison Day and National Play Outside Day, which is always the first Saturday of EVERY month!

November 5th is… National Doughnut Day! Plus, as the first Sunday in November (for 2023)… Daylight Saving Time Ends and Standard Time resumes.

#TGIM

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

…44 down and 8 to go!

Posted on

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – TV Talk Shows

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

#TheRecipeDetective

Along with October being, in relation to Mom, National Women’s Small Business Month, National Work and Family Month, Positive Attitude Month, Self-Promotion Month, National Book Month, and National Cookbook Month, among many other things; TODAY is National TV Talk Show Host Day (and Johnny Carson’s birthday).

#TVTalkShowHostDay

Mom found much success, promoting her recipes on radio talk shows, first (and last). During her last 20 years in business, that was all in which she indulged, for promoting her latest imitations. But it was the TV talk shows, on which she appeared, during her first 20 years in business, that catapulted her unique recipes nationally and worldwide.

Throughout the first two decades of being the Recipe DetectiveTM, Mom demonstrated her talents for imitating some of our favorite “junk foods” – like KFC’s fried chicken, Oreo cookies, Hostess Twinkies, Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies, and more – on national TV talk shows like the Phil Donahue Show, ABC’s Home Show, CNN News, and PM Magazine.

The first television talk show, on which Mom appeared to discuss her innovative recipe ideas, was a Detroit program called A.M. Detroit, hosted by Dennis Wholley [WXYZ-TV, Channel 7 (Detroit, MI)]. That episode was recorded on November 14, 1974 (my 10th birthday).

From that appearance, Mom was contacted to be interviewed on New Year’s Day (1975) by Bob Hines on CKLW-TV, Channel 9 [Windsor, Ontario (Canada)]. Later, on Christmas Eve (1976), she was also interviewed, at our home in Algonac, by Jack McCarthy of WXYZ-TV, Channel 7 (Detroit, MI).

During the 1980-1981 winter season, while we were living in St. Clair, Mom had another at-home-interview – this time with PM Magazine’s Detroit TV crew. She also appeared on Detroit’s Noon News show, on WDIV-TV, Channel 4 (Detroit, MI) that same winter. Those appearances brought her additional media attention and her fan base quickly and steadily grew.

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p.296)

[IN THE BEGINNING]

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. But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to at least try to have my own publication.

It was something I had always wanted to do. I couldn’t tell Paul. I knew that! He would have been far too practical to have approved of my starting my own paper, so I enlisted the help of our children. I was taking in ironing at the time, at $5 a basket, and sometimes earned as much as $50 a week.

The money was supposed to supplement Paul’s paycheck, which – as soon as we found could make ends meet – we discovered somebody had moved the ends. So, I took what money I could from the ironing earnings and bought a mimeograph. I kept it in a big box in the utility room under my sewing table.

Paul would hardly pay attention to what I wanted him to think was only sewing paraphernalia. For nine months, I mimeograph, assembled and mailed out about 100 copies a month of my newsletter. Bill and Mike helped assemble it and Debbie help me test the recipes and address the copies.

I don’t know how we ever kept it from Paul for that long, but I couldn’t tell him what I was doing until I could assure him that I could make a profit. All I was doing was breaking even. Then Dennis Wholley, at Channel 7 in Detroit, called and said somebody had sent him a copy of my newsletter.

He was tickled with the crazy names I gave the recipes and the home-spun format. He wanted the entire family to be his guests on his ‘A.M. Detroit’ show on November 14 [1974] – which was also our Laura’s birthday.

I couldn’t keep it from Paul any longer, because I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to promote the paper on a popular local television show. He took it quite well, considering the state of shock he must have been in at my announcement.

But we took all 5 of the kids with us across town, in a blizzard yet, with Laura having a bout of carsickness during the hour’s drive there. And, during that experience, we met Coleman Young, the recently elected mayor of Detroit, who was also a guest on the show.

