Those of you who knew my beloved Grannie Gilbert knew that the woman could cook. It was a big part of her job as a housewife bearing four kids and then baby-sitter to a few grandchildren (including this one.) She was not a gourmet chef but instead a master of comfort foods. You could call her when confronted with the hard question of "I have a recipe that calls for this spice but I can't find it anywhere, what can I use as a substitution?" I only heard her admit to not mastering one thing: meringue. It is the trickiest of the pie toppings, after all. She took every meal she made seriously, and always had the perfect complimentary side dishes and bread to every entree. Any holiday or celebration could be met with a breakfast, dinner, or at least a "Hoo-rah" pie. Heck, if you just said you had a craving for a fudge pie, you could bet that you would have a fudge pie waiting for you to pick up the next day.
I have already endured one birthday without my annual birthday meal. As I was planning my dinners for this week, I suddenly wrote down what I remembered going in Grannie Gilbert's birthday meatloaf. If Grannie is no longer around to make the meal, I will take over the tradition. Since I was just cooking for me and my Sweetie, I downsized it to fit our bellies plus a left-over meal to make my co-workers jealous. The recipe I came up with last night looked something like this:
1 lb. ground beef
A little less than half- 1 green bell pepper
Half of red onion
1 1/2 tablespoons- oatmeal
1/3 cup of ketchup
salt and pepper
1/2 can of tomato sauce
Mix all together in bowl, bake in small loaf pan at 400 degrees until brown throughout and grease has risen to the top. Release the meat loaf from the pan, draining grease. Reduce heat of oven to 315 degrees (I just left the door open to cool off while preparing the rest) Transfer to a small casserole dish and cover with tomato sauce, return to oven. Bake for 10 minutes.
I made mashed potatoes to go with. Historically, the full birthday dinner also consisted of pinto beans, cole slaw, and cornbread.
We made a "big deal" out of the meal and ate at the table. As I took in my first morsel of meat loaf, I was overcome with delight. I had somehow channeled Helen Gilbert while making the meal and made the exact same recipe that she always made. When the meal came to a close, I sat there and had a silent conversation with my Grandmother, and then with God, thanking him for blessing me with this wonderful woman who taught me to make wholesome meals to make for my future family. I will never fail in giving credit for those meals to my Grannie who took great care of me as a child and taught me the ways of cooking. I can only hope that these recipes will be passed on to my children and grandchildren.
What have you learned to cook from your Grandmother?
1 comment:
When I was a small child I stayed with my maternal grandma while my mother was at work. Grandma had a June apple tree in her backyard from which she could make all sorts of delicacies. She's the one who taught me how to make desserts so she is probably the reason why I spend a great deal of my time on a diet: that sweet tooth of mine has just grown longer over the years! :)
Whenever I have an opportunity to purchase those early little green apples at a local orchard or farmers market I make homemade applesauce and apple pies like she taught me. And I eat bits of the pie dough to remember how she gave me scraps as a reward for rolling it out.
My mom taught me to cook most everything else, including meatloaf, but when it comes to channeling my own grandma it is definitely in the area of sweets containing apples.
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