I love family recipes. I love the history behind them and the fuzzy feeling of fond memories you get when you make the recipes.
Like so many families in America, my family is broken. I have a mother, a father, a step-mother, and an ex-step father. I consider all of them my parents. That's 4 different legacies of food.
What I remember from my dad growing up was bags of frozen mixed veggies that we doused with butter in order to eat. It seemed like we ate that, tv dinners in front of Nick-at-Night (one of my all time favorite memories), or Pizza Hut.
My step-dad was a good cook, very gourmet. Of course, being a teenager filled with angst, I didn't appreciate it. I even resented it. I wanted cream of something soup casseroles and take out.
My step-mom is a cook. She is creative in the kitchen. I have memories of her chicken casserole, green beans boiled to death, and her chocolate log roll. I'm thankful she came along and married my dad...for so many reasons. But, the fact that he didn't have to eat tv dinners is on that list of reasons.
My mom cooked ok. Before she met her 2nd husband, she was a single working mom...very busy. So, I don't remember much of the meals from that time. I was also very young. I do have pretty sweet memories of her making me breakfast. Sausage and pancakes (pre-vegetarian days of course). After my mom got remarried, my step-dad did most of the cooking and mom did all the fun cooking. I have fond memories of this strawberry pecan jello. She was the one who introduced me to Granny Smith apples with Munster cheese together. In fact, she has been the most instrumental in exposing me to different foods throughout the years...even today.
When I was a little girl, she made these cookie things. I think they were actually a kind of candy, not really a cookie. All I remember is peanut butter rolled up in some kind of a powdered sugar mixture. I LOVED them. My mom made them and when I was reorganizing her recipes years ago, I came across the recipe, so I copied it.
Fast forward too many years to actually say out loud, and I have 4 little people in my house. I'd love for them to have the same fuzzy feeling over some family recipes. Which is why I put this on my list.
I wanted to make them again to see if I still like them and something I want to pass on to my kids.
No. It's not. I either made them horribly wrong or I liked some pretty horrible things as a kid. Either way, I'll be asking my mom to make them again next time she's in town.
Because like so many family recipes, I can just never make it as good as my mom, step-mom, dad, ex-step-dad.
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