All of Pearl Beach must have been tuned into ‘A.M. Detroit’ that morning, with half of the population gathered at the Pearl Beach post office, watching the portable set there. It brought us many new orders for our newsletter, and it wasn’t long before CKLW’s Bob Heinz asked us to appear on his show on New Year’s Day.

We, again, took the family [to Detroit and] over to Windsor, Ontario – across the Detroit River – for another exciting experience and hundreds of letters that followed, wanting to subscribe to the newsletter.

By that time, Paul was giving me every evening of his time when he came home from his own job at the sign company, plus all the weekends just to fill the orders. My list of ‘Secret Recipes’ had grown to 200 and we offered them, on 4 x 6” cards [that I printed on my mimeograph], at $.25 each or 5 for a dollar.

It was quite a packaging process to fill the combinations of orders, so I put all those recipes into a book. It was going to be our only book on the subject, since most of the recipes were ‘fast foods’ – [as it was considered a ‘fad’ that wouldn’t last long] but, as it turned out, it was only the 1st of a series of, then, 5 books.

After ‘Book One’ took off and became a very good seller, I did a Bicentennial American Cookery book, as a limited edition, and was pleased when the Henry Ford Library at Greenfield Village (in Dearborn, Michigan) ordered copies for their bicentennial collection. That was July 1976…

Nevertheless, it was her FIRST appearance on “The Phil Donahue Show” (July 7, 1981) that brought her world-wide attention. Our small family business was inundated with over a million letters requesting her free recipes and ordering information for her books and newsletters.

For months, following Mom’s 1981 appearance on the Donahue Show, the episode re-aired around the country and around the world and we were slammed with mail. Our small, family operation had to bring in a lot of extra help, including some of my high school friends, to assist with the extra mailings we had to prepare and send out.

Mom’s friend and radio talk show host, Dick Syatt [RKO-Radio (Boston, MA)], once told her, in regard to the tremendous response we received from that Donahue Show episode and the diabolical toll it took on our family: “Hell is God giving you what you thought you wanted!”

We mailed out hundreds of thousands of Mom’s “free recipes and product-ordering information” sheets, in exchange for the hundreds of thousands of self-addressed stamped envelopes that poured in, per the offer announced on the show. We also were mailing out thousands more newsletter issues, from all of the new subscriptions that soon followed.

As chaotic as it was, in the end, Mom recognized that the Donahue Show opened a lot of doors for her that might never have happened, otherwise. It brought her unique style of “copycat cookery” to the attention of MILLIONS of new eyes, worldwide, fairly quickly (and that was before household internet). She felt very fortunate and grateful.

Mom’s small, family business boomed but the experience nearly crushed our household and the cottage-style dining room table operation of Secret RecipesTM. All parties involved eventually survived. However, Mom swore she’d never do another national TV show again.

Nevertheless, in February 1988, Mom appeared on ABC’s Home Show with host, Rob Weller; as it was set up by her friend, Carol Duvall, the famous crafter. The show surprised Mom, with having her meet Wally Amos, in-person, during the episode! Her SECOND appearance on the Home Show was three years later, on March 19, 1991.

Over 33 years ago (Memorial Day, 1990), a CNN News crew came out to our St. Clair home to record an interview with Mom. Later that year, in October, Mom appeared on the Kelly & Company show [WXYZ-TV, Channel 7 (Detroit, MI)] with the hosts, husband and wife team, John Kelly and Marilyn Turner. Her SECOND appearance was May 8, 1991.

In 1993, Mom was invited back to the Donahue Show. She and Dad agreed, only if the show would NOT share their contact information. Inadvertently, because of that, the show received more requests for the transcript than for any other episode, obliterating the previous record. Regardless, people found us and we were overrun again with mail.

LAST THOUGHTS…

Mom also agreed to do an infomercial as the Recipe DetectiveTM, in 1993, with Guthie-Renker Corp. It was set up like a TV talk show, called ‘Ask Mike’. It was similar to Phil Donahue’s and Rob Weller’s interviews and cooking demonstrations, and included an appearance by Wally Amos, too.

