"Buddy" > wrote in message
...
>
> "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
>
>

These are lovely stories. I do miss my grandparents when I read things like
this. They *all* had their quirks and amazing abilities!

HH