Monday, November 19, 2018

Recipes & memories...



There's a recipe for pulled pork.  Need I say more?  Mmmmm

Louise's Chocolate Chip pie - I was named after my Aunt Louise.  Everyone said I was her favorite.  I guess, truth be told, she was my favorite, too.  

Hershey's Cocoa Fudge - On my...  my memories abound about fudge.  Fudge that didn't set up and you had to eat it with a spoon.  Fudge so hard you had to cut it with a sharp knife, then eat the slivers that would fall off the pieces as you tried to pick up a piece to eat it.  And I'm sure there was plenty of perfect fudge, too.  We didn't necessarily have fudge often, but we evidently had it often enough that I remember it seemed a tricky thing to fix.  Regardless of how it "set up", though, it was always delicious.

Kentucky Pie (sugar cream pie) would be my mother's mother's recipe.  She was my last living grandparent and she died when I was four years old.  Even though she and my grandfather lived across the street from us, and my grandmother lived in our house during her last weeks, I really don't have any memory of her.  I only have the memory (or sense) of knowing she was being taken care of by my parents in her last days (or weeks?)  I really don't know how long she stayed with us at the end.

And Shirley's Special Pie (more or less the same as Kentucky Pie) -  Shirley would be my mother, I presume.  She didn't care to be called Shirley, though, and went by Deane (short for Veradeane).   When someone would say to her, "Surely.... anything", she would say, "Don't call me Shirley!" The joke never got old.  Not to me.

Wondering if she came up with that herself, or got that line somewhere, I googled it.  I found this (the expression is at about the 1:00 minute mark):



I love Leslie Nielson, but he must have stolen the expression from mom.  Ha!  Mom said this when I was a little girl so I know she didn't steal it from the line in the movie,  Airplane

(giggling)

Another thing mom would always say...  when she'd drop something noisy (like a pot or pan), she'd call out, "Never mind me, I just dropped the set out of my ring!"    For the longest time I didn't get the joke.   When I finally got it, I thought it was hilarious.  Made more funny to me, I'm sure, because she always said it with a straight face and never once explained it.

When I think of the things my mother said that have stuck with me, I can't help but wonder what my boys will remember that I said when they were growing up.  I inherited mom's dry humor, but I don't think I ever carried a joke for as long and as seriously as she did.  

Mom died at the age of 69.  I turn 60 next spring and my sisters are 66, and almost 65.  I didn't realize nearly twenty five years ago (when I was not yet 35), just how young 69 was, but I sure do now.  And I sure do miss her...



7 comments:

  1. What great memories you have. Those recipes are priceless too. I have ny moms recipe box and treasure all her handwritten recipes.

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    1. I'm hoping I have some other hand-written recipes that my mother wrote down. Her handwriting was so pretty and I love having some samples of it. I'd like to create more hand-written things that my sons might enjoy having when I'm gone, but honestly... they struggle to read cursive. I think it's a dilemma of the modern age where everything is typed. I can print fairly decently, though. I suppose printed text would have the same value for them. Which, actually, may not be much (value). I'm not sure men feel the same about having a person's handwriting???? Especially those who do most of their communication via a keyboard or pad...

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  2. That would be so very hard to not have your Mom!!! Is this joke: "Never mind me, I just dropped the set out of my ring!" a joke because it is implying that what was set in her ring was really big? I am bad at jokes and I do like this one (if that make sense, I am assuming I get the joke)... :) I love handwritten recipes too!!! very special! God bless you dear one!!! I am so glad you are blogging!

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    1. Yes, that's what the joke is implying. That she would call it out from the kitchen when she dropped something that clattered so loudly that we could hear in another room makes it even funnier to remember.

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  3. Pulled pork. Yum. My husband makes it in our crockpot, overnight. Pies are more what I'm thinking about with Thanksgiving this week. I love pecan pie with real whipped cream, it was my dad's fav, he passed away. All the memories that go with the food make it more special. I agree completely with you, 60 seems pretty young to me, now.

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  4. I've never heard of Kentucky Sugar Pie..I'll have to investigate. It sounds interesting. I have a few recipes from my Mom but she wasn't much of a cook...she was a career woman and a nurse and I think she cooked everything well done so there would be no germs. I thought I hated meat until my MIL cooked some and it was delicious and I could chew it! LOL! But my mother was much nicer than my MIL by a long shot so it's okay that she didn't cook that well....she made a darn good living for us! LOL! She was head of a 5 floor hospital. That's so sweet that you remember your mother saying those quips. It's hard to not miss people you love but I think that's why God gave us good memories of them so we could smile in between the tears.

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  5. What a lovely tribute to your mother and a lovely collection of not only precious family recipes but the memories that go along with them. Read your response to the first comment about sharing the recipes with your kids - what if....you photocopied the original recipe onto a page and then typed the recipe beneath and then bound them into a book of sorts for sharing with your kids. Be sure to share the story of whose recipe it was (and perhaps a memory you have of the person) on the page as well. I think that would be a marvelous gift to share!

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