But they wanted to change the look of her available books (and there was other drama, as well). It turned out to be a big disappointment and a really unpleasant endeavor for, both, Mom and Dad. The whole thing was produced and directed by Positive Response Television. The family was given copies (on VCR tapes) but it never aired, publicly.

Afterward, Mom refused to do anymore TV talk shows; accepting only newspaper, magazine, and radio talk show interviews. She never regretted that decision, turning down offers from big TV talk shows like The Rosie O’Donnell Show and The Late Show, with David Letterman.

And, as much as she loved Johnny Carson, Mom even turned down an appearance on the Tonight Show. However, she did become friends with fellow Michiganders, Pam and Ed McMahon… And never regretted her decision.

IN CLOSING…

In honor of TODAY, being National Boston Cream Pie Day (and it’s still National Dessert Month), here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Boston Cream Pie Ala Fast”; as seen in one of her first few, self-published cookbooks… The Second Helping Of Secret Recipes (National Homemakers Newsletter, Pearl Beach, MI; July 1977, p. 8).

#NationalDessertMonth

#BostonCreamPieDay

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

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

The month of October observes a lot of things, including… Eat Better & Eat Together Month, German-American Heritage Month, Halloween Safety Month, Italian-American Heritage Month, National Apple Month, National Applejack Month, National Arts & Humanities Month, National Bake and Decorate Month, National Caramel Month, National Chili Month, National Cookie Month, National Fire Prevention Month, National Kitchen & Bath Month, National Pasta Month, National Pickled Peppers Month, National Pizza Month, National Popcorn Poppin’ Month, National Pork Month, National Pretzel Month, National Reading Group Month, National Sausage Month, National Seafood Month, Pear and Pineapple Month, Polish American Heritage Month, Rhubarb Month, Spinach Lovers Month, Tackling Hunger Month, and Vegetarian Month!

#NationalBookMonth

#NationalCookbookMonth

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

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

Today is also… National Mole Day!

Tomorrow is… National Food Day, National Bologna Day, and United Nations Day!

Wednesday, October 25th is… National Greasy Food Day!

Thursday, October 26th is… National Tennessee Day, National Pumpkin Day, and National Mincemeat Day!

October 27th is… National American Beer Day, Navy Day! Plus, as the last Friday in October (for 2023), it’s also… National Breadstick Day!

October 28th is… National Chocolate Day! Plus, as the fourth Saturday in October (for 2023), it’s also… National Make A Difference Day! Additionally, as the last Saturday in October (for 2023), it’s also… National Trick or Treat Day!

Sunday, October 29th is… National Oatmeal Day!

#TGIM

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

…43 down and 9 to go!

Posted on

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Women And Family Businesses

#ThankGodItsMonday and #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

Mom had an undeniable gift for writing, which began at a young age. Her dedication to writing began in 1946, after seeing the Warner Brothers movie, Devotion, about the Bronte sisters. That’s when she began journaling seriously, on a daily basis; mostly writing about her life, dreams, and faith.

Mom filled journal after journal, for more than 70 years, with her ideas, feelings, and observations; from the time she was 10 years old until she physically couldn’t, shortly before she passed away in January 2018. Writing was so much more than a hobby or vocation, to Mom. It was definitely a DEVOTION!

#WorkAndFamilyMonth

You could say writing was in Mom’s blood, as her dad’s family published the newspaper for the Union Mills-Cromwell area of Indiana during the late 19th century. Mom, herself, worked in the newspaper industry for over a decade, before quitting to develop her own small, family operated, recipe business, in the early 1970s.

Mom was very creative at whatever she attempted. I wish I had half of her talent. She wore so many hats in our family and in the “family enterprise”. For our family, she was the cook, housekeeper, chauffer, doctor, seamstress, counselor, mentor, teacher, and so much more.

