My Grandma (my dad's mother) passed away when I was in the 4th grade. I don't have a ton of memories of her just because I was so young and she lived way up in Wisconsin - a veeeeery long drive that we made once or twice a year. My main memories of visiting Grandma and Grandpa are sensory - the smell of the barn, the feeling of running through the corn field, the sound of the tractor my dad would take us for rides on, the sight of the lightning in the crazy summer thunderstorms. But the strongest memories are related to the food. Grandma would always have baked TONS of delicious cookies for us that we'd stuff ourselves silly on. She'd fix German potato dumplings and sauerkraut. Grandpa would always be making us ice-cream cones. They'd also have fresh corn on the cob for us (that I refused to eat on the cob as a child and required the kernels to be sliced off before I would touch them). It was culinary heaven - although I probably didn't recognize that at the time.
My dad has a brother and sister who we rarely see. They are still up north (Yankees!) and until recently, I'm ashamed to say, my cousins could probably have passed me on the street and we wouldn't have recognized one another. But thankfully, most of the northern family was able to come down for Jon's wedding last summer. During all the long-lost-family-time, I got to talking with my Aunt LouAnn about my garden and attempts at making pickles. My pickle-making last year failed miserably for the most part and I was sorely disappointed about it. But Aunt LouAnn told me that she still had Grandma's recipe cards! Grandma was a consummate pickler and another memory of visiting her is sampling all the many varieties of pickles she'd made. Much to my delight, Aunt LouAnn photocopied some of her favorites of Grandma's and mailed them to me.
Tonight, I used one of Grandma's recipes for the first time - Refrigerator Pickles! Made with cucumbers and dill from my garden. I haven't been able to taste them yet because they're still cooling...but they look beautiful and smell delicious! I'm so thankful that even though Grandma has been gone from this world for some 20 years now, I'm able to draw closer to her through her recipes...reading her handwriting, following her instructions, and cooking in a way that (I should have) admired as a little child. Now I wonder...does Aunt LouAnn have the recipe for Grandma's peanut butter cookies?
