"jmcquown" > wrote in message
...
> Nexis wrote:
> > My favorites are sometimes more techniques than they are recipes, and
> > my grandma Ma's recipes often included measurements like "A handful
> > of..." "A couple soup spoons of...", and instructions like "mix it
> > til it feels right".
> >
> Grandma Mac's "butter the size of a walnut" is classic


My Grandma was a widow who singly raised five sons (from about 1910 on until
she died in the 60's) along with most of the township before any concept of
"Daycare" was invented. Talk about a cook -- she was the lady you went to
for 150 lbs. of potato salad for your wedding reception, that kind of thing.
Always had two thirty-two- cup pots of coffee on the stove because the world
came and went all day every day and night.

When I was small she cooked on a coal-fired range. There was a different
kind cake every night for supper, and I remember sitting at the kitchen
table watching her make one -- it took her all of 30 seconds from big bowl
and spoon onto the counter until popping it in the oven. All the dry stuff
was in the cupboard at hand, and she just scooped it in the bowl by the
handfuls, poured in the milk and eggs and stirred (In those days you held
the big bowl in the crook of your arm while mixing) then dumped it in the
cake pans. There was always someplace in the oven, along with the roast,
that was the right temp for a cake. She seldom frosted them except for
birthdays, and often spread them with her homemade jams.

I think the only thing she ever measured was a teaspoon of sugar in her tea,
which she poured into and drank from the saucer. I have never seen a written
recipe in her hand.

Buddy