Deep Within My Genes: In My Grandmother's Kitchen

Today is my paternal grandmother’s birthday.  Depending on whether you believe her marriage certificate or her baptismal record, she would have been 114 or 112.  Both of my grandparents lied about their birthdates on their marriage license.  In a previous blog post, A Question of Age,  I covered this very subject. Spoiler alert, Grandpa had a good reason for his lie. Of Grandma’s lie, shoulder shrug, I have only unsatisfying speculation.  

My children were 9, 12 and 15 when my grandmother died.  I don’t think many children are lucky enough to have a relationship with a great grandmother, but my children had that privilege.  We still talk and chuckle about “grandma stories.” 

My grandmother was a good cook and an even better baker.  When she died, my mother found herself the recipient of a basket with Grandma’s recipes.  When my daughter married, I made a loose-leaf notebook for her entitled, “In My Grandmother’s Kitchen” and put together some of our favorite “Grandma Recipes.”  Since I have already written a birthday post about my Grandmother previously (My Grandmother, Anna),  I thought this time I would post recipes from the book. 

These cookies were my personal favorite. (No, I really mean FAVORITE!)

My daughter was partial to the Zucchini Bread.

The boys were partial to anything that contained sugar. 

The last two cookies in my grandmother’s handwriting.  

This is my Great Grandmother’s Pie Crust Recipe. 

Nobody (at least in my family) practices the art of canning anymore.  I have not had these Mustard Pickles in close to 40 years, and my mouth is watering at the mere thought of them.  

My grandmother was not the soft, cuddly kind of grandmother.  I don’t remember her ever hugging me or telling me that she loved me.  Yet, I always felt her love.  It came through in the tiniest of moments, the reams of advice (often unsolicited), the little things she did to lighten a single mother’s load, the sweet taste of a favorite cookie dropped off just when it was needed – that was my grandmother.

Happy Birthday, Grandma.  Your eldest granddaughter still misses you.

 

© 16 January 2023, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

Snapshot - Summer of 1932

The car, grandmother’s dropped waist dress and hairstyle suggest a picture taken in the late 1920’s. Her sister Elsie’s dress style, finger wave bob, and more importantly, the little guy holding each of their hands, my dad, firmly dates the picture as summer or early fall 1932. This post written for the 10th edition of Smile for the Camera: Costume at Shades of the Departed.

© 8 February 2009, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

If those are a Jar of Mustard Pickles, then this must be Heaven!

One of my favorite geneabloggers, Janice Brown of “Cow Hampshire” wrote a cute piece the other day entitled, You say Catsup, I say Ketchup. (For the record, I say ketchup but write it catsup.) In it she talked about the origins of catsup, how it wasn’t always made with tomatoes and she closed her post with a recipe from The Farmer’s Cabinet of Amherst, New Hampshire, published in 1852. 

Janice’s piece had me going down memory lane. As a child, I can remember my grandmother making delicious homemade catsup. That got me to thinking about all the other goodies that grandma used to make. 

My favorite was her mustard pickles. A few years ago, my mother and I went through Grandma’s old recipes looking for the mustard pickle one. We would examine each recipe, and then reject it as we remembered some key ingredient that was missing. Now you have to understand that it had been three decades or longer since we had tasted this wonderful recipe, so we were straining some dormant taste buds to recall exactly what was in her famous mixture. And so it went, the two of us coming up with a variety of entries in the mustard pickle sweepstakes. 

Finally, we found one that we both agreed was probably the one grandma used to make her wonderful concoction. I don’t why we were in such a hot sweat to find it – neither of us can. In any event, below is her recipe – she called it Mixed Pickles Recipe. I call it:

Grandma’s Mixed (Mustard) Pickles Recipe 

1 quart small pickles 

1 quart pickles cut in chunks 

1 quart big lima beans 

1 quart carrots cut in chunks 

1 quart string beans

1 quart small white onions 

1 quart green tomatoes

6 red mangoes (grandma referred to peppers as mangoes) 

6 green mangoes (peppers) 

2 head of cauliflower

1 bunch celery 

 Boil each separately in salt water until tender, except pickles and tomatoes. Let them stand in salt water, drain them, then make a dressing of the following:

2 quart vinegar 

1 cup prepared mustard 

1 T tumeric powder 

1 cup flour 

2 lb brown sugar 

1 tsp celery seeds 

1 tsp mustard seed 

Let vinegar came to boil add the flour, turmeric made into a paste. Add the rest of the ingredients. Let come to a boil. Add the vegetables that have been cooked then add pickles; tomatoes let all come to a boil. Can while hot. 

When I die, I will know I’ve gotten into heaven, if when I open my eyes my grandmother, Anna, is standing there with a jar of mustard pickles, and there’s a fork and a plate with my name on it sitting near by. 

Have a safe and Happy Fourth of July! 

Update: I've submitted this post for Bill West's Geneablogger's Picnic. I'm bringing the Mustard Pickles. Yummy! I can't wait to see what everybody is bringing!

© 4 July 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder