Maxine:
My husband's father had two younger sisters. Maxine was the one just younger than him. She never had any children of her own and therefore doted on her nieces and nephews. She and her husband Jack always had an open door and an open heart. Maxine is one of the most gracious hostesses I have ever known and a true Southern lady. It was important that she have everything just right when she hosted a family dinner or holiday. Maxine shared a few treasured recipes with me over the years, and I feel privileged to have the opportunity to go through her recipe drawer and share some of the most interesting and old recipes with you.
Minnie:
This is my mother's mother. Four foot ten inches and she wrangled pots and pans in the kitchen. My mom said as a child that you just couldn't really sleep through breakfast, because grandma was up at 4 or 5 am, pots and pans clanging. In their younger years, my grandparents always lived on a farm. So cooking multiple meals per day for my grandpa and my three uncles working on the farm was important. Of course, my mom and her two sisters had their share to do as well. Later in her life, I remember my grandma working in the school cafeteria and cooking at church camps as I grew up. And I certainly can't forget the numerous Thanksgiving dinners spent at my grandma Minnie's. Cooking big was her thing.
Ora:
Ora was my great aunt. She was married to my grandfather's brother, so she and my grandma Minnie were sisters-in-law. She had many children and needless say, was a great cook. You could always count on her to bring something delicious to a church or family reunion potluck.
Pat:
My mom is an awesome cook. I give her all the credit for teaching me how to cook. When I got up into middle school my mom went back to working from 8:00-5:00. She only worked a couple of blocks from our house and so she would come home every day at lunch. During that time she would set something out to defrost, and leave me instructions on making dinner. So at least for a while, from the time I was 13 or 14, it was my job to have dinner ready when my mom and dad got home from work. My mom took the time to teach me how things were to "look" or "feel" so that I could make adjustments. So many of my dinner recipes came from my mom. She gave me a solid set of skills that I have been able to build upon.
Pauline:
Pauline is my dad's mother. This was the place we went to for Sunday dinners. Iron skillet, deep-fried chicken. I can still remember helping my grandma shake the pieces of chicken in the brown paper bag. My grandparents often had a very large garden and I remember many a summer, spending an entire day with my grandparents, my mom, my aunts, my cousins and my sisters; blanching and cutting corn off the cob, as well as leaving it on the cob, and sealing it in bags. There is nothing like eating fresh corn in the winter. I often spent an entire week in the summer at my grandparent's house, without my sisters or my cousins there. Just undivided attention from my grandparents. My grandma and I would spend time at the beginning of the week, planning what we would have for dinners and trying to make good choices. This grandma also worked at the school cafeteria and she was the one who made those famous cafeteria hot rolls. Yum!
Robin:
Robin is my sister's sister-in-law. She is married to my brother-in-law's brother, who I went to high school with. They met in college and started dating about the time that my sister and brother-in-law started dating in high school. So Robin and Trudi have been friends and "sisters" in a family of boys for a long time. It seems when you are part of a big family you can't help but be a good cook. There are so many family dinners, events and potlucks, you have to keep expanding your recipe drawer.
Trudi:
My younger sister is truly an amazing woman. She and I both learned to cook around the same time. As soon as she was old enough, we shared kitchen cooking duties at our house. (I really preferred to cook, because I hated the cleaning up. But... whoever didn't cook, had to clean up.) Trudi has spent the majority of her married life, living in the country, sometimes quite rustically and doing everything from having an amazing garden, to raising chickens to both butcher and for eggs. I love going to her house, wherever she has lived. You walk in and immediately feel at home. Being the middle child in our family, she has always been "the hub". My husband and I moved a couple of hours away and my parents lived about a thousand miles away for quite some time. But my sister has always found a way to keep our family close. She married a culinary school graduate and although she and my brother-in-law run a natural gas manufacturing business, I think that they have shared technical and home cook techniques and the results are always magnificent, be it a home-cooked meal, homemade ice cream at fourth of July parties, or a wedding cake for one of their children's or niece's weddings.
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