So technically, it’s still Friday. At least here in the midwest. What a busy week! I don’t have Loopy pictures today, because now I’ll wait and show you when we’re all done. I will say that that set of shelves along the green wall from Wednesday’s post is full of Cherry Tree Hill and Apple Laine, and it looks beautiful! All of the bags and cases of yarn are put away …. and all of the shelves are completely full. So, we have more shelves coming on Monday. (Because we have more yarn arriving daily around here.) Things are almost feeling Loopy over there. I’m thinking about another week and we’ll have it completely Loopified. I’ll keep you posted. (You all have been so nice about wanting to see photos!) Monday, it’s back to business as usual here at The Loopy Ewe – yay!
Have you ever been completely frustrated with automated phone systems? I had to call AT&T this week. We had our phones switched over, and had to get new phone numbers. The gal taking the order assured me that the toll-free number would stay the same, as it’s a “forwarding number”. However, when I tried it out after the technician left, there was a recording that stated that number had been disconnected and giving our new (local – so not toll-free) number. All I needed to do was call someone at AT&T to tell them that the forwarding wasn’t working. I spent 45 minutes on the phone. What was I doing? Oh, entering my “account number” 9 different times, picking “the option that best describes the problem” about 15 times, finally reaching someone and then being put on hold because she was “residential” and I needed “business”. (Although I picked the “business” option several times before reaching her.) When she told me she’d have to transfer me, I said, “Don’t put me on hold! I can’t get out of that endless loop to get a real person!” She said, “I understand. I won’t.” And then proceeded to do just that and I was then disconnected and had to start all over again. (Yes, I do know about hitting “O” for Operator, or pushing the # or the * buttons. I tried it all. I guess the phone company is wise to all of those tricks.) Needless to say, I was completely frustrated with that phone company at the end of all of this. Today, I had to call back. But, this time I had a real number and got a real person who quickly solved the next phone problem that had come up, went the extra mile with her customer service, sent out an extremely helpful techinician within 2 hours, and restored my faith in the phone company. Or at least restored my faith in her part of the phone company. I really really can’t stand automated phone systems, though.
Today’s recipe is from my Grandma Bass (from Germany) and was probably my very favorite thing that she made. She used to have one ready for me every time I visited, and every time I came home for a break from college. My mom brought this one over to us this week, knowing that we needed a little extra TLC in the midst of moving-mayhem. 🙂
Grandma’s Hefekranz
5 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
3 eggs, beaten + 1 egg white
4 Tbl. shortening, melted and cooled
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup raisins
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbl. yeast
powdered sugar
– Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. Add a pinch of sugar to it and let it rise for 5 minutes.
– Mix dry ingredients. Add in raisins.
– Add in yeast mixture, vanilla, 3 beaten eggs and shortening. Mix and knead well.
– Let rise until double. Punch down and let rest for 5 minutes.
– Divide into 3 equal balls. Roll out each ball into a long tube shape and braid the 3 of them together. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise until double.
– Brush top with egg white.
– Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes. Let cool and then sprinkle with powdered sugar.
(One time my mom made this for me for my birthday and dropped it off while it was still warm. I took the towel off the top and there were strings poked down into the top at regular intervals. I asked what the strings were for and found out that she had put birthday candles in the top and the warmth from the Hefenkranz had melted the skinny little candles into puddles and left the wicks hanging there!)
So this month’s contest is simple – what is your favorite recipe that you remember someone special making for you or for family gatherings in your childhood? (Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle, etc.) You don’t have to share the recipe – but tell us what it was in the comments. (Of course if it’s really good, you’re always welcome to share the recipe!) I’ll use the random number generator to draw a winner from all of the comments during this next week, and the winner will receive $25 in Loopy Bucks!
Sheri foundacuteredKitchenaidcoffeemakerfortheLoopyofficebutitwas$99forpete’ssake!
Needlesstosay,Ididn’tgetit.($99,areyoukiddingme?)
I grew up in North Africa, and our food supplies were limited to say the least. My mother used to make something quite basic, but my three siblings and I used to love it and called it “yum yum”: jello and fruit cocktail with whipped cream mixed in. It was heavenly.
My grandma always made me the best clam chowder:) She would make it any time I was craving it.
