Creamed Corn

After cutting the kernels off the cob, she'd take the backside of the knife, scrape the cob
hard all the way around to get every bit of of the 'corn milk', thus enhancing the flavor...

My Mom made the best creamed corn. She always made sure to scrape the cob after cutting off the corn to get all the tasty 'corn milk'.  She used milk, butter, a bit of sugar plus flour, salt, and pepper to add to the corn after cooking it in a bit of water for a few minutes, to thicken and enhance the flavor. 

I loved her creamed corn - especially with a Sunday roast chicken meal...

Putting Up and Putting By

In our basement, which was just rough cement walls and floor, was a root cellar left from the days when there wasn't a proper basement under the house when my grandparents built it in 1906. Later in the 1950s came the basement. My parents continued to use the dark cellar for potatoes and carrots, and other root vegetables. But my mother also had many shelves, and they were very full when I was very little. Over the years she did less and less when it was only me and Dad, and my sisters had grown and left. She took her first full-time out-of-the-home job in 1974 to help attain some financial goals her and Dad had before he retired in 1987. She still canned even then, but only as little as possible. She began experimenting with freezing some vegetables. I will never forget the many meals we had during many long, dark winters with food she and Dad grew and then put up. That was the beginning of my 'pickiness' about food; if it wasn't as good as Mom's, it wasn't good enough...

McIntosh Apples' Bicentennial

My favorite apple is celebrating it's 200th birthday this year.

McIntosh apples, which began in Canada, have mysterious origins.

Thank you, John McIntosh!

Mom's Plum Pudding

My Mom did a spectacular plum pudding* (which is somewhat similar to fruitcake...but not really...!) She was carrying on a tradition that her mother, my Grandma Fitzpatrick, had done before her.

She always shopped for the best suet fresh from the butcher's, candied fruits, and whole nuts to grind, over in Emerson. She canned some every year, and it was like wine, getting better the older you let it sit. At Thanksgiving or Christmas, we'd pop open a jar, steam the pudding until it was warm and plump, and then pour one of the two homemade sauces she made - lemon and caramel/butterscotch over the top of each serving - it was amazing. Sometimes, she even hid a coin in one of the servings to make it more fun!

* AKA Christmas Pudding; while my mother's pudding was heavenly, not all puddings are created equal...