49 – Family Recipe

Mom introduced us to and engaged us in cooking at a young age; mostly this was for desserts, but also included some simple main dishes, bread from scratch, etc. We always referred to recipes made from basic ingredients as "from scratch" versus "from a mix," which we generally avoided as being too costly and inferior.

I think Mom's go-to cookbook was a Better Homes and Garden one that came in a three-ring hard cover binder, with some sections and pages definitely more used than others. One section in the back covered "common substitutions" which always came in handy as we weren't about to travel to a grocery store for one missed ingredient.

We had standard meals and a diet which would change when visiting our paternal grandparents in Wisconsin (definitely more German-influenced) or our maternal grandparents on their farm in Colorado where food was often home-canned and milk came from the farm cows. Some of those meals were special: we simply couldn't get the German bakery rolls and strings of Johnsonville hot dogs in our Chicago suburban town. Other meals contained novelty items we shunned, such as pickled beets.

After leaving home for other parts of the country, my siblings and I would occasionally solicit Mom for a copy of a recipe we missed and wanted to make ourselves. In 2005 my youngest sister, Pat, compiled a book of recipes from siblings and other relatives, as well as some that Mom had typed or written up on index cards. This week I rediscovered that book buried among other cookbooks, and spent some time reminiscing as I leafed though its colorful pages.

Family recipes compiled by Pat Rittenhouse

Some of the recipes are new ones to our generation, found and adopted from friends, newspapers, etc., but many are labeled with the name of one of our grandmothers, aunts or great-aunts, parents, and childhood neighbors. Some have short explanations of origin, and popular alterations. The oldest one is for "Suet Pudding," passed down from a Swedish great-great-grandmother – Mom wrote, "In the beginning , the reputation for being good cooks started with your Swedish great-great-grandmothers." 

One of our childhood favorites, and perhaps the one with the best kid name is for "Apple Goodie" from a great aunt and neighbor of my Colorado grandparents, mostly comprised of apples and sugar with a little butter and oatmeal thrown in. 

"Apple Goodie" recipe, good for treating low blood sugar

One recipe, for "Bread and Butter Pickles," is not attributed, but I'm sure it came from Colorado. My 95-year-old Aunt Gladys keeps this recipe alive in Longmont by hosting a yearly 'Pickle Day' in autumn. On this day  cousins come together to can cucumbers, some into these sweet pickles, and others into very tasty dill pickles. Some year I hope to make it to Colorado for Pickle Day.

Family recipe book, table of contents