My Family Cookbook

All the women in my family are/were fantastic cooks. Auntie and Grammie were both known for their abilities in the kitchen. Everything they made tasted delicious and was made to perfection after years of perfecting every recipe. My Mother has also followed suit – capable of whipping up a meal for ten with no fear and a pan of biscuits at a moment’s notice. Like Auntie and Grammie, she has all kinds of “tricks of the trade.” She knows what textures should look and feel like and how to manipulate recipes to work in her favour. The older I get, I am increasingly aware that I still have so much to learn with respect to cooking and baking. So every chance I get, I bake and cook with Mom and I pay a little more attention with the hope that something will *stick*.

For Christmas 2007, I asked Hilda for a different kind of Christmas present. I asked her if she would write out all of her and Auntie’s recipes in a book for me and she happily complied. Dated December 2007, Hilda inscribed the book:

Dear Juanita,
These recipes were copied with love from old and not so old books that Auntie used over her years of baking. I hope you will keep it going with recipes of your own now and pass it along.
- Auntie Hoolie

This little black binder contains recipes, but what I am also grateful for is that Auntie Hoolie noted the provenance of each recipe and little antidotes where the recipe warranted it. In addition to Auntie and Hilda, there are also recipes from my cousins, Great-Aunts, and Aunts from the paternal side of my family including Toddy Ryan, Aunt Babe, Margaret Ben, Margaret Reggie, Little Joe (Lewis), Aletha, Loretta Lewis, and Marion McIsaac. I then had my Mom add to the book, including her and Grammie’s recipes.

Just re-reading Hoolie’s inscription in the book, I realize I now have to add some of my own recipes to the book. I don’t have a lot of things I make from scratch, but my chicken lasagne comes to mind....and I haven’t made it lately!

After a successful production of Auntie’s meat pies, my Mom and I then decided to try our hand at a Sultana Cake. After my Mom’s cherry cake, it is my favourite of the Christmas season. And like our meat pie production, I decided to provide a visual of this production.



When Mom looked at me (above) beating the wet mixture she chucked and said “Look at your little hands beating away.” This was in reference to a story brought up over the holidays that I had never heard before. While visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Brudenell, somehow the subject of “hands” came up. My Mom shared a story about when her and Dad were on one of their first dates. They of course held hands, only to have my father blurt out to my Mother, “My God you have big hands!” My mother, who inherited her Mother’s large working hands was of course horrified – and forty five years later, is still indignant about the comment. I thought the story – and my mother’s delivery of it – was priceless.


Once again, we incorporated both Auntie and Grammie into the experience. We used Grammie’s mixing bowl and Auntie’s cake pan (and recipe). And here is my Mom (with her big hands!) holding the cake just before we popped it into the oven.


The cake took 2.5 hours to cook, which seemed like forever. And because it is something we only make once a year, we were a little more observant than usual. We spent the majority of that waiting time in the kitchen. I worked on a craft project and Mom kept me company. At one point, Mom felt the cake was rising a little too much so she started talking to it with the hope that it would listen. Above, she pointed to the cake and told it to “STOP” as it still had 45 minutes to cook. Thankfully, it listened.



The cake turned out to be very level, which Mom said it sometimes difficult to achieve. She then gave me some hints as to how to get the cake out of the funnel pan. And flop, before we knew it, it was out.


I treasure these recipes – especially because they are written out by Auntie Hoolie and Mom. I treasure the well seasoned mixing bowl and cake pans once used by Grammie and Auntie. And I of course treasure the time and experience of baking with my Mom...and the laughs we have in the process.