Quite a resemblance right? I was told my whole like that I looked just like my mother. Even as I walked down the aisle at my wedding I heard a cousin say “oh my God, she looks just like Edie” and she was right, I did. My mother passed away April 7, 1997. I miss her every single day. She is the woman who gave me my beginning in life. She is the one who slept in my room after watching the scary movie Carrie with Sissy Spacek. She is the one who went out with me on a Saturday night when I didn’t have a date. She is the person I spoke to 10 times a day after I had gave birth. She is the person who sang to my son Jarred on the phone so that I could take a shower! She is the reason I love to bake and cook. That was her passion, her calling. If she couldn’t sleep at night, she would wake up and bake something! Who does that at 3 o’clock in the morning? I am proud to say my mother did, that’s who!
My blog is dedicated to my mother “Edie” and her passion for cooking which I luckily inherited. I recently wrote a cookbook for my niece that included many of her recipes and gave it to her at her bridal shower. When I got married 23 years ago (this coming May 23rd is my anniversary 23/23) she hand wrote me a small cookbook that included about a dozen recipes. Being newly married, I often called her for cooking advice and recipes and as she gave them to me I would type them up and glue them into the back of the book. She didn’t work off a recipe, it was all in her head so I’m glad I took the time to do that. I encourage you to do that as well sooner then later if you haven’t already. Being a graphic designer, I didn’t stop there. I decided to document as many of her recipes as possible and make little cookbooks for her and my sisters. That was 20 years ago so I thought how wonderful to create her recipes, photograph them and write a cookbook.
Fast forward 23 years and what started out as what I thought would be 20 or so recipes ended up including 70 recipes in a 134 page book with more waiting to be included. The odd thing is that there were originally 71 recipes in the book but one of them gave me such a difficult time and kept making all the other pages re-wrap so I omitted the recipe and figured I would add it back when I finish it this summer. It’s odd because my mother passed away at the age of 71 and I didn’t set out to include a particular number of recipes. It just happened organically. I’m sure this was her way of making sure I would have to keep writing.
First off, how beautiful is my niece? She was so happy that day, as she is everyday. The book I ended up giving her is only a draft as I had so many more things to include and honestly, you can’t write a book in 4 months without having to fix a few things. Plus, there are more stories and recipes waiting to be written. She was expecting a little cookbook that I made 20 years ago. When she opened it, her eyes filled with tears. At the last minute I put my parents wedding photo on the back cover; it was the perfect ending. This is the book that got me started on writing a blog. I enjoyed writing stories about her recipes, our family and her. She was a very funny lady. You never really knew if she realized that or not. She had an enormous database of funny sayings and idioms that when writing the book found that they were unique to her.
Researching where or why she made them opened dialog with my sisters; both excellent cooks by the way! We reminisced about so much. It turns out I’m the keeper of the flame, like my mother, I just love to cook. I cooked each of the recipes and took photos of them. Of course I found out that I should have taken them vertically, but live and learn! I realized that even though she wrote them down, her measurements weren’t always correct so I had to tweak them a little. It was a learning process and spiritually connected to her on a whole different level. A lot of her recipes left me questioning. Why did she rewrite them so many times? Why did she rename the same recipe? Where is her recipe for beef stew? And why after 2 tries already doesn’t her cookie pie crust turn out well? All the questions have me searching for my own cooking voice.
My mother ended every written recipe with the simple word “Enjoy” that’s all she wanted. She wanted you to just enjoy! Enjoy her cooking, Enjoy her baking, Enjoy life! She didn’t believe in what she called Hallmark card holidays. She said everyday is mother’s day and everyday is children’s day; life is too short to celebrate only one day a year. So today on the official Mother’s Day, whether you are a mother, grandmother, or great grandmother, take this day and Enjoy! Thanks mom, I love you.