Thanksgiving Eve (with Recipe for Apple Cake)

 

Remembering My Mother on this Thanksgiving Eve, the 101st Anniversary of Her Birth

 

(Part 4.) A Cornucopia of Thanks for the Good Cooks in the Family

 

by Alice Jane-Marie Massa

 

 

From this altitude of gratitude on Thanksgiving Eve, I am remembering this November 25 as the 101st anniversary of my mother’s birth. In this fourth and final part of my “Cornucopia of Thanks” series, I am grateful for all the good cooks on my family tree–especially my mother.

 

Since my mother was born in 1914, most people would assume that she was a good cook from a young age. She was not. Of the three sisters, Zita became a professional chef and ran a successful Italian restaurant; Lydia helped make breadsticks for the family’s Italian bakery. However, my mother’s family duty was the bookkeeping: my mom went to business college and was more the business woman. Since her father was a professional bread baker, one would assume that at least by the time my mother married James Massa in 1942, she would have known how to bake. She did not. As a matter of fact, I recall hearing on numerous occasions that my mom “did not know how to boil water” when she and my dad said “I do.”

 

Fortunately, my dad had been a good cook for a number of years before he married my mother. When he was young, his mother was ill for about one year; during that period on their Hoosier farm, my dad took over the cooking duties and prepared the meals for his parents and siblings. Not only was my dad an outstanding cook, but a good teacher also because he taught my mother how to cook and bake very well. (Later, he taught me.) Of course, where my dad’s lessons stopped, Betty Crocker and the writers of other cookbooks took over for my mom’s learning the culinary arts.

 

Especially at Thanksgiving and during the holiday season, I fondly recollect the wonderful treats made by my mother. She was most known for her fruit-filled pastry called “Mrs. Pickard’s Pineapple Squares,” the recipe for which and the story behind which you can read in my Wordwalk archives of November 13, 2013. Another favorite specialty of my mother’s culinary talents was her Polenta Dolce–a breaded, fried cream-of-wheat, lemony delicacy which I love. Referring back to my Wordwalk blog post of December 18, 2013, you will find the recipe for Date Bars, which my mother significantly adapted to her own and our liking. What a delightful holiday bar cookie! Other cookies, Marble Chiffon Cake and many other cakes, jelly roll, nut bread rolls, Butter Horns, and other such treats made her top ten list of baked goods.

 

Then, came the pies. Each Thanksgiving, my mother made two perfect pumpkin pies–always with the greatest of ease. Nevertheless, she was most acclaimed for her lemon meringue and chocolate meringue pies. Dad and I liked her butterscotch and cherry pies also.

 

On Saturday evenings and at other especially busy times, my mother helped cook at her sister’s Binole’s Restaurant. In huge iron skillets, my mother fried the Italian breaded veal with garlic. For Thanksgiving and other special occasions, she made homemade pasta for noodles which we served over the mashed potatoes. In earlier years, she used simply a cutting roller to cut the long strips of dough; later, I gave her as a gift a machine into which she would insert some dough and turn a handle. The desired width of cut pasta would exit the other side of the machine. Then, on a cloth-covered card-table, we would spread the strips of pasta to dry. Homemade pasta is so easy to make, yet so much tastier than the packaged version.

 

I could go on and on with my list of favorite foods prepared by my mother, but I would only make myself hungrier–hungry for her specialties and hungry for the way Thanksgiving was for my family and me years ago. As a young adult, I remember so looking forward to going home on Thanksgiving Eve and to baking pumpkin bread and other recipes for our Thanksgiving. We all loved being in our Blanford kitchen.

 

In more recent years, my sister or my nephew Eric makes the homemade pasta for noodles. I am certain that my parents are smiling down upon these two cooks. The culinary traditions do live on–thanks to the younger leaves (cooks) on our family tree.

 

Although my mother did not make the following recipe for a holiday celebration, the recipe is a superb autumnal recipe which she made many times. My mother, who was an active and devoted member of the Royal Neighbors of America (Blanford, Indiana group), wrote a number of her favorite recipes in the blank areas of her Royal Neighbor Cookbook. The Apple Cake recipe below is one of those which my sister and I found in my mother’s own cursive handwriting.

 

Mother’s Apple Cake

 

(Recipe of Mary A. Massa, 1914-2001)

 

1. Put one-half cup sugar over six cups peeled and chopped apples; set aside.
2. Sift together: two heaping cups flour, one-fourth teaspoon salt, two teaspoons baking soda, and one teaspoon cinnamon; set aside.
3. Cream together: one cup sugar, two-thirds cup margarine (NOTE: Mother had written “oleo or shortening.”) , and two eggs.
4. Add one teaspoon vanilla and one cup chopped nuts.
5. Gradually blend flour mixture into creamed mixture.
6. Place mixture in a greased, thirteen-by-nine-inch baking pan.
7. Bake at 325 degrees for forty to forty-five minutes.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

POST-SCRIPT: My friend Lynda Lambert–a freelance writer, blogger, artist, and former professor from Pennsylvania–invited me to be a guest blogger on her Word Press site. On November 24, she posted one of my memoirs about Grandma Farm, my poem “Lace Pieces,” as well as six photos which Mary Elizabeth (my sister) took of some of the lace pieces which our paternal grandmother crocheted. To see these special photos, read my pieces, and read Lynda’s writings, please visit the following link:

 

https://llambert363.wordpress.com/

 

Enjoy a cornucopia of blessings on this Thanksgiving!

Alice and Zoe

 

November 25, 2015, Wednesday

 

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