My mom always made us Peanut Butter Bars and those were also a big hit!
How to choose just one?!? There’s a list of foods I identify with my mother and remember so fondly… Her apple pie definitely–she made wonderful pie crust from scratch and I’ve never had any as good as hers; her chocolate chip cookies; something called ‘wonderful’ which was a summertime dessert involving lemon flavored gelatin and a graham cracker crust; and perhaps most of all, her spaghetti sauce–I can still remember how the smell would fill the house on cold Sunday evenings. Yum! Must go find dinner now… (PS- Congratulations and good luck with the moving in. It sounds like quite an undertaking, but I imagine means that business is good. I’m so glad for you!)
Hi there! Well, each of my grandmothers made a special dish that i loved. (as did my granddad) and each make me think of them, even if i catch a whiff of something that smells kind of like it. On rare occassions i can actually get everything just right so it tastes the same!
My dad’s mom made what she called Hamburg soup. All veggies were grated, just browned beef. She would add a drop of vinegar just before serving…delicious! Now dad’s dad would head out to the garden every summer morning and come in and make fresh bread and butter pickles that would be ready by dinner. I do not like sweet pickles but grandads were perfect!
My mom’s mom made the best shephards pie. I still find mashed potatoes and gravy the ultimate comfort food!
This was a fun question!
My great grandmother, Granny, made chocolate no bake cookies that were the best, she kept them in an old green tin can with a very tight fitting lid, it was some work to get that lid off but the reward was so good. My brother got the recipe from her when he was in Jr High. I make them around the holidays, or when ever I have had a really bad day. I don’t usually let the Kids know I have them on the place till I have had my fill. LOL They have become my grandkids favorite cookie. I always tell them the name of the cookie Granny Crabaugh cookies.
Two wonderful goodies come to mind. My Grandmother’s date bars and my Mother’s lemon custard pudding! These days of “healthy” eating I don’t make them often, but when I really need comfort food either one will do. I remember some company tried to make a mix for date bars, which I foolishly tried. So, sad.! Stick with Grandma. The lemon custard pudding is baked in individual cups set in a water bath, miraculously turning into a layer of lush pudding covered with lovely light sponge cake. My mouth is watering. I must go to the kitchen………
Congrats on your new space!
My grandma used to make me and my siblings chicken and dumplings…not biscuit style dumplings, but flat homemade noodles. They were so good I can taste them still. My mom says they were so simple to make that my grandma never wrote down the recipe. Now that she is gone, I’m going to have to put aside an afternoon and try to recreate them from my mom’s memory! Here’s hoping….
I actually have two favorite recipies from childhood. The first is my grandma Shannon’s (my dad’s mom) strawberry rhubarb pie. She used to grow her own rhubarb and strawberries at the lake (ontario) house in northern NY – when we would go up in the summer, there would always be strawberry rhubarb pie. I have tried to duplicate it, but it’s really hard to get good rhubarb in central VA – it’s just not the same.
The second fav recipie is of my grandma Shannon’s doughnuts. These things are amazing. They are cake doughnuts – I can’t tell you how good they were. She made them all the time for us – summer, winter – it didn’t matter. She also made them for my grandfather’s crew to eat during their coffee breaks (he was a line foreman for Niagra Mohawk Power Company for years). We have continued on with grandma’s doughnut making tradition… once a year, my mom, sisters, their kids, me and my kids all get together at my house (I have the biggest kitchen) and we spend the morning making doughnuts. My dad and husband always have to test at least a few of them. The kids (ages 3 – 6) love measuring the ingredients, putting them together, rolling the dough, cutting out the doughnuts, coating them with cinnamin and powdered sugar, and of course, eating them! My mom normally mans the hot oil, but she is starting to teach me so I can take over some day. I have to say, besides Christmas, this is my favorite day of the year. I feel really lucky to have a grandma who made such spectacular doughnuts and who passed on the recipe to us!
My grandmother had this recipe that she called “Hamberger Heaven”. I don’t know if it was a recipe she invented, or if it was a recipe that was handed down to her, but it was a family favorite and still is to this day. It’s a very simple ground beef and egg noodle recipe that can be made family size or crowd size.
Oh my goodness!!!! My grandmother Sophie would make Periheh….tons of it in large metal bowls and when we would go to sit to eat, she would fry in butter large amounts of it and we would eat forever. I can still smell it cooking.
