Hunting for a Recipe

Today, I am hunting for a recipe. Not one that I am going to make today. Tomorrow is the women's group  or circle to which I belong at the church and it is having its bi-monthly meeting. The request is to bring your mother's favourite recipe.

Now the question is, is it the one she loved to make or one she liked to eat. I really can't recall one off the top of my head.

So where can I look to get an idea of one that she would have said was her favourite? Do I look in her cookbooks that I have? Did she write notes in them to suggest adjustments to what is printed? Do I look for pages that look well worn? Do I look at the recipes that she clipped? Did she ever make them?

Perhaps her favourite may be one that she submitted for the church cook books? In a small booklet entitled Cookies put together by Hilltop Messengers Unit, she submitted "Secrets". I see that I submitted "Butterscotch Mallow Squares" (likely one of my mother's recipes that I knew how to make). In another one, her contribution was "Peach Pudding" served with a brown sugar sauce. Yum Yum!

The last place I will look is a three ring binder. The entries have been done by three different people. The first was my Aunt Bessie (my mother's sister - Agnes Elizabeth Barlow nee Love). The second was my mom. The third was my sister. 

In my aunt's handwriting  is a favourite recipe for carrot cake and the brown sugar sauce. There are recipes for pies, cakes and cookies made from scratch.

My mom included recipes that she obtained from friends so I am sure she made them. 

Some of her favourites may not be written down as I can't find them.

What did she make that I love? -- Leftovers -- fried up potatoes and turnips; stew both cooked in the oven and on the stove top and her macaroni and cheese

Here is a recipe for stew called 
Gourmet Stew (recipe of Marg Passmore)
 1 1/2 lb stewing beef
2 potatoes cut in cubes
3 or 4 carrots
2 onions
4-6 pieces of celery cut up
frozen peas  -- doesn't say how much
1/2 can water
1 can tomato soup
1 bay leaf (remove after cooking)

Sprinkle the above with salt and pepper. Cover tightly and cook at 275 degrees for 4 1/2 hours.

DON'T PEAK

Which one will I take with me? I haven't decided yet.


© 2017 Janet Iles