The Great Cooking Scheme...

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was going to do some blogging on my recipe blog about my cooking influences. Oh, I had great plans. Really I had at least 5-6 blogs plotted out with lovely recipe ideas. The nicest part was that it involved calling some of those wonderful cooks to discuss their recipes. I got as far as my Mom (whose recipes I know, but I did tell her how much I appreciated her). I then forced my Mom to read my blog, because she doesn't really go for the whole blog thing.

My next step was to call my Grandma. When I was little, there was nothing that I enjoyed more than going to Grandma Mac's house for dinner. We really only went to Grandma's during the summer because she and Grandpa would spend all winter in Florida. Since during the summer we would practically live at the cottage right down the street from their farm, we'd spend a lot of time with them. Jim used to love to go and spend time in the fields with Grandpa, I liked to spend time in the kitchen with Grandma. When my cousins were there we used to play grocery store in the kitchen, completely emptying the cupboards to ring up our groceries (I suspect we never played grocery stock-girls and put the groceries back).

Sometimes we used to make cookies with Grandma. Her cookies always came out differently from my Mom's. Grandma always used to use a metal bowl and an electric mixer, so the butter and sugar would be completely creamy. Good cookies, I'm telling you!

I called Grandma to get her recipe for Swiss Steak for Fuss Free Recipes. I always remember her making this, though I've never had swiss steak anywhere else. She would serve it with at least 2 vegetables, PLUS a salad. And there would always be fresh, home-sliced bread.

[At the risk of making this blog LONG, too late, I will tell you that I always thought my grandma made that bread from scratch. When I was in high school I asked my Gram how she made the bread and she told me she bought a frozen bread dough and just threw it in the oven. All of my childhood beliefs were dashed.]

When I asked Grandma for her recipe she said, "Well, you have to flour the steak and then pound it." This was not the recipe I had envisioned. "Then what, Gram?" I ask hoping to steer this discussion in a helpful direction. She replied, "Well, I don't know. You should check your cookbook I'm sure there's a recipe for it."

I really should have known this would happen. I once asked her for her macaroni and cheese recipe (known throughout the universe as the best mac and cheese ever to exist) and was told well "I don't know, you just make the pasta and add cheese." It's not that she wants to keep the recipes secret. I think she just cooks completely on instinct. OK, now I'm going to give finding a swiss steak recipe a go... Wish me luck at replicating Gram's recipe!!