I love “steamboat” or shabu shabu – my parents always have it at home whenever I go visit – it’s great to get the whole family around the table, helping with the prep work and then the cooking 😀
Reading through all of these have sparked tons of food memories. My mom is still alive but we live about an hour and a half apart. She raised us herself but I seem to remember lots of foods that only mom made, I wonder now where she found the time. I think my favorite sweet is Molasses Raisin cookies which I have the recipe for but have never attempted.
Savory has to be Spanish Rice. I make it for my family now and it tastes like home.
I need my mom to cook more often for me.
HA! I’ve been randomly scrolling through sampling comments, that’s a whole lot o’ mac and cheese. Funny how I kept ending up on those. My fav memory is of my Grandmother’s chocolate cake. Funny thing is that Grandma was a horrible baker, what made this cake every little kids dream is that she filled in the cracks, hollow spots and broken corners with icing! Every visit there was always a gorgeous, perfect looking chocolate cake for us kids to dive into. I always wondered why my Mom was less enthused!
Hope the new digs are everything you dream….. B
I think I may be late for this one, however this thread is making me hunger for feasting, so I thought I’d add my bit as well. But where to begin?! I think my favourite recipes are the ones I’ve adopted as my own. I moved continent almost as soon as I left university, and while I don’t always remember to celebrate Thanksgiving on time, I somehow find myself adding the dishes my mum used to make into my everyday fare.
Last night was a good example: Spiced Pumpkin stuffed with Ricotta, Spinach and Mushroom with mashed carrot and swede on the side and chewy Nutmeg Oatmeal Cookies for desert. Lovely.
The years is spiked with milestones and turning points that each have their own recipes, however. Around Christmas I suddenly get cravings for Orange and Cranberry Relish, Mince Pies and Chestnut-Sage Stuffing with everything. Every birthday requires Double-layer Chocolate Cake. Pancake Day is full of fresh lemon and sugar, carefully applied to paper-thin crepes.
I’ve begun adding my own feasts to the year: Easter now needs an addition of gin and cupcakes; early summer is for Pimm’s, huge fresh salads and thick tofu quiches; the onset of winter demands Seitan Stew. Delicious!
this is easy for me, too. Sauerbraten, (which I may have not spelled correctly). It would need to be marianated for days before cooking, and when it was cooking, there would be the most wonderful smell of vinegary /sweet all through the house. Served with red cabbage, and corn fritters and fried noodles. . I can still taste it, and it’s been probably 40 years since I’ve had it.
Oh I have a list. But I’ll stick to just one. My Grammy’s hershey kiss cookies. I grew up with these only at Christmas time. But when I moved to Wisconsin, my Gram would send these to me throughout the year, even though I knew how to make them myself (Grammy’s are always SO much better) They aren’t the kind with the hershey’s kiss sitting on top of the cookie.. they are a peanut butter dough with a hershey kiss INSIDE. they are INCREDIBLE. Seriously I can never eat just a few.. I pig out on them!
Yum! Your grandma’s recipe looks very yummy indeed!
My grandma used to make me a blueberry pie called ‘Papoose Pie’ and it was delicious! My mom now makes it for her grandchildren and it is my daughter’s favorite dessert. I guess I will have to be the net grandma to make it!
It’s so hard to pick just one recipe. But my mom is an amazing pie baker and when I was growing up she made peach pies so good they’d make you cry. Now it’s impossible to even find decent peaches, unless you live in a peach growing state, so I haven’t had one in years!
There are so many to choose, but I have to pick Grandmother’s Coffee Cake baked in a heart shaped pan every Valentine’s Day. My mother must have gotten up so early to bake the cake so it was fresh out of the oven as we were getting up for school. I make it for my children for V-day now. It is a great tradition.
Wow. so many wonderful memories. I have several, but the one that sticks out in my mind is not so much a recipe, but involves food. Growing up, my dad was the king of the “midnight snack” although not necessarily at midnight. he could turn any leftover into the best sandwich. sliced baked potato and pickle; warmed up spaghetti with mayo on white bread; grandma’s chilis; ah, let’s not forget the smoked oysters and crackers! Too bad we all became healthy eaters!!
