Hello

 

My beautiful mother,Violet

My name is Monica and I had a mother who could cook like there was no tomorrow! (You will find many of my mothers colloquialisms...better known to her children as "Mom's sayings" woven through out this blog.) Violet was a born cook. God gave her many talents...but her cooking was one of my favorites. LOL I had the pleasure to sit under the feet of, in my opinion, one of the world's greatest cooks.
Ah ha! Tutelage - the state of being under a guardian or a tutor / Direction, supervision, tutoring, coaching. That was me!  I wish I could say that I had been a wonderful and obedient daughter but I was not. I do believe I heard my mother and father use the word....rebellious? However, I did listen to her when she was teaching me how to cook. When it came to my mother and the sweet aroma that would seep out of the kitchen and drift down the hallway and into my bedroom...well, it was like an invisible hand that would gently tug at my sense of smell and inquisitive mind. I would always find myself following the delicious aroma back down the hall and into the kitchen, so that I could learn to cook and create such masterpieces myself. Cooking with Mom are some of the best memories I have of my mother. When it came to cooking....she was fast, fun and fabulous! She cooked with lightning speed. She made cooking fun. And when I watched her cook....she was no longer just "Mom", in my eyes, she was this amazing "chef" who I loved being around and who loved to teach me her "secrets". She was fabulous!
About eleven years ago my son Joseph (Joe) told me he would love for me to make him a recipe book with all my/Mom's recipes. After that, and at different times, with each not knowing the others had asked... my remaining four children asked for a cook book as well. But it wasn't until my mother's death that I realized the importance of keeping her recipes alive. My sister asked me if I would start writing them down and said we (mom's children) could put a cook book together in memory of Mom. I thought, "what a great idea!" However, trying to write them down was not to be an easy task. My Mother owned measuring cups and spoons but rarely used them. She would add a pinch of this, a handful of that, a swoosh of this and a few swirles of that ("to taste" of course). Trying to convert "swooshess and swirles" into measurements has been very time consuming . So time consuming, that I started..... but immediately gave up. Until today!
My son, Joe, came home from Iraq recently and I have been enjoying making some of his favorite dishes and when I started to make some Tuna Salad for lunch today, I thought... O.K. this is it, I'm going to start this new year off by cooking one of Mom's recipes every day and converting it into a "writeable" recipe. It will be like I'm "Cooking With Mom" again. Then I thought...hhhmmmm.....I aught to create a blog and record my experiences and memories. So, here I am blogging away. Or as my mom would say, "Blogging my little heart out!
So far, I think I like this blogging stuff. LOL So hold onto your seat because I think this just might be fun!

Have a blessed day,
Monica

Mom's Tuna Salad

Ingredients

• 1 (5 ounce) can white tuna, drained and flaked
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise (Mom never used salad dressing)
• 3/4 of a  Heinze Old Fashion Dill Pickle
• 1/2 an onion chopped
• 1 hard boiled egg chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon frenches mustard

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, stir all ingredients together. Mix well and serve with crackers or on a sandwich.
2. To make a larger amount...double, triple, ect...the recipe

       

       Here's some of Mom's "secrets"......

       "NEVER put salt into the tuna sald. Salt and Pepper AFTER you put it on the bread." If you salt the Tuna Salad when you make it, the salt will draw the water out of the onions making the Tuna Salad watery.

        "Bread and  Butter Pickles are good with every lunch and dinner"

        "Coffee goes good with everything"