Grandmother Memories

I recently inherited, from my mom and sister, two items that had once belonged to my grandmothers.  My sister gave me a platter that had been a part of my Grandmother Parson's china set.  The minute I saw the dish I was flooded with memories of my grandmother's dining room.  She used these dishes for every dinner.  I mostly remember them piled with pot roast, gravy, mashed potatoes, frozen green beans and dinner rolls.  Grandma's meals were mostly laden with starches.  She assured us we didn't need to worry about the calories in the macaroni and cheese, potatoes or bread as long as we cut the starch by eating a slice of fresh tomato!

The second was a recipe box that had belonged to my mother's mother - Grandma McCoy.

There weren't too many recipe cards left in the box after all of these years, but there were some real treasures.

These two were my favorites - Grandma's hand drawings of cuts of pork & beef.

I have great food memories of both my grandmothers.  Grandma Parson taught me basic cooking skills - how to peel a potato and an apple with a paring knife, not wasting one bit of flesh; how to use a pressure cooker to cook cheap, tough cuts of meat until they were tender and delicious; and how to roll a perfect pie crust.  I treasure the time I shared with her in the kitchen - listening to Graham Kerr on the radio while she enjoyed a "wee-bit" of sherry.

Food memories of my Grandma Coy are quite different.  Besides holiday dinners, I don't have many memories of grandma's kitchen - except getting my very stinky Toni hair permanents so mom could style my hair in ringlets.  I was grandma's first born grand-daughter and she loved taking me out shopping and to lunch.  I had my first "restaurant" meal with grandma.  She took me to the five-and-dime Kress Department Store in Glendale for a grilled cheese sandwich and a chocolate malt.  I still remember sitting next to her on the high, round stools at the soda fountain and feeling very grown up before we walked across the street to the Alex Theatre to watch the movie Dondi.

I loved sharing these food experiences with my grandmothers and now so delighted to share my love of food with my nieces, nephews and grandchildren.