It was my Mom’s “Chicken Pot Pie”! She always called it that, but after I grew up and started cooking, I realized it was really a version of chicken and dumplings. She’s gone now and I’ve never found a recipe that had written down, so I’ll never be able to recreate it, but I will always remember it! She also made the best cherry pie with a crumble topping from our own sour cherries grown in the backyard!
My mother and grandmother’s chocolate potato cake! I want some right now.
My mom made blintzes. They were her special holiday treat (actually they still are). Sadly, I developed pretty significant lactose intolerance by adolescence and haven’t been able to eat those blintzes in about 30 years, but ummmm I still smell them when she makes them for my kids.
Chocolate Chip cookies – the Wisconsin Gas Company recipe – the cookbook was so old and tattered by the time I inherited it – and splattered –
They were my father’s favorite, and in the interval between when my mother went into the nursing home, and he died three months later, I made the cookies everytime I went home to Milwaukee. After the funeral, I found out that on the weekends my sister was there, he’d make her take cookies, so that I’d bake more the next weekend. Every Christmas holiday for years when I was growing up, there would be a day of cookie making, pounds of butter, nuts, chocolate, etc. And my mother, sister and I in the kitchen – such wonderful memories – thanks for letting me share
My mom made this peach coffee cake…it was sooooo good.
My grandmother was a talented and gentle soul. She made fatigmand and rosettes and scrollers at Christmas, but the real treat was LEFSE!
I would watch her bake large, round sheets of her highly anticipated soft, flat Norwegian bread on the wood cookstove she refused to give up, even after the purchase of her new gas stove. Grandpa stoked the fire and also made the flipping tool from a smooth wooden lath that had been sanded blunt at the tip. It appeared to me to be from the pull end of a roller shade, and possibly it was. Flour puffed everywhere as she rolled the sheets to an unbelievable thinness on the kitchen table, deftly slid the wooden tool under the sheet at the center and transported it to the cookstove which had been tested for temperature with a splash of water (if the water danced, the heat was perfect). With the lefse still folded over the wooden stick, she cooked one half of one side directly on the stove, then the other side, and with a quick flip and roll, the other side was expertly positioned face down on the hot surface. The finished product, lightly dotted with golden brown spots, was devoured with butter (my favorite) or with butter and sugar (more traditonally).
By selling her lefse, grandmother paid school tuition for my mother and aunt. That makes her lefse not just flat bread, but a legacy.
My Nana made spaghetti that my sister and I couldn’t get enough of as children. She would always make it whenever we stayed over. My parents weren’t fond of it; as a child I couldn’t understand why.
My Nana died and I forgot about her spaghetti until my own girls discovered Chef Boyardee Spaghetti in a can. It was so close to what I remembered my Nana’s to be. Now as an adult myself I finally understood why it wasn’t my parents favorite way back when.
My mother-in-law was a terrific cook and there are several recipes over the years that she was known for and my children recall as favorites…simple things like homemade applesauce, apple pancakes, city chicken, and so on. But one that I was able to master and sort of adopt as my own is her pecan tarts. She always made them around the holidays in the little mini muffin pans with a cream cheese tart shell and gooey, yummy pecan filling… mmmm.
My Grandma always made chicken and dumplings when she came to my house. I have since learned to make them myself, but they just don’t taste the same. Not even my Mom can reproduce the receipe. My husband loves then and can eat the whole pot himself!!
It was just called Grandma’s Bread, my mom’s mom’s mom’s recipe, a slightly sweet yeast bread that was always made in bunny shapes and coffee cakes at Easter, braids at Thanksgiving, and cloverleaf rolls for special dinners at other times.
My ahmah (grandma) would make turnip cake and a special sauce from scratch. Growing up, she’d try to get me to help her every time she made it. Now that I’m grown, I wish that I had paid attention to her secret sauce recipe since she had tweeked it so much over the years until it was perfected. It was an amazing sauce.
I loved the Lamb cake my Mom made every year for Easter. That was a big gathering at our house. All of my relatives attended. It seemed though the Mom had a real problem with taking the mold away without the lamb losing its head (it had a very narrow neck. So she carefully had one of us kids hold the head on whilde she put buttercream frosting in the area and toothpicked the head to the shoulders. It was the best taking cake ever. One of those with a strong flavoring of both almond and vanilla. The she would carefully frost the lamb with more of that buttercream frosting. She would save the cream that rose to the top of the glass bottled whole milk until she had enough for the liquid in the frosting.