#WomensSmallBusinessMonth

#SelfPromotionMonth

Within her small business, Mom was the recipe developer, author, illustrator, layout creator, publicist, promotion specialist, public speaker/lecturer and, again, so much more! She didn’t do it all by herself, as she also employed me and my siblings to help; and, later, Dad.

As a semi-modern, yet somewhat old-fashioned housewife-turned-homemaker-turned-entrepreneur, during the 1970s and amidst the Women’s Liberation Movement, Mom felt extremely blessed to be able to write for a living – and to be able to do it from home.

#NationalBusinessWomensWeek

She always said, she made a living with her writing, but it was her writing that made living worthwhile! By the way, Sunday kicked off the beginning of National Business Women’s Week, plus it’s still National Women’s Small Business Month, too. Women entrepreneurs and small family businesses actually run in our family, in both sides of my parents’ ancestors.

In honor, this week, I wanted to share some of Mom’s stories about “Grandma’s Backdoor Bakery”. This series of stories, about which Mom wrote over 40 years ago, are based loosely on family fables that were passed down (and embellished) through a couple of generations. I call it her “kin-folklore”.

[NOTE: The following part of “The Backdoor Bakery” saga (pictured below) – from Eating Out At Home Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Sep. 1981, 12th Printing, p. 24) – includes recipes for “Saturday Bread Dough” and “West Virginia Bread”. These were posted once before, in a previous blog, and can also be found on the Recipes tab of this website.]

MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Eating Out At Home Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Sep. 1981, 12th Printing, p. 24)

[Below, continued from THE BACKDOOR BAKERY (pictured above).]

THEY BARTERED FOR THE baked goods when they didn’t have the cash to pay. A bushel of apples or a peck of potatoes might be a fair-trade for bread, sufficient to feed a large family for a week. From the batter bread recipe, many versions of baked goods were created.

Greased cupcake or muffin wells half-filled with the batter produced a good dinner roll (when baked at 375° for 20 to 25 minutes.) Grandma insisted on one test for ‘doneness’ – tapping the crust with a finger. If it made a hollow sound – it was done! Grandma and the five girls were up at 4 AM to begin the baking each Saturday.

During the bristling winter days at her ‘Backdoor Bakery’, there was a large enamel pot of lemonade keeping hot on the back of the stove. She sold [the warm lemonade] for a few cents a cup to go along with a doughnut or cookie to those customers warming their hands over the heat of the stove before departing.

When Jasper Fillmore turned up, she noted in her journal, there was a slug of Grandpa’s favorite whiskey added to it – providing no local ladies from the Temperance Society were about.

AGAIN, MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Eating Out At Home Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Sep. 1981, 12th Printing, p. 42)

HOMESTEAD, HOTEL AND RESTAURANT

(The continuing family saga by Gloria Pitzer, based on ‘kin-folklore’.)

INSTINCTIVELY, GRANDMA KNEW what food combinations had to be ‘balanced’. She didn’t know why, nor did she anguish over the possibility that somebody in the family might be suffering from nutritional deficiencies. She didn’t fret because she lacked a formal education in the science of food chemistry or dietetics.

She just knew that 11 children grew healthy and strong with one soapy hot tub bath a week, baking soda-brushed teeth once a day, church on Sunday, school attendance without excuses – except for illness (and being sick of school was not an acceptable excuse).

[All of that was] combined well with definite daily chores, hot food, ample drinking water, sufficient sleep and loving tolerance of each other in spite of personal faults. Cheese and eggs were both important ingredients in Grandma’s cooking.

The eggs came every other day from Cousin Nell, who had a lucrative ‘egg route’ for many years, sufficient, in fact to feather her nest nicely with an all brick house of nine rooms and a live-in housekeeper and a handyman to tend to the chickens in the coops on the back of the 20 acre parcel where she resided.

No one knew what happened to Cousin Nell’s husband, Regis, who (some whispered) had up-and-left with one of the saloon girls on a train heading for St. Louis. Nell pulled herself together quickly when she realized she had no one to look after her and the four children.

