My GG's dressing
- Well my dad 's birthday was this week and he wanted me to cook for him. So I asked him what he wanted and he thought, then said Chicken in dressing, now I know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but in our family my mom's mother has made it every Christmas and it is a family favorite. Well as you know GG has dementia now and is unable to do alot of the things she used to, so I just thought my mom would be the one to pick up the spoon, and start making it. But now I'm thinking it's going to be me.. I know nervous about dressing, come on. I just want eveyone to say, "oh it taste just like GG's", so that we can have that after she is gone. I have one possession, that is so precious to me ( besides my wonderful husband and my 5 kids) it's my cookbook. In 1991 my grandmother took all of her "famous recipes" and copied them in her own handwriting and gave them to me. She also wrote me a note that gives me comfort, now that she is not herself. This book is so special, I often read the letter and just get chilly bumps, because alot of the things are like she is telling me it's ok now. So back to the dressing, I am making the corn bread and hoping it is just like GG's so that it can bring those wonderful memories to my family now like it did then. I'm using my cookbook to help me, and I kind of feel like she's right here telling what to do. She always would say we want it to be moist, do you think it is, she always had a way of making me feel like I was the most important person in the world, when we cooked together. I will never forget these times and hope I am creating the same times with my kids and someday my grandkids.
I hope it turns out EXACTLY like GG's or at least as good. It's funny, when Nancy passed last week, all I could think about was her recipes that would never be the same when someone else cooked them. She had made a bunch of meals the day she died, and her family savored every last bite together, and somehow I think that made her happy. Really there aren't many better privileges as a mother and seeing your family enjoying the meal together.
ReplyDeletedawn-between yours and alice's comment-i'm teary! over dressing! aw, but we know it's not that. it's the love that goes into it, the joy of watching others enjoy it, the memories created.
ReplyDeletethanks for linking! this week might be rough, but maybe we could do coffee right after pilates on weds?
ps:pls visit others who linked and comment... maybe i can mke this a weekly event! :)
ReplyDeleteWell the day was wonderful, my dressing was not GG's but it was good, in a different way. Everyone commented on how good it was, so it made me feel better. The dinner ended when Peter and I took some of the dressing to my GG. She seems so normal when we first get there and I love those moments, then she goes back to her world. She was so amazed I made the dressing and it wasn't a holiday. You know I don't want to take the memories of her away, I just want to take the traditions she gave our family and make them my own children's traditions. It was so crazy how worried I was about the dressing but it wasn't that, it was just like I felt I was treading on GG territory, I don't want to take any of those things away from her, does that make since?
ReplyDeletePatty, you are so right about that it is the love, it's like no other thing in the world. You know when you are important to someone, it's so easy to see in the things they do and GG has always been the example to me of true compassion.
ReplyDeleteAlice, I thought of the same thing, I have one of the old cookbooks that they put together in Kingsport, she gave me when we lived there and remeber some of the recipes, she was such a great person, and her death was so unexpected, I will be praying for her family and the Gold family.