by Donna Swagerty Shreve
1969
Every family has its set of favorite recipes. I wish I had asked about recipes with my ancestors. Big family gatherings were usually pot luck so every family brought their usual dish. I remember Thanksgiving as Grandma Pearl cooking the turkey in a separate roaster. She only had one oven in a very tiny kitchen. Darrell’s wife Nilma brought the jello. She made the jello in styrofoam cups as it was easy to transport that way and saved on dishes. Mom always brought the pies. My sister Jane and I got to help her peel the many apples as soon as we were old enough. Mom usually brought apple and pumpkin pies. A Swagerty tradition was born when the pies were going to be served and people had to choose. One of the uncles replied he wanted a yes piece and that has stuck through out the years through the various generations. When someone was asked, “Do you want apple or pumpkin pie?” The reply became “Yes.” A “yes piece” meant you wanted a piece of both offerings. Our most recent Thanksgiving had me carrying on Mom’s tradition of bringing pies. I had frozen some peaches and had bought some canned cherries like the ones Mom used to use. I added these choices to the usual fare. This time a “yes” piece had to be only 2 choices each serving.
I am guessing Pearl’s daughter Elsie brought whatever Pearl needed to fill in the complete dinner. Jack’s wife Jeanne was famous for some of her offerings. I remember her bringing dinner rolls one year that had to be baked in the very crowded oven. Another year she was in charge of the mashed potatoes. She took a shortcut and walked into the kitchen and set down several boxes on the counter. She then turned to walk out and let someone else fix the dish. Elsie was having none of that. She quickly told Jeanne she was to stay in the kitchen and finish her dish herself. Jeanne had now two strikes against her as a box mix was not acceptable fare at a Swagerty gathering.
My mother made her favorites over the years for her family of six. She was very careful to have a meat, starch, vegetable, usually a salad and dessert. Every other summer Floyd had to take a Navy two week cruise to keep up his Navy retirement pay. That was when Melva let down on her cooking duties. The children agreed that she now served “barf” meals because her heart was not in it. I was put in charge of one meal and served Kraft’s macaroni and cheese. It is quite simple to make but I made it complicated by not adding the milk. I won the “barf” meal prize!
Dad would be in charge of barbecuing and Mom made her own barbecue sauce. Dad would also venture into the kitchen to bake cookies. He was famous for taking left over pancake batter and adding ingredients which varied based on what was available. Nuts, raisins, fruit pulp and various other items made their way in what we called “Oh Boy” cookies. Floyd also made ice cream from scratch when he received a hand crank ice cream maker as a present. Another Dad special was Cowboy coffee cake. My sister found the recipe and shared it. I tried it anticipating that wonderful treat from my childhood. I was disappointed as it seemed to me quite dry and not the same memory from years ago.
Later as I was going through Mom’s personal effects, I found her old cookbook that was a constant in her kitchen. It was “Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book” from 1949. As I went through all of the pages, I was shocked by how many of our family recipes came right from that kitchen bible. Mom had been raised by 16 various housekeepers and never learned to cook. Pearl became her mentor and Mom learned a lot about cooking, gardening, canning and various other housewife skills when she lived with her dear friend Andrea on the Sheveland ranch during the war and while she was pregnant with her first child.
Also in the cookbook were several notes that Dad wrote as he used it. A recipe was usually a suggestion to Floyd and he noted improvements he made along the way. He also brought his grandmother’s cookie recipes into the family. He would make Ranger cookies and Persimmon cookies, especially since one of his neighbors shared her crop off her tree. After Great Aunt Lucy’s funeral service, her daughter-in-law Pat ran off many copies of cookie recipes that Lucy made that were passed down from her mother Ida.
Now as the next generation creates their families, new recipes enter the mix. Mom had a few family favorites that were introduced by several of their foreign exchange students they hosted for several years. Mom’s stuffed mushrooms were always a hit and were introduced by Julia Reagan Gaskill. Jane’s first mother-in-law shared some of her recipes that entered the family.
On Mom’s last birthday (87), I hosted a gathering of her children and some offspring that could attend. I served barbecue chicken with the homemade barbecue sauce, pilaf rice dish that was a staple for many dinners, a zucchini torta and of course, pie! It made me feel better but I am not sure Mom was even aware of the significance of the meal being served.
John’s mother loved to cook and collected cookbooks. She wrote a monthly column called “The Galloping Gourmet” for a small mountain community newspaper for several years. I was pleased to see where she had actually used several of my recipes in her column. She and I exchanged recipes and now a family dinner that I serve for immediate family is quite a combination of several sources. I have noticed many new dishes as I share a meal with my sons. Meals evolve over time as health concerns become important but I do hope some of the family favorites survive.
Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site 