My Mom's Recipes
 

When I asked my Mom for a couple of recipes - she said -

I make it exactly like this recipe - except for . . . . .

which were multiple changes, additions, or subtractions from the "original" recipe she showed me.

How about your Moms?

My mother always said "This is the way I do it". I tried never to duplicate anything she took to a get together. If she took an apple pie, I would try a different kind of pie or cake. I have her cookbook given to her when she married my father in 1948. Even has a recipe for opossum stew. Yep I said "Possum Stew". You can pm me if you want the recipe! LOL!

I don't think my mom used a recipe for anything she cooked or baked!! Some that she sent to me would say things like. ," a chunk of butter the size of an egg( or walnut, pea. marble. etc.) or enough liquid to make dough( batter, sticky, just enough to mix,etc) and always the "pinch of whatever She was a great cook, me, not so much, but I do find I measure ingredients pretty much the same!!lopl

My husband tried baking without measuring. Said he used to watch his grandma do it. Only problem was he saw the bottom side of her hand and not how much she put in it from the top side into her palm. I have to measure. My Grandmothers did and I still do.

My mom wasn't that great of a cook. Both my grandmas and mother-in-law were good cooks and bakers, but they didn't usually use recipes. I make my grandma's potato rolls and my MIL's pizza just from putting ingredients together and going by the "feel" of the doughs.

We were never allowed in the kitchen while mom was cooking. I guess we were too rowdy and she was afraid we would get burned. But, of the recipes mom passed on to me, they were precise and I still make them for the family at the get togethers and the dinners we have. Mom has been gone over ten years now, but the dishes live on in the family.
Through the years, I have asked for many recipes from other women. I love going through my binder and using those handwritten jewels. Sometimes it is the smallest thing that brings it up to a different level, right?

Most of my mother's recipes are written with measurements but you better understand the method because the directions are rather sketchy on most and missing on some. Fortunately I saw her cook and have enough experience that it isn't a problem. There is one recipe in particular that she guessed the amounts. I've been able to recreate it and have written down the measurements except for one. Eyeballing enough allspice is a bit tricky and I'm still working on the correct amount.

Yup mine was like that too and I am the same. several years after I got married, I actually sat down next to my mom making some of her favorite baked goods and wrote everything down including measurements. She passed away 10 yrs ago and siblings and friends are now enjoying those recipes too. I try to write some of my recipes down but have not been good at it.

I would love to be able to cook as well as my mother, my DD's think I do. But she knew how things were going to taste by the spices she added. While my sisters & I were growing up and she cooked all the time she could make biscuits and pie crust and noodles from scratch and no recipe. But after we grew up and she didn't cook as often she forgot what she called "the feel" or the "look". She had no problem handing over the big meals to my sisters and me when she felt overwhelmed by it all. Once my MIL told me when she made pies - she made them 13 at a time because she got 13 pie crusts from a can of Crisco. I just don't cook like that so those recipes are gone.

While my mother always told us she was not really good at cooking, none of us went hungry. There was always something good to eat at mealtimes. As she grew older though, after trying to pass on some of her favorite recipes to the four of us kids, not with much success, I am sorry to say, she always reminded us: "The best thing to make for dinner is reservations at a good restaurant."