"The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm." ~ Swedish Proverb At the beginning of every summer we have a ritual with my dad, the real green thumb of the family. We plant a garden. Surprisingly, this custom only started the summer after my mother died. We never had a garden at my house growing up. However, we did support the local farmers and traveled to random farm stands around town to seek out the freshest picked vegetables. Some of my fondest memories are the car drives with mom on late August afternoons. … [Read more...]
Judy’s Earthquake Cookies: They’ll Make You Tremble
June 13, 2011 By 34 Comments
Two months ago we learned that we had to travel to Baltimore for a funeral of a great-grandmother. Talking about death with my kids is like pulling the scabs off wounds--they immediately bring the conversation back to my mom’s death. They still can’t really understand why she had to die so young. However, that made it easier to then turn the conversation around and talk about their great grandmother's full life. Remarkably, she left a family legacy of 10 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. To brighten the mood and change the … [Read more...]
Six Of One, Half Dozen of the Other
June 8, 2011 By 2 Comments
I used to rattle off this idiom all the time - until I started my cooking escapades. Now it just pisses me off. In its literal sense, the idiom is used to compare two things that are the same. For the past 39 years of my life, I thought half of the items lurking behind my cabinet shelves and refrigerator door were all the same until I started paying attention to the ingredients in Mom’s recipes. It’s astounding how many varieties of salts and vinegar and oils I accumulated over the years. Almost all of the bottles and boxes are … [Read more...]
Judy’s Garlic Chicken
June 6, 2011 By 12 Comments
Mom’s Garlic Chicken was my all-time favorite dish for dinner. Remember, the Banana-Chocolate Chip loaf was my favorite dessert. Are you starting to discover a pattern here? Of course I had to start my culinary expedition cooking meals that were my highlights. That softens the blow a little bit, right? I don’t consider this cheating but rather, like getting that long summer reading list from school and only starting with the books of interest. If I could purchase the Cliff Notes for all of Mom’s recipes I would, but, since that’s not a … [Read more...]