She tended her garden, started selling the eggs from a dozen hens until she had enough money to buy more laying-hens from a hatchery and [her] business grew.

The cheese, in grandma’s kitchen, was homemade – if it were the soft type that could be used within a few days. But she bought the hard cheese from the mercantile in town once a month.

She would wrap it in smaller portions, in wine-soaked cloth, or dip some in melted paraffin to keep even longer. These were interesting ingredients in the products of her ‘Backdoor Bakery’.

When grandma sliced warm, fresh bread in her ‘Backdoor Bakery’ and made sandwiches for her customers, she kept it simple, using her homemade cooked salad dressing, sliced cheese, and their choice of apple butter, marmalade, or walnut butter with.

Together, with a cup of hot cinnamon tea [or lemonade], from the enamel cattle (which I have now, sitting on the hearth in our living room) – no customer had to brave the chilly April rain without a warm cup of tea before leaving.

The food industry today markets their products in a more sophisticated method than Grandma did when she packaged her baked goods in brown paper and string, neatly piled in a large basket – sometimes in several baskets – and delivered by carriage over some curved roads between Grafton and Morgantown, West Virginia…

As for Nell, Grandpa’s brother’s girl, life was difficult at first. When the egg route began to support her nicely, there was talk around town that most of Nell’s money came from the card games she would sit in on when she delivered eggs to the hotel.

No one ever confirmed it, since Nell was a handsome woman, to be envied by many of the matrons whose husbands found her attractive – and a good listener when they needed one.

The Homestead Hotel was the only place in town to stay – if you had to stay in town. And Vivian told how she ‘spent a week there one night’, when a snowstorm kept her from returning home from town. That was the night that Grandpa was with her – and Nell was sitting in on one of those ‘naughty’ poker games.

Grandpa was holding a full house, trying to beat the town’s commercial Baker, and Grandma’s competitor. When Grandpa ‘called’ him, Hartwig Horton was holding a flush of diamonds, but confessed he couldn’t pay Grandpa in cash.

However, he would call the debt squared, if Grandpa would agree to take, instead of cash, a much-coveted recipe for his family’s ‘Texas Fruitcake’ that Grandma had been trying to duplicate for years; the secret formula closely guarded by Horton’s Texas family. Grandpa agreed.

But there were other hands dealt that wintry night, as Nell took on Morris Weismann, a few others, and came away holding the mortgage to the hotel as her winnings. The rather scarlet details of the all-night card game between Nell and the men, have been lost in translation among aunts and uncles who still recall its excitement.

We only know that Nell and her four children, in their teens by then, moved into the hotel, staffed it themselves and kept the 20 upstairs guest rooms with the five baths between them, continuously occupied and tidy.

Meanwhile, grandma worked out an arrangement with her niece to furnish the hotel restaurant with all of its baked goods for a fair price if Nell promised to shut down the saloon and the card games.

LAST THOUGHTS…

According to NationalDayCalenar.com, “In many parts of the world, women are less likely to own land, a business, or attend school. Education alone is a powerful tool, leading to financial independence for women. Their children reap the rewards, often for generations to come.”

As an avid reader, Mom often promoted, in her many food-for-thought articles, the benefits of always trying to learn something new each and every day.

IN CLOSING…

Since today is National Department Store Day, here’s Mom’s imitation of J.L. Hudson’s Butterscotch Biscuits; as seen in her self-published cookbook, The Original 200 Plus Secret Recipes© Book (Secret RecipesTM, Marysville, MI; June 1997, p. 17). Hudson’s was Mom’s favorite department store dining destination, developing more than 65 imitations from there.

#DepartmentStoreDay

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

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

#NationalBookMonth

#NationalCookbookMonth

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

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

This week also observes… National Food Bank Week! Plus, as the third week in October [15th-21st for 2023] it’s also… National Kraut Sandwich Week, National Friends of Libraries Week, Free Speech Week, and National Retirement Planning Week!

