Happy summer, everyone!
The Wades have been traveling! In June our entire family went to California to see my parents, my sister’s crew, and extended family. We came home from California, unpacked, did laundry, packed, and left again for Florida to mooch off of spend time with my other sister and her family at the beach house they rented.
The kids at Sea World San Diego.
At the Florida beach with cousins.
While we were in Florida, my mom made a dish that her mother (Grandma) used to make. Chicken artichoke salad.
Recipe:
1 box chicken flavored rice
2 green onions, chopped
10 green olives, sliced
1/2 of a green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 jar marinated artichokes (slice and save liquid)
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
The meat of 1 rotisserie chicken, chopped
Cook rice according to directions and cool. Add onion, pepper, and olives. Drain oil from jar of artichokes and mix it with mayonnaise and curry. Add mayonnaise mixture to rice. Add chicken and chill.
Grandma used to serve this salad for lunch with a slice of buttered toast and salted and peppered cantaloupe. She and Grandpa had a time-share condo in Palm Springs and I distinctly remember her dishing up cold chicken artichoke salad to me there when I’d come in from the sun and the pool.
My grandma and me.
Mamaw and Papaw (my dad’s parents) holding me.
Both of my grandmothers were wonderful women and wonderful cooks. Both passed away some time ago. But as my mom, my sister, and I sat around a table in Florida eating chicken artichoke salad, we were reminded of them powerfully. We spent most of the meal talking about them and remembering all the things they’d loved to cook.
Foods, like scents, can take us back in time, can’t they?
L to R: Mamaw, my two sisters, me, and Grandma at my college graduation.
In addition to chicken artichoke salad, we fondly reminisced about Grandma’s vegetable soup, waffles, bacon, coffee, strawberry shortcake, the Rocky Road ice cream she always kept in the freezer, and her root beer floats.
Mamaw was most famous for her Sunday lunches. We’d frequently drive to her house after church and she’d serve us a meal that always included mashed potatoes, beef, salad, and (arguably most memorable of all) her puffy ‘clover leaf’ bread rolls. Here’s a recipe that looks similar to hers.
Photo Credit: mccun934 via Compfight cc
Mamaw knew her way around desserts, too. She must have made hundreds of pecan and lemon meringue pies and a hundred and one batches of ‘sandies‘.
I can’t tell you how thankful I am for the Godly influence of these women in my life. I dearly, dearly loved them. They’re in heaven now, but their food is timeless and links me to them still. It links them to my children’s generation, also.
L to R: Papaw and Mamaw, Grandpa and Grandma, me, His Highness, and his two grandmothers at our wedding.
I have my grandmothers’ recipes. Even though I’m not a skilled cook (to say the least) I can make their dishes with my own kids while chatting with them about their heritage of faith and cooking.
What are the dishes you most remember your mother or grandmother cooking? Do you sometimes bring out their recipes and make them yourself?
Becky Wade
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Hi Becky,
Sounds like you’ve had a busy but fun summer! And from one end of the country to the other! I loved the old pictures of your family. They’re precious! I’m heading to a family gathering in a couple of weeks to celebrate my grandma’s 95th birthday. My grandma used to make lots of jello salads and chocolate covered rice crispie bars! She also always made an Oreo icecream cake every time we came to visit her. It was our absolute favorite! I now make that for my kids, although I used store bought fudge (even though she used to make her own).
Hope you settle back in and catch up on laundry again! 🙂
Jody
Jello salads! Yes! That takes me back. And you just may need to share the recipe for the Oreo ice cream cake here at Inspired by Life… and Fiction, Jody. I’d love to try it! Sounds like a perfect summer dessert.
A very happy birthday to your grandma!
Becky – You’ve truly been from sea to shining sea. 🙂 I have a sweet tooth, so it’s probably not surprising that the foods that readily come to mind when thinking of my grandmothers are desserts. Christmas was almost always spend at my dad’s parents’ house in northern California. (Dad liked to sneak us over to Nevada and Lake Tahoe for some snow skiing over the holiday.) My grandmother always made Christmas goodies, but my favorite was the simple strips of shortbread always kept in a covered dish next to the sofa. No fancy decorations on those, just plain strips of white cookie, but I loved them. They always seemed so unappreciated in the corner, but I wonder now if my grandmother knew that’s where I’d be able to get into them the easiest when no one was looking. 🙂
My mother’s mom always had a garden going. I remember picking strawberries from her bushes and popping them straight into my mouth as a kid. She made the best jams – especially when my grandpa went down to the creek and harvested wild blackberries. Yum! But my favorite goody of hers was an unusual recipe. Persimmon cookies. So moist, with cinnamon and spices and raisins – I gobbled those down as fast as she could make them. And she always seemed to have some ready when we came to visit. I’ve never seen them anywhere else, but I can’t think of her without thinking about those cookies.
Goodness – you’ve got me writing a book here. LOL. I guess food really does tap into those memories we treasure. Thanks for the walk down memory lane!
I loved reading your memories, Karen. My dad’s parents had a big garden, too! I most remember the tiny green grapes on vines. And my dad’s mom made plum jelly every year from plums she grew in her garden. I almost always (like right now) have a jar of plum jam in my fridge. Thanks to her it’s my favorite flavor.
Becky, you have my mouth watering! And I’m trying to lose a few pounds of summer blubber! I have my grandmother’s hand-written recipe book. She was an amazing cook and had beautiful handwriting to boot. Thanks for the recipes…I have company coming next weekend and I’m going to make your chicken recipe for them. There’s no calories in it, right?
There’s no calories in it, Lynn! 😉 Your grandmother’s hand-written recipe book — what a treasure that must be.
What a special post, Becky – – and sweet photos too. (You were a beautiful bride, by the way). 🙂
My mother and both grandmothers were all excellent cooks, so I have lots of “yummy memories” of their meals (especially from
my precious Mama). Every year for my birthday, Mama would bake my very favorite cake: a white layer cake with the BEST caramel icing. She made one every year for me up until she was in a nursing home. The year she died, I was still teaching school and it was springtime (Mama’s favorite season). Two weeks after Mama’s passing, a dear older co-worker (who had NO idea that Mama always baked me a caramel cake), baked a cake for me and brought it to our school. When she told me what kind it was, I began crying – – and after tasting it, I was amazed. That lady’s caramel icing tasted more like Mama’s than any other I’ve ever eaten! I knew it was a “God thing” because I was missing Mama so much.
Yes, food can certainly stir up sweet memories for us. Thanks for sharing (and for posting that recipe–YUM!).
Hugs, Patti Jo
What a beautiful story, Patti Jo! It should be in a novel. 🙂
A white layer cake with caramel icing sounds amazing. I don’t believe I’ve tried one like that, but now you’ve made me hungry for one….
I enjoyed reading that post! Our grandmothers knew how to cook, that’s for sure! No microwaveable meals for them! My grandmother was 100% Italian, and she could make a mean Italian dish! I love making her ziti or lasagna. Then again, I also love her zucchini squares and her anise cookies. The list goes on and on. She taught my mother (her daughter-in-law) how to cook, and if the Lord should choose to give me a daughter (one son right now!), I would definitely pass these recipes on.
It’s wonderful that our grandmothers bring their culture into their cooking and our lives, isn’t it? I’m swooning at the thought of your grandmother’s lasagna and ziti!