Grandma would bake "a nice loaf of date nut bread" whenever someone died. Whenever anyone was under the weather she made chicken soup, rich with egg noodles and white meat chicken. Whenever anyone had a cough, she made a concoction of lemon juice, honey and egg whites.
I have so many memories of my grammy...pretty much all centered around her no nonsense cooking.. Grammy didn't have much but she had this way of making me feel special whenever we spent time together. One phone call to her about spending the weekend at her house (she lived a mere 4 miles from us) would send her flying to Laughlin's market to get freshly ground "steakburger", and frankfurters that snapped when you bit into them. Friday night was a burger cooked in her cast iron skillet with a pat of butter (oh, my arteries), and Saturday was ALWAYS franks and beans night, and to top it all off,...butterscotch pudding served in her fancy square depression glass dishes, topped with a dollop of freshly whipped cream.
To me, this was just routine..it's what grammies did...it was how she expressed her love. Apparently it rubbed off on me because I have spent years cooking and baking for my two children and all of their friends ( will get to that later) and now that my first grandchild will be arriving, my grandma apron is neatly tied around my waist...waiting to bake cookies...waiting to wrap my arms around this wonderful creature...waiting to spend many moments teaching him/her how to produce magic through cooking
So, my friends....time to begin my blog...hope you all will like it....I will start with Gram's recipe for stuffed tomatoes (as I remember it....she never wrote it down)...and will continue on with some of my own in future blogs
heat oven to 375
grease an oversized 6 unit muffin tin
6 large ripe tomatoes
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, diced very small ( or use packaged shredded cheese)
2 stalks celery, finely diced
1 small onion, finely diced
2 slices bread, torn into small pieces
cut the tops off the tomatoes and scoop out the insides...place in bowl along with all of the cheese, celery, onion and bread.and salt and pepper to taste..mix well..place the hollowed out tomato shells into the muffin tins and stuff them with the mixture...Pile them nice and high....bake about 30-40 minutes or until the tomatoes are nice and soft and the cheese mixture is bubbly
We used to have this as our main course with fresh corn on the cob and a big salad. I have made this dish using smaller tomatoes and served it as a side..I have also made this dish with huge beefsteak tomatoes...it all comes out DELICIOUS
I've spent the last week in my mother's kitchen, watching her whip up lemon squares, caramel brownies, Moroccan-style turkey meatballs, garlicky tomato chutney served cold over whole wheat pasta, fruit salads, juicy grilled meats...my mouth is in a constant state of watering.
I grew up in a suburb of Boston, and our house was remotely located on six acres of wooded land that bordered a conservation area. We didn't have many neighbors - my playmates included a deer I named Freckles and a fox that I would hand-feed bologna. It wasn't the smartest idea, but who thinks of that when they're 9?
Deep in the thicket behind our backyard, Concord grapes grew wild in fragrant clusters, and every year, when the tail end of summer bumped up against the autumn, my father would take me and my brother out to to the woods so we could fill paper grocery bags with these plump wild fruits. Mom would spend two days making jar after jar of jelly, and the winter months were spent smearing the sweetly tannic stuff on breakfast toast and peanut butter sandwiches.
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