Mothers Day Tribute ...

Please join me in a Tribute to our Mothers, Grandmothers, Mother-In-Laws or anyone who is or has been a “Mother” influence in your life! I can’t think of a more fitting tribute to be the subject of my very first blog event.

This is chance for you to share photos, recipes, heirloom pieces and stories that remind you of your loved ones on this very cherished weekend.


Irish word for Mother is Mathair and German is Mutter, my ancestry


Your Mother Is Always With You...

Your mother is always with you...
She's the whisper of the leaves
as you walk down the street.
She's the smell of bleach
in your freshly laundered socks.
She's the cool hand on your brow
when you're not well.
Your mother lives inside your laughter.
She's crystallized in every teardrop.
She's the place you came from,
your first home...
She's the map you follow
with every step that you take.
She's your first love
and your first hear break...
and nothing on earth can separate you.
Not time, Not space...
Not even death...
will ever separate you
from your mother...
You carry her inside of you...
Author Unknown

Below is a photo of my Mom on her Wedding Day in 1946. The gown was a beautiful white satin and when her 18 grandchildren started arriving, she had it made into two baptismal gowns, one with a blue inset ribbon and one with pink. The other photo was taken the year she passed away, which was for a Church booklet of the parishioners.






My Mom, Donna, passed away in 2002. She was the one who gave me the “itch” for cooking and especially baking. For one Christmas she gave each one of us kids a handwritten recipe book of all the family favorites we grew up on…and left room for us to add our own family recipes. Anytime I need to make something, this is the first book I go to since I know the recipes are all “tried and true” and always delicious! I should mention I am one of 10 children, so Mom started very early that year handwriting these recipe books! It’s very soothing to just open the book and see her very familiar handwriting.


If you ask any of my sisters what recipe of Moms they use the most, the answer would be without hesitation, Potato Salad! It was THE recipe to make, so many people wanted it for any event from graduations, weddings to family reunions and just for a summer BBQ. Everything is chopped very small, NO huge chunks of potatoes or eggs! She even wrote down the ingredients to serve 150 people. When we need that much potato salad, the sisters get together and we each make a double batch and put it all together, benefits of having a big family!

POTATO SALAD

Serves 22
5# potatoes cooked and chopped
1 dozen eggs – cooked and chopped
½ large sweet onion chopped fine

Use a round biscuit cutter and chop the potatoes and eggs in very small chunks

Dressing:
¾ quart of salad dressing (Miracle Whip)
2 Tbsp Cider vinegar
¼ Cup yellow mustard
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp celery seed
¼ Cup sugar (to taste preferred)

Mix together!

Serves 45
10# potatoes, 2 dozen eggs, 1 large onion
1 ½ qts Miracle Whip
¼ C mustard – 1/3 C vinegar
3 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp celery seed, ½ C sugar


The cookie recipe she made quite often were ‘Delicious Cookies’, the name said it all..melt in your mouth deliciousness! This is also my contribution for Foodie Friday (didn't have a new cake recipe handy) hosted by Gollum at Designs by Gollum, make sure you stop by the site and link to the many other sites for great recipes, tablescapes and much more. For a change up you can add whatever your family desires in a cookie..any flavor of chips, Heath bits etc. but I think the way it is written is the best! The recipe was given to Mom from the Franciscan nuns who ran the bakery in our local hospital. I remember when I gave birth to my oldest son in this Hospital, every night they would bring me an assortment of cookies and a glass of cold milk before I went to bed. It was their treat to all the new mothers. In those days you stayed in the hospital for at least 3-4 days even if it was a normal birth!




Delicious Cookies

1 C sugar 3 ½ C Flour
1 C brown sugar 1 tsp salt
1 C butter 1 tsp cream of tartar
1 C canola oil 1 tsp soda
1 Egg

Mix together, add 1 tsp vanilla

Add:
1 C Rice Krispies
1 C Instant oatmeal
1 C Coconut
¾ Cup chopped pecans

If you want you can add 1 Cup of choc. Chips or Heath chips

Mix well – Drop by tsp or small scoop on un-greased cookie sheet
Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes
Makes 7 dozen

Another 'gift' Mom gave me one Christmas was a 'real' hankie with the attached note, also the candy dish was one of hers!




And Grandma's too...
While we honor all our mothers
with words of love and praise.
While we tell about their goodness
and their kind and loving ways.
We should also think of Grandma,
she's a mother too, you see....
For she mothered my dear mother
as my mother mothers me.
Author Unknown

As you can tell from the name of my blog, I was especially close to my Grandma Foley. She was so young at heart and it was a standard joke among my siblings that any time she came to visit and walked through the door we would all call out…”When you going home Foley?” Then all would give her big hugs… things I remember most about Grandma was her love of playing cards, her skin being so soft (especially the ‘flags’ under her arms), the sight of her walking down the hall to her bedroom at night with her nylons rolled down around her ankles and most of all her Cinnamon Rolls! The scalded milk, yeast, punching the dough down twice, the aroma of cinnamon and creamy icing on top! It wasn’t until a family Thanksgiving at my brothers house in 1975 all of us kids found out that Foley played the piano! She used to play at the theatres in the silent movie era, and knew all the music by ear, didn’t read music at all. Before she passed away, she ‘ordered’ us not to feel bad when she died and wanted us to go to the local bar and celebrate her life. Of course, we did what she wanted and did what the Irish do best during a wake… and celebrate her life we did with drinks, stories, drinks and more drinks! I think every one of us had sunglasses on the next day, and it wasn’t because the sun was bright! I know Foley approved and was proud of all of us.
This was one the recipes Mom had written in the recipe book she gave us…


Foley & me on my wedding day…



I know I have rambled on and on, it brings back so many happy memories of the two women in my life that meant so much to me. I look forward to visiting all your blogs and reading about your special memories and seeing all your photos. I leave you with this…


Mother's Dictionary of Meanings
Dumbwaiter: One who asks if the kids would care to order dessert.

Feedback: The inevitable result when the baby doesn't appreciate the strained carrots.

Full Name: What you call your child when you're mad at him.

Grandparents: The people who think your children are wonderful even though they're sure you're not raising them right.

Hearsay: What toddlers do when anyone mutters a dirty word.

Independent: How we want our children to be for as long as they do everything we say.

Puddle: A small body of water that draws other small bodies wearing dry shoes into it.

Show Off: A child who is more talented than yours.

Sterilize: What you do to your first baby's pacifier by boiling it, and to your last baby's pacifier by blowing on it and wiping it with saliva.

Top Bunk: Where you should never put a child wearing Superman jammies.

Two-Minute Warning: When the baby's face turns red and she begins to make those familiar-grunting noises.

Happy Mothers Day to you all…..