Today is also… National Sports Day, National Liqueur Day, National Dictionary Day, and Global Cat Day! Plus, it’s National Boss’s Day (which is always on Oct. 16th, unless it falls on a weekend; then it’s observed on the closest Friday/Monday workday)! Additionally, as the third Monday in October (for 2023), it’s also… National Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day!

Tomorrow is… National Edge Day, National Mulligan Day, National Pasta Day, and National Black Poetry Day!

October 18th is… National Chocolate Cupcake Day! Plus, as the third Wednesday in October (for 2022), it’s also… National Hagfish Day and Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce!

October 19th is… National Kentucky Day and National Seafood Bisque Day! Plus, as the third Thursday of the fourth quarter (for 2023), it’s… Get to Know Your Customers Day, which occurs on the third Thursday in every quarter of the year (during Jan., Apr., Jul., and Oct.).

Friday, October 20th is… National Youth Confidence Day, National Brandied Fruit Day, and International Chefs Day!

October 21st is… National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day! Plus, as the third Saturday in October (for 2023), it’s also… National Sweetest Day!

October 22nd is… National Make a Dog’s Day, National Nut Day, and National Color Day! Plus, as the fourth Sunday in October (for 2023), it’s also… National Mother-in-Law Day!

#TGIM

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

…42 down and 10 to go!

Posted on

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Michigan Apples

As usual, #ThankGodItsMonday again. Thus, #HappyMonday to all. I look forward to every Monday! They’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you!

#TheRecipeDetective

#NationalAppleMonth

I LOVE OCTOBER! The trees are bursting with fiery colors, farmers are harvesting their crops, corn mazes have been cut for fun autumn entertainment, houses and yards are decked out in Halloween decorations, and the apple cider mills are packed every weekend. By the way, October is also National Apple Month, among other things.

Apples are one of the largest and most valuable fruit crops grown in Michigan. Some of the most popular varieties are Gala, Fuji, Honeycrisp and Red Delicious – these are also among the best apples for making cider. It takes about 20 pounds of apples (roughly 30-40 apples, depending on size) to produce one gallon of cider.

The state of Michigan is not the biggest producer of apples in the U.S. – that honor goes to Washington, as we come in third, behind New York. However, I read somewhere that Michigan slices more apples than any other state – mostly for apple pies, which are an all-American staple.

Incidentally, Michigan’s unofficial “State Dessert Pie” is a toss-up between apple and cherry – depending on where you poll. The Traverse City area (and the northern Michigan region) is famous for its cherry crops (and wine)! However, apples are the more abundant crop throughout the state, over all.

#WorkAndFamilyMonth

Michigan has about 775 family-run apple orchards and more than 60 cider mills. More than a dozen apple festivals are anticipated, all around the state, for next weekend.

All of my children agree that this time of year always reminds them of when my mom and dad used to take them and my sister’s kids to the Ruby Tree Farm & Cider Mill, a few towns away.

By the way, the fall in which we moved from Algonac to St. Clair, Mom and Dad took me and my sister, Cheryl, to see the famous tree farm and cider mill. Mom was very impressed with their pumpkin pie and created a wonderful imitation of it.

Since this is National Dessert Month, below is a copy of that recipe, as seen in Mom’s self-published cookbook, The Second Helping Of Secret Recipes, Revised (National Home News, St. Clair, MI; November 1978, p. 24).

#NationalDessertMonth

I know it thrilled my parents to go to the tree farm just as much as it thrilled the kids. We all loved the big cafeteria style dining hall where we would get lunch and watch them press the apples into cider. There was another area where we always stopped to watch them make fresh donuts, too.

In a separate building, they sold old fashioned candy and souvenirs, as well as antiques. In that building, a large, old, player piano would usually be playing something festive. Dad would buy each of the kids some candy and sit with them on the hearth of the big fire place near the piano while Mom shopped.

