Springtime reminds me of my mother. That is probably because the flowers are in bloom, and Momma loved cutting fresh flowers and creating beautiful arrangements around our home and at our church. From last frost to first frost, there were always fresh flowers on our dining room table and on the alter at Eudora Presbyterian Church – lovingly harvested from her own flower garden and arranged in a decorative container.
Momma could do just about anything she set her mind to. With her creative and dramatic flair, she had a wonderful eye for interior design, especially during the Christmas season. She could do needlepoint and cross stitch, do ceramics, create wreaths, and make the best bows in three counties. She could also fix the plumbing, maintain a perfectly clear swimming pool (a difficult task we took for granted until she wasn’t able to do it anymore), and even break a wild horse if needed.
Momma was also an accomplished home cook, taught by both her mother and father.
My grandmother, Evelyn, married my grandfather, Benoit, at age 15 when he returned home from World War II, and she wasn’t the best cook in the county to say the least. Shortly after their wedding, my grandfather purchased her an 800-plus page cookbook and began teaching her to cook. By the time I came around, Memommy was as good a cook as my paternal grandmother, Thelma, and Momma.
That cookbook, a real family treasure, was left to my sister, Deana, by my mother, and she is always happy to share one of the thousand recipes featured. That cookbook was used so much over the years, my father had it rebound, and so it will go through even more generations of our family.
One particular page in that cookbook is well-worn and splattered with chocolate drippings. It is the page featuring Memommy and Momma’s famous chocolate pie – my sister, Stephanie’s, favorite dish of all time. The recipe is tricky, and if you don’t follow the directions to the letter, your pie will not set up correctly and be soupy. But even the soup is fantastic.
Chocolate Pie
2 squares baking chocolate
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup flour
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 ½ cups milk
3 eggs separated
3.4 teaspoon vanilla
Baked 8-inch pie shell
1/3 cup sugar
Melt chocolate and butter over hot water in a double boiler. Mix flour, sugar, and salt and stir into chocolate; add milk slowly and stir constantly until mixture is fully thickened, about 15 minutes. Beat egg yolks well, stir in a little of the chocolate mixture, then pour into rest of hot mixture and cook two minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, cool partially, and stir in vanilla. Pour into pie shell. Beat egg whites until stiff, then slowly beat in the 1/3 cup sugar until stiff. Swirl meringue over pie filling so it touches edges of crust all around. Bake in 350 degree oven 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool before cutting.
Another of Memommy’s recipes that I love is her Hummingbird Cake. It is so light and topped with my favorite frosting, cream cheese.
Hummingbird Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 8-ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained
2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts
2 cups chopped bananas
Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl; add eggs and oil, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not beat. Stir in Vanilla pineapple, 1 cup chopped nuts, and banana.
Spoon batter into three well-greased and floured 9-inch cake pans. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until cake tests done. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans and ice with cream cheese frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 to 3.5 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice (or vanilla)
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest (optional)
Combine cream cheese and butter with a mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Mix in lemon juice (and lemon zest if using). Add in powdered sugar a bit at a time until fluffy. Do not overmix.
Every Christmas, my mother would make our neighbors her famous strawberry cake. This tradition went on for years, with our neighbors patiently waiting for their cake to be delivered.
Momma’s strawberry cake was always a hit at church covered-dish lunches and family get-togethers. Usually, the pan was scrapped clean before any other desert was tasted.
Strawberry Pecan Cake
1 package white cake mix
1 package small strawberry Jello
¾ cup of vegetable oil
½ cup milk
1 cup pecans
4 eggs
1 cup coconut
1 cup strawberries (equal to one small box of frozen strawberries plus juice)
Combine ingredients, pour into a sheet cake pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
Icing
1 stick butter
1 box confectioners’ sugar
1 cup coconut
1 cup pecans
1 cup strawberries (same as above)
Combine ingredients and spread over cooled cake.
After I returned home from college, Momma and I hosted a baby shower for one of my high school friends. She prepared a Bundt cake from a recipe she got from a garden club friend, and to this day, it is probably my favorite cake of all time. If you haven’t had Apricot Nectar cake, it is fantastic. It is also super easy to prepare and perfect to serve on Easter Sunday.
Apricot Nectar Cake
Cake
1 box lemon cake mix
1 cup apricot nectar
¾ cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
½ cup sugar
Mix cake mix, sugar, oil, and nectar. Add eggs one at a time. Bake in a Bundt pan at 325 for one hour.
Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
Juice from one lemon
Mix ingredients and pour on top of cake while still warm.