After the frosting came a coat of coconut, really moist , and made that lamb come alive. We all loved the cake, but none wanted the Head!
My mom makes the bestest apple pie in the whole world. She makes it every year for Thanksgiving. It’s a pizza apple pie, so it’s big and flat and has no top crust, and it’s made with Granny Smith apples. Even my snooty chef husband says it’s the best apple pie he’s ever tasted. And that’s saying something!
My Nana’s gravy. Always the best. Slow cooked. Her tip: cook it long and keep adding water. If you don’t cook it well, it will taste like the flour added.
My Nana’s gravy. Always the best. Slow cooked. Her tip: cook it long and keep adding water. If you don’t cook it well, it will taste like the flour added.
I’m afraid I don’t have anything to share! I’m first-generation chinese, and love western food, but my family would cook really disgusting “specialties”…chicken feet, pig stomachs, and the worst thing I’ve ever been forced to eat: cow brain soup. Urgh!
My favorite? My mother used to make me lemon meringue pie for my birthday. I don’t think she used a special recipe – just the one out of the basic Betty Crocker cookbook. I’ve tried to make it but it’s never the same.
My mother’s meringues are highly coveted, and she would only make them at Christmas–even though we’re Jewish–to give as gifts. We would get a few batches plus the ungiftable–the ones that burned, or those made on too-humid days, etc–and would delight in them.
For Thanksgiving, my mom always makes stuffed mushrooms. As a child, I loved the way they smelled, but I didn’t like mushrooms, so I didn’t eat them. Even before I really acquired a taste for mushrooms in most things, I took the plunge and started eating the Thanksgiving stuffed mushrooms. Mmmm! I’m so excited for them at Thanksgiving already!
By the way, I’m sure you’ve heard of htp://www.gethuman.com for ways to bypass most automated systems. maybe you didn’t hit 0 enough times or maybe you needed to hit * since it was a business number? Good luck with that!
Oops, that’s http://www.gethuman.com
I have to go with the simplest: ritz crackers, peanut butter and white chocolate cookies (they really don’t have any other name!):
Make a peanut butter sandwich out with ritz crackers. Then melt white chocolate (or white almond bark) and dip the ritz cracker/peanut butter sandwiches in the melted chocolate. Let set until chocolate has hardened, then eat at will.
You can use other chocolate flavors (milk, dark), but i always go for the white.
I can make everyone at work drool just by mentioning them. Right this time of year, they start bugging me to make them, which is probably why I thought of them first 🙂
Kerry
My Grandma’s chicken and noodles…very yummy. She is 98 now and can no longer cook. (Sheri, She’s the same grandma with skeleton keys for the doors to her house). Also, I bought a “red” KitchenAid coffee maker at Lowe’s for under $99. I love it. Can’t wait to see the new Loopy Room pictures. Have a great visit with College Guy!
I remember a cake my mom use to bake each year for my dad’s birthday, which was in November. It was a triple-layered, yellow cake with a family fudge icing recipe. It also had bananas in between each layer. I’m quite sure it was all from scratch, something I’ve never mastered. Uh, baking, that is. Yeah, baking anything, pretty much. Anyway…
The year after my mother died (I was 17), I wanted to bake this cake for my dad for his birthday. So, I got a box of yellow cake mix, a little tub of “fudge” icing and bananas. I pulled out the pans and prepared to make my masterpiece.
What? You use special pans to bake cakes? Oh, pie pans won’t work, you say? I wondered why those layers just wouldn’t stack correctly. In fact, the top layer cracked right down the center. I quickly added extra icing and used some “clever” decorating techniques with banana slices to close the crater while adding more icing here and there between layers to try to balance things out.
When I presented it to him, my dad just smiled, paused for ever so long, and then began to cut a slice for each of us as tears ran down his face. It might not have been THE recipe he was use to, but I think it meant a lot all the same.
Brisket with potatoes and carrots. It’s what my aunt makes for Passover, and it’s yummy and tender and just one of those true good meat and potatoes dishes. I’m the first “baker” in the family so I guess I’ll have to be the one to come with a family tradition for a sweet recipe.
