Growing up, my Mom hated cooking. That was solidly Papa’s department. But Mama loved baking, she made the most beautiful, professional quality cakes for our birthdays. We covered every surface of the kitchen and dining room with different kinds of cookies around Christmas. There was never just one pie at thanksgiving, probably because Papa’s favorite was Apple, and Mama wanted pecan and my sister wanted pumpkin.
I can picture the little brown bookcase Mama kept her cookbooks on. The largest of which being a giant red binder. Yes I kid you not this cookbook held so much information, that edition of it had been printed on thick notecards, whole punched and compiled into a 3-5 inch thick 3 ring binder.
We pulled that giant red binder down for everything from pie crust to the delicious buttercream frosting Mama covered every cake in.
The holidays were really emotional for me this year. While I don’t typically always spend the actual holiday with my parents, I’m always at their house near the holidays. Coupled with the fact that I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen my parents in person this year (not a normal phenomenon for me), there were a lot of silent tears in the kitchen, a lot of added baked goods and sentimental memories.
Papa didn’t always help with the baking, he was usually climbing on top of the roof putting up lights or working, or taking a nap before finishing the amazing dinners he gave us. But Mama, my older sister and I would gather in the kitchen and bake batch after batch of cookies, each have a portion of the pies we were working on. My job was always peeling the apples haha.
I got really nostalgic, I wanted to be crowded into the kitchen with my Mom, peeling apples while she worked on pie crust. So of course I texted her yet again asking for a recipe. My poor Mom, I’m constantly texting her asking for a recipe, or cooking/baking advice. This year she decided I was a big girl and should look it up. She quoted me the page number of the cookbook. So I faithfully pulled out my Betty Crocker cookbook she gave me and turned to the allotted page number which had nothing to do with pies…
Why you ask? Because my Mom gave me the “Fix-It-Fast” book when I moved out on my own. Which don’t get me wrong this book is fabulous, it is full of simple easy dishes that you can easily alter and add to and they are actually fast and relatively cheap to make, mine is full of sticky notes marking recipes I meal planned, recipes I liked etc. It does not however tell you how to make a pie.
I wasn’t surprised when I opened the present they sent for christmas and under the next novel in the series my Mom and I are reading I found my own (thankfully much smaller bound) copy of what I am now referring to as my cooking bible: Betty Crocker’s “Cookbooks, everything you need to know, to cook from scratch”. This of course only made me more nostalgic and while I sat there for an hour flipping through the recipes and deciding that I want to make literally everything in the book, I started tearing up.
This book is my childhood, it is every holiday, standing in the kitchen with my family. It is happy moments, a constant between 3 different childhood homes. It holds the recipes that when tasted bring that feeling of warmth and happiness. Family holidays spent sitting around the fire, laughter and family game nights while pie that I didn’t like as a child (I ate the ice cream instead) was consumed hours after holiday dinner.
It is also full of new memories waiting to be made. Memories of me happily baking and cooking in my own kitchen, seeing the faces of my boys as they try what I make. Memories of sitting there on holidays eating those same special recipes, and new ones that I choose to add.
I am very excited to continue reading this book. I’m going to attempt donuts and macarons. I also found that every cornbread recipe I’ve tried in the last couple years was not perfect because the one my Mom made clearly came from this book.
To my fellow cooking book lovers, or any book lovers who want to learn how to cook. This book really is the bible. I always went to the same pages as a kid, pulling the recipe I needed for the holiday, but yesterday as I was flipping through I realized this book should go to every child that moves out. It covers everything from how to boil water to how to make meringue. Ok I don't think it actually has a page on boiling water, but it is so packed with simple tips and instructions that I wouldn’t be surprised.
The short of it is, making new traditions is great, but being handed a guide-book to the memories of your childhood, to the tastes and smells of some of your happiest days is the best present in the world….and I’m crying again haha thank you Mama for giving me not only a book that leads to those memories but of spending so much time in the kitchen patiently baking with my distracted childhood self.
“Betty Crocker Cookbook: Everything you need to know, to cook from scratch” by Betty Crocker
https://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crocker-Cookbook-12th-Everything/dp/0544648927
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