Additional cooking memories

I have been receiving a lot of comments from people about how some of my childhood memories have sparked memories in them and they have been sharing them via the blog and via email. One person at the office has already said that his mother is going to be quite annoyed with me because he is going to be asking her to make all the foods that came back to his memory from his childhood - corn fritters, potato pancakes with fresh applesauce and chicken fricassee.

I haven't thought of chicken fricassee in forever but Grandmother Cronise used to make what she called chicken fricassee. I honestly don't know what it should be but it was a stewed chicken in cream gravy with lemon infused sausage meatballs. And we loved it. She probably only made it once or twice a year but it was a very special meal. Some other favorites that she made were sauerbraten with potato dumplings that were filled with fried croutons. Grandmother would marinate the beef for days and the gingersnap gravy that became part of the dish was just incredible. I still have never had sauerbraten as good as Grandmother made. One time when I was in college she made a batch of it and sent it up to me in a big blue enamel bowl. I have the recipe but haven't made it but once or twice myself and never, never have been able to achieve those mashed potato dumplings.

One other dish particularly sticks out in my mind that we always had on Good Friday. We called it mustard fish. I don't recall if it was halibut or haddock but it was poached with onions and carrots and celery in a mustard sauce and served over mashed potatoes. We only ever had it about once a year and we actually looked forward to Good Friday in a way that was the tiniest bit inappropriate. So many of my memories of Grandmother revolve around the wonderful food that she cooked for us, every bit of it uniquely hers, every bit of it full of love. I sat down with her one day to collect as many recipes of hers as I possibly could. She gave them to me as best she could. It was always "a pinch of this and a pinch of that until it tastes good." I did get pretty good at her German potato salad but some of the others I'll never be able to match. Two very particular desserts that she used to make were Baltimore Peach Cake and this wonderful crumb cake. Mom recently gave me the recipe for the crumb cake and, while it was good, still it just wasn't the same. Grandmother used to make them in these baking pans that had the slider wand - a wand in the bottom of the pan that would loosen the cake. They were probably purchased from the Jewel Tea man that used to come to the house on a regular basis. I actually remember the Fuller Brush man coming to our house also.

I'll talk more about Grandmother later but suffice to say she is one of the people who had the strongest influence on my life. I was in Key West on vacation (I don't remember the year) when I woke up one morning and somehow sensed that the world was different. I called home and, sure enough, Grandmother had passed away quietly in her sleep in a very gentle way. I could just tell what had happened. For the funeral service I had written some of these memories that I wasn't able to share myself but our minister read them for me. After it was over everybody in the family came up to me and said, "How could you forget the mustard fish?" Somehow I had left that out of the memories. There were just so, so many wonderful memories of that loving woman. I don't mean to be maudlin or melancholy but as I lie here sometimes I remember some wonderful, wonderful recollections of childhood. I'll eventually get to college days and the other wonderful people who have blessed my life.