Sheri, my dad’s side of the family is from North Carolina and I married a Virginian, so I’m a confirmed SOUTHERNER – it’s hard to pick just a single item or meal that I best think of.
Okay, I’ll give you one of my favorite meals that all my aunts make, as did my grandmother (Granny) before she passed away. Whenever my family returned from a distant posting (Dad was career army) we promptly went to my/his hometown and we were fed:
a variety of meat (usually some chicken/chicken and pastry, pork)
FIELD PEAS (unique to southeast NC – I’ve never found the exact vegetable anywhere else)
boiled potatoes witth snaps
fresh corn (for my brother)
homemade buttermild biscuits or cornmeal patties
homemade pickles
homemade POUNDCAKE or 14 layer chocolate cake or coconut cake (sometimes all three :>) or chocolate pie, lemon pie, you name it!
My mom makes wonderful apple pie and nut rolls (for Christmas) made from pecans or walnuts from a cream cheese dough or a yeast dough – we make a few variations. Wonderful memory food of mom’s side of the family.
It took me a while, but I finally learned to make good scratch biscuits and outstanding poundcake. And nutrolls! Definitely hard work, but worth it
I’ll send you a few recipes soon – the pound cake, biscuits and nutrolls are the best crowd pleasers.
Thanks for such a great topic – brings back lots of memories
Carol in Prince George, VA
I would have to say that one of my favorites was my Granny’s french toast .She was cripple on the left side so she had a hard time doing simple things .Living through the depression ment you eat what you have and be glad to get it . Her french toast always got salt an pepper and could vary from black to under done and then smeared with lion syrup , it was always so good , we looked forward to staying with her for breakfast . As she is gone now its just happy memories.
Shelda
It may be too late to add a comment, but I’ve just been inspired to write about my favourite thing my mom made—Christmas cake. My favourite part about it is not the eating of it (although it always tasted wonderful) but the making of it. My mom always started early in the morning on a day in late October. I would get up while it was still dark and find her sorting out all the ingredients and then I would help her blanch the almonds and mix everything. The final thing was that everyone in the family had to take a turn mixing it and make a wish. My mom made her cake today and I’m going to make mine this weekend (the same recipe, of course) and now my daughters take turns mixing and wishing. Making the Chrsitmas cake was always a sign that Christmas was really coming along with all the excitement that meant!
I think that my most memorable, and therefore favorite, meal I remember is that whenever I was sick growing up … my mom always made me potato soup … Nothing so totally special about it … except that it always tasted soo good … especially when I didn’t feel good … and now I always remember that … and know how much she loved me then … and loves me still!
Better late than never posting what recipe I remember growing up…definitely one of my grandmother’s who was known as Bubs. There are quite a number to choose from as she was an excellent cook and baker. Bubs was never one to follow a recipe so there weren’t many on paper that have been passed along. Two recipes that come to mind…during Passover she made Passover rolls known as Bulkes and since she also never measured once in a blue moon they came out like rocks. But they were tasty and helped us forget the fact that we couldn’t have any bread for a week. The other was very simple and always a comfort food…eggs noodles with lots of margarine/butter and sour cream. Made us feel good all over when we were icky and she didn’t have time to make her chicken soup…truly Jewish penicillin.
I can remember making snicker doodle cookies with my Gramie Beth. My favorite part was after you would roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar mix she had a special cup with a star on the bottom that I would use to smoosh the cookies down.
She passed away 15 years ago, now when making Christmas cookies I make sure we make snicker doodles. The kids and I use a cup similar to the one I used.
Because my birthday is in October, my mother often made my birthday cake with a Halloween theme. Even though my birthday was on the 18th and not all that close to Halloween. (if you missed it – I’ll still be accepting gifts until December.) So one year she made this fantastic chocolate graduated layer cake – at least 5 layers high – and frosted it with bright orange frosting. Each layer had a different Halloween candies on it like those chewy pumpkins, the black cat licorice pieces, etc. It was fantastic….however, she tried to dye the cake with food coloring to make it look black and all the kids went home with black lips!! I’ll never forget that party. We bobbed for apples and carved pumpkins. It was great.