My kids favorite memories there, besides spending time with their grandparents and having lunch in the big hall, included riding on an old fashion fire truck, walking through the petting zoo, riding the ponies, going on a hay ride around the farm, and picking out their own pumpkins to carve at home (plus, baking the seeds – see Mom’s secret recipe below).

Ruby’s local gem was a big tourist attraction for many decades. It first opened in 1956 and grew to hundreds of acres of trees and fall fun. It was very popular for its Christmas trees, November through December. So many families would traditionally go there, every year, to cut down their own perfect tree. The Reuters loved bringing families joy.

Unfortunately, after the owner passed away in 2009, his family decided to retire the business and everything was eventually auctioned off. They continued to sell through the rest of the property’s Christmas trees for another six years, until the farm permanently closed in 2015. It will always be remembered as the small family business with a big heart.

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Mixed Blessings – Recipes & Remedies (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; March 1984, p. 15)

SIMPLE COMFORTS

COOKING IS ONE OF THOSE personal accomplishments that afford us all the opportunity to express ‘talent’. We love being approved of. In fact, we eat it up! It’s the little pat on the back that gives us the incentive to continue trying. And where else, but in the kitchen, can you try to win approval with such satisfying results!

I’m very partial to my kitchen because it is the one place in our home where I feel the most comfortable! Whether I’m there alone, working on a recipe, or sitting at my desk, looking for inspiration on a new article I’m writing, or sharing a cup of coffee with a neighbor or a friend, who’s dropped by – it’s my favorite room!

I have a desk in the kitchen right next to the [glass] door-wall that overlooks the yard. Our daughter, Debbie, and our son-in-law, Jim, gave me a flowering Crab [Apple] tree last Mother’s Day, which they planted right in the middle of the yard.

I can enjoy it’s flowers each spring; also the very long bare, red branches during the autumn and it’s snow-covered limbs all winter. It’s my sundial, by which I observe the seasons and the changes involved with this natural wonder.

While the Scotch pines around this little tree never change, never go through the transition of bud to blossom to barren branches and then buds again, I can see the contrasts that are parallel to our own personal predicaments…

I’ve spent my entire life being a writer. It’s not what I do, but what I am. I love every minute of it, and by writing about what I have come to know best – cooking – it occurs to me that having a desk in my kitchen was awfully appropriate.

Mind you, I’m not all that crazy about cooking. It’s by default rather than decision that I have learned more about it than any other skill I’ve attempted.

#RhubarbMonth

When we lived in Algonac, Mom had a raised garden bed, about 8-ft square. I remember helping her harvest the strawberries, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I also recall picking rhubarb, apples, and pears from our little orchard along the driveway, with which she made jams, pies, and cobblers. By the way, October is also National Rhubarb Month.

During the first couple years of writing and self-publishing her newsletter, Mom included many gardening tips each month. Eventually that went to the wayside, along with some other “segments”, to make room for more copycat cookery. As Mom’s recipe business continually grew during the 1970s, she incessantly less time to spend on a garden.

I enjoyed learning how to garden from Mom, just as she had learned about it from my grandma. I loved harvesting the fruits and vegetables, from which she created so many wonderful dishes and desserts. Her strawberry-rhubarb pie was one of my favorites! [NOTE: A sugar-free version that Dad really loved, is on the recipes tab of this website.]

MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Mixed Blessings – Recipes & Remedies (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; March 1984, p. 158)

THE SOUNDS OF SIMPLICITY

BACON CRACKLING AND A hot skillet… The crisp, first bite of a firm, juicy, red apple… The tinkling of a wind chime hanging in front of an open window on a breezy warm day… The steady, muffled static of a summer rain on the roof, like 1000 tiny mice scampering across a sea of tissue paper…

The snapping of a log burning in the fireplace on a cool evening… The soft delight in a child’s amused giggle… An old man humming a tune as he weeds his garden… The baritone foghorn of a freighter slipping through the mist-covered river… The low wooing whistle of a train interrupting the night…

The lake lapping against the beach as it pulls back into itself and returns again to caress the sand… The gargling whistle of wrens in the slanted morning sunshine of a new spring day… These are the sounds of simplicity that set a satisfying mood and give me a sense of contentment.

