Middle Aged and Living Well

Jane Anne Trawick, my dad's sister in Texas

I lost my Aunt last night to a long battle with breast cancer.  She lived in Texas, so we only saw her occasionally, but stayed in touch through modern technologies of emails, Facebook and even telephones.  What I will miss about her the most is she was my last connection to my family’s cooking history.  She was the one the provided the family recipes and the stories surrounding that food.

My mom, who died many years ago was not a great cook.  She was an artist, but her cooking style was that of a 50′s housewife.  She took advantage of the modern processed foods and served those daily.  Her biggest skill was whipping something up when one of her 3 sons would open the pantry or refrigerator and proclaim that their was nothing to eat.  But I don’t know anything about what she ate growing up.  I have no Ross family recipes.  I all do know is she loved onion sandwiches and creamed pickled herring.

I have great food memories from my Dad’s family.  Growing up in California, we visited relatives in Texas regularly including my Aunt and grandparents.  Just mention my grandmother Leen (short for Eileen) and I have food memories.  I have fond memories of making peppermint ice cream, chocolate cream pie, stringing green beans in their back yard, Kolaches (a pastry local to the hill country of Texas), fresh slice tomatoes, getting pies in Hico, turkey sandwiches from the local turkey ranch, gulf shrimp, red beans, even heading to the drug store with Two Daddy (my grandfather) to get a Dr. Pepper or Big Red soda.

Many years ago, before web sites and the age of the internet, my wife and I collected family recipes and published a family cookbook which we gave out as Christmas gifts one year.  My Aunt was the key supplier of recipes to the cookbook.  Before my Dad passed away, I told him about one recipe she provided, Ice Box Rolls.  As soon as I mentioned the name, his eyes lit up, I swear he started to druel and he described to me how Leen would make these in a cast iron pan with a gooey carmel top and once he heard the sound of her banging the pan on the counter to release the gooey wonderfulness, it was time to head to the kitchen.  Food memories are wonderful.

As a tribute to my Aunt and to my food family tree, I will post many of the recipes from the original family cookbook so that my kids and relatives can keep these memories alive.  I encourage all of you to reach out to your elder family members and cook with them and ask them about their food memories. Cook those memories and don’t worry about calories, fat, carbs or any other nutritional component, just enjoy the experience and pass them on to younger generations.

Jane Anne, thanks for link to my past, the memories and thanks for all those chocolate cream pies.