FOOD TRADITIONS

I love food that I love.  Even thinking about it  – good ol' comfort food that I'm familiar with.  Rarely does a new recipe taste as good as a tried and true, many-times-cooked dish.  And it's fun to think about where they started.  Sundays growing up – roast and gravy and potatoes - don't forget the peas.  I'd love for someone now to cut up a banana and place the slices on a piece of iceberg lettuce, especially on a hot summer's day, just like Mom did.  Meatloaf and baked potatoes?  I cringed when Mom said that's what we were having for dinner, but not anymore.  A "Burt"-sized piece of chocolate cake.  The days following Thanksgiving with turkey smothered in cranberry sauce on a roll sprinkled with salt.

It's fun to think about where some of these most familiar and looked-forward-to foods came from.  

FUDGE

Mom remembers that at the "cousins' parties," if her Aunt Wynona (Grandma Webb's sister-in-law) was there, so was the fudge. 

Wynona, Grandma Cottrell, Mickie, Maida, (the Aunts)
Maida Jean (Mom) (being held), Marilyn, Bobbie, Colleen (cousins)

Great-Aunt Wynona Cottrell

Then, through Mom, we became the recipient of chocolate heaven.  Now, happily for us, Patti is the designated fudge maker.   

Patti's well-used fudge recipe

APPLESAUCE COOKIES

Along with carrot cookies and orange frosting, I remember having applesauce cookies.  So when I got married, I started making applesauce cookies and have never stopped. When the kids came along, I doubled the batch.  I'm now having to force myself to make just a single batch for me and Scott, we don't need over 60 cookies at one time; we want them, but we don't need them.  I wish I knew how many thousands of applesauce cookies I have made over the years...

Mom said she got the recipe from our across-the-street neighbor Donna Meadows.  THANK YOU, DONNA!  When Scott and I moved back into the home on Antimony in 1985, Donna and Lee became good friends, and through all those years of living there, I probably didn't realize that is where the recipe came from to thank her for it.  

APPLESAUCE COOKIES

1/2 c shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup applesauce
3 cups flour
1 t cloves
1 t cinnamon
1-1/2 t baking soda
1 t vanilla
1/4 t salt
chocolate chips (1/2 package)
Cream shortening and sugar.  Add egg and vanilla.  Sift all dry ingredients.  Add alternately with applesauce. Add chocolate chips.  Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.  Makes about 30 cookies.

Applesauce Cookies

MANICOTTI

Around 1995, we had a ward Relief Society social.  Cleo Ricks (Karen Travis' mother) brought a manicotti dish and I got her recipe.  I started making it and it has become a favorite of mine and the kids, and now even Addy!  

Karen Travis holding Brock, 1991
(For all of the time we all spent with the Travis' I could find
very few pictures. I loved this one.)

MANICOTTI

1 large carton cottage cheese

8 oz mozzarella, grated

2 eggs

parsley flakes, salt pepper

Mix ingredients.  With narrow spoon, fill uncooked manicotti shells.  Place in 9x13 pan with space between shells.  Mix 1 cup water with 32 oz. jar spaghetti sauce, pour over shells covering completely. Bake, covered tightly with foil, at 375 for 45-60 minutes. 

Do you know where your favorite foods come from?