Sunday, September 11, 2011

Grandma's Cooking

"The secret that makes grandma's cooking taste so terrific is that she always adds a spoonful of love." Grandma Jan

Chocolate No-Bakes, Homemade Noodles, Cherry Pies, Molasses Cookies, Sunday Dinner, ... those words bring a flood of memories to mind. Yes, the food was delicious, but most important was the love our Grandmas put into making food for us, caring for us, and making special favorites just for us. You just feel loved sitting down at Grandma's table.

I have short stubby fingers like my Grandma Wood. I can shut my eyes and see those little hands rolling out homemade noodles and picture her teaching me the secrets of the perfect pie crust and pies. My Mother did not make pies so the teaching fell to Grandma one summer in Sierra Vista, AZ.

Whenever they came to Arizona she would make each one of us our favorite pie and when we arrived in Logan for a visit several pies, and the noodles, would be waiting for us. Mine was Cherry Pie, Mother loved Chocolate Cream Pie, Daddy liked custard... but I think all her pies were great!

Maybe my Grandma Wood pie memories is what makes me enjoy making Cherry Pies with Clint and Megan and I look forward to making them with my Grandchildren some day.

Grandparent's Day

Today is Grandparent's Day. It got me to thinking about grandparents - mine, my children's, what God says about them, and ...

"Grandma always made you feel she had been waiting to see just you all day and now the day was complete" Marcy DeMaree

As a child we never lived close to Grandma and Grandpa Wood - we had to be content with summer visits to Kansas and many summers they came to Arizona to spend 2 to 3 weeks with us. Grandpa would tell my Mother "Sissie, when I run out of things to do, we'll head home." Mother would make sure she had a long list of things for Grandpa to fix or do so we could keep them as long as possible.

When I married, it was to a Kansas Man and we lived just 20 miles from my Grandma and Grandpa Wood. My children were able to have a different kind of relationship with them and it was so fun to live near them. They shared stories, home cooking, garden bounty, card games and a whole lot of love with us and our girls. They did make us feel like they had been waiting all day for us to arrive and spend time with them.

We always called them Grandma and Grandpa Wood, but Grandma signed our cards "Love, Gram and Gramps" and it was wonderful opening a card and seeing that written there - that's how I got my "grandma name" - I'm Gram to Chloe, Kaleah, Jeremiah and Lilly.