"Americans, more than any other culture on earth, are cookbook cooks; we learn to make our meals not from any oral tradition, but from a text. The just-wed cook brings to the new household no carefully copied collection of the family's cherished recipes, but a spanking new edition of ‘Fannie Farmer’ or ‘The Joy of Cooking’."
~ John Thorne, American food writer
Mr. Thorne has published books and articles about food from the 1960s until the recent past.
My mother didn't have even a handful of family recipes written down. She did have in her recipe box a lot of recipes shared by friends and some clipped from magazines. My collection is similar. And I certainly have a lot of cookbooks. When the kids don't know what else to buy me for a gift, it is a cookbook.
The recipes that I know from memory include the way my mother made:
Chicken, Rice, and egg drop soup.
A salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and a homemade dressing.
Mom's Winter Fruit Salad - can of Mandarin oranges with juice, pineapple chunks with juice, fruit cocktail with juice, and any available fresh fruit - probably bananas which are not added until serving - possibly directly into the individual fruit bowls, then topped with a scoop of the rest.
And several casseroles that required a can of soup, either tomato or cream of mushroom.
In writing I have Mom's recipe for
Christmas Pistachio Pudding. [you can find the same recipe on spark and all over the internet.]
A veggie - jello salad that contains a can of tomato soup.
Her mother's noodle recipe.
Her mother's snowball cookie recipe.
Recipe that I have memorized from my Aunt Betha:
Sliced potato wedges, spray with PAM and sprinkle with choice of seasoning, put in 400 degree oven until browned. Might have to turn once.
I found this same recipe in my oldest cookbook, except they tossed the potatoes in corn oil & salted when they came out of the oven. They called them Belgian Potatoes.
P.S.
I have been feeling a lot better since my last blog.
Yesterday's nutrition was pretty good.
I also had a chance to visit with my pastor friend and one other person.
FIGHT LIKE A GIRL.
