Recipes as time-marks
July 13, 2010 at 7:08 am (Food, Home Sweet Home)
Tags: Food, memories, recipes, soupanne
A post by Grannymar, an Irish blogger I read (because I like all things Irish), reminded me of my own scattered collection of recipes. Like her mother had, I have a clash of newspaper cut-outs, bits of pad paper with chicken-scratched recipes, and many others bearing other people’s handwriting: Mom, Teresa, Mme. Hamel, Mrs. Schulte, and so on. These signed recipes are like time-marks of my life, and each time I prepare them they remind me of the people who gave them to me, including yesterday’s feta, mint, black pepper and olive oil drizzled watermelon Mrs. Schulte showed me years ago.
Off I pranced to the post office to pick up a Christmas parcel a few years ago, and madly I tore open the box. I spotted a container of rolled oats, a packet of brown sugar, and Grandma’s carefully handwritten recipe for making oatmeal or soupane as we called it in French. Tears flooded my cheeks as she obviously knew this was a sweet spot for me. This was, by far, one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received at Christmas.
Firmly anchored in my head are childhood memories of Grandma making porridge on her woodstove. Whether it was for this reason or only because it was a treat from Grandma, that porridge was extra tasty. Of course the dark brown sugar and splash of whole milk helped.
The only problem now was finding an old woodstove to prepare it the way she did.
Similar to what my Grandma had, except the colour
Grannymar said,
July 13, 2010 at 8:30 am
It is amazing how a scrap of paper written with a familiar well loved hand, can wind back the years and bring a comfortable glow to a day! I am glad to have opened your memory bank once more.
Carole said,
July 13, 2010 at 9:54 am
Most certainly!
Kara said,
July 13, 2010 at 9:55 am
My mother has one of these in her house and still uses it regularly! It is only about 15 years old, but just like the old ones.
Carole said,
July 13, 2010 at 9:57 am
How nice! My grandma always regretted getting rid of hers, but she had no space for it in her tiny kitchen after the electric stove was bought. She practically gave it away at $100 about 30 years ago. What a loss!
MOM said,
July 20, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Hello Dear… Grandma was beside me when I read your blog to her about sending you all the contents to make porridge as a gift from her to you. She was laughing but also had little tears coming down her cheeks, but when she saw the old stove, she said…oh my god!!! exactly the stove my mother had, and yes I do miss mine she said. Everything tasted so good cooking on these stoves compared to the one I have now. I never had that chance to be able to go to my grandma’s place to taste her cooking but at least it’s a Blessing that my children can still enjoy grandma’s great cooking. What beautiful memories!!!!!
Carole said,
July 22, 2010 at 10:04 am
Hey Mom! Granma always says how much she misses her old stove, but I bet she doesn’t miss chopping, stacking, and bringing in the wood for it.
MOM said,
July 25, 2010 at 10:56 am
You got that right Sweetheart!!!! hahahahaha