AGAIN, MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Mixed Blessings – Recipes & Remedies (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; March 1984, pp. 23-24)

[FALL IN MICHIGAN]

THE FIRST TIME WE saw the Traverse Bay area and upstate Michigan, we fell in love with it. It was Labor Day and summer was still at the peak of its promise. Six weeks later [in mid-October], we went back to the bay area to feast our eyes on the glorious, fiery colors of fall.

There was a crisp, clean chill in the air. Those long, straight, two-lane roads through the peninsula still lay like licorice ribbons on the slopes and hills of Old Mission region. The side roads were cut like corridors through a series of canopies in brilliant orange, red and yellow…

The trees were all standing like military sentries in full dress uniforms, crossing their branches above the roads like honor guards with their swords raised high.

It was a trip back into another time zone – peaceful valleys and wooded hillsides. Abundant were sturdy hedges of tall trees framing well-manicured cherry orchards – acres upon acres of them, as well as apple groves in great abundance everywhere!

Here and there a farmhouse and a weather-worn, well-kept barn reminded you that it was a populated and prosperous region, after all. The prosperity appeared to represent hard work, a practical living style and simplicity of needs, unlike the atmosphere of city dwelling.

Some of the recipes from dishes of this area have become my personal favorites. At the Settling Inn, in the village of Northport, a huge and tasty sandwich is the specialty of the house, presented on their own homemade bread; sliced quite right, and buttered on one side.

It’s grilling until crispy. Then the sandwich fillings are applied to the un-grilled side of the bread, and it’s assembled neatly and cut in half. With a mug of dark beer on a hot day, it hit the spot!

LAST THOUGHTS…

Sunday is the beginning of National Business Women’s Week, plus it’s still National Women’s Small Business Month, too. So next week I’ll share more of Mom’s stories about “Grandma’s Backdoor Bakery”. And speaking of “bakery”…

IN CLOSING…

In honor of TODAY, being National Angel Food Cake Day, and it’s National Dessert Month, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for Sanders’ [Style] Angel Food Cake; as seen in one of her first self-published cookbooks, The Secret Restaurant Recipes Book (National Homemakers Newsletter, Pearl Beach, MI; Jan. 1977, p. 40).

#AngelFoodCakeDay

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

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

#NationalBookMonth

#NationalCookbookMonth

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

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

Today is… National Moldy Cheese Day! Plus, as the second Monday in October (for 2023), it’s… Native American Day and Columbus Day! Additionally, the second Mon.–Fri. in October [9th-13th for 2023] is… National School Lunch Week!

Tomorrow is… National Cake Decorating Day, National Handbag Day, and World Mental Health Day!

October 11th is… International Day of the Girl Child and National Sausage Pizza Day! Plus, as the second Wednesday in October (for 2023), it’s… National Take Your Parents To Lunch Day and National Curves Day!

Thursday, October 12th is… National Vermont Day, National Freethought Day, National Farmer’s Day, and National Gumbo Day!

Friday, October 13th is… National Yorkshire Pudding Day and Navy Birthday!

October 14th is… National Dessert Day! Plus, as the second Saturday in October (for 2023), it’s… National Costume Swap Day and I Love Yarn Day!

October 15th is… National Shawarma Day, National Cheese Curd Day, and National I Love Lucy Day! Plus, as the start of the week of October 16th [15th-21st for 2023] it’s… National Food Bank Week!

Additionally, the third week in October [15th-21st for 2023] is… National Kraut Sandwich Week, National Friends of Libraries Week, National Free Speech Week, and National Retirement Planning Week!

#TGIM

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

…41 down and 11 to go!