SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
As for desserts – mother made a terrific cherry pie. I remember as a child going to Bosque Farms, just outside of Albuquerque, and picking cherries off the tree. Mother had a hand-cranked machine that was a cherry-pitter.
Credit Google Search and eBay
Put a cherry in, crank the handle, and it would remove the pit and “spit” it out one way, and the remaining cherry another way. Much easier than hand-pitting. She would freeze the cherries in containers, with just enough to make a pie. That pie was usually our Sunday night dessert, with fresh vanilla ice cream. Yummmm.
Credit Google Search and Dreamstime.com
I’ve also mentioned before that we had a lone peach tree in our back yard. The peach tree is directly behind Bill.
My brother, Bill Lites, with his young daughter in our back yard.
Daddy really pampered that tree – wrapped it in cheese cloth so the birds couldn’t get to it, fertilized it, watered it – and it produced some of the largest, sweetest peaches I’ve ever tasted. Mother would take the peaches, seed and cut them up, and freeze them. Sometimes in the summer we would make our own ice cream (I got to sit on top of the churn – it was covered with folded towels) and she would add some of those cut-up peaches. Delicious!!
Credit Google Search and White Mountain website
She also made a frozen jam (uncooked – just hot enough to dissolve the sugar) with some of the peaches, and we would top hot buttered biscuits with that. Oh boy! was that good! When our girls were growing up, I tried my hand at that, but they didn’t like it. So I make a frozen strawberry jam, and they like that. But I certainly remember that frozen peach jam.
I also remember that she would save the seeds from any apples we ate until she had “just enough.” I don’t remember how many were “just enough,” but she would boil the seeds and from the juice left, would make an apple seed jelly. It was a little bland, but was still tasty. That would also go on buttered biscuits. I’ve had other apple jam and apple butter, but nothing like what my mother made.
One thing mother made that Bill and I both have avoided since then: sauerkraut and wieners. That wasn’t one of daddy’s favorite meals, so she would only fix it when he was away on a business trip. It, obviously, was an easy meal to fix, and she did it at least once each time daddy was traveling. After having lived in Germany for six years, I realize that German sauerkraut is much, muchdifferent from American sauerkraut. The German style does not have nearly as much vinegar in it, and it just much more tasty. Nevertheless, I don’t eat much sauerkraut these days.
Mother would also make macaroni and cheese as a meal, but usually with spaghetti noodles rather than either shells or elbow macaroni. She said that once, she found bugs in the elbow macaroni, and refused to use it any more. But the spaghetti noodles make a good macaroni and cheese dish, as well.
Credit Google search and Cracker Barrel website
There are probably a lot of other dishes my mother made, but these stand out in my mind and memory. She didn’t waste anything, and would try to find a way to use everything she had. She was a great cook. Wish I was as good as she was.
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Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years.
After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience. Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites, Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix
Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 58 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, writing blogs for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing. He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum in Titusville. Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.
Old Things R New 