My mom, Ruby K., is the hardest worker I know. At 84, she still keeps busy… sewing, gardening and decorating her home in nearby Florence, Oregon. But of all the rooms in her house, the kitchen is where Mom spends most of her time.
BY THE TIME that my mom, Irene Voss (left), was 8 years old, she was responsible for much of her family's cooking. The oldest girl in a family of eight children, Mom learned to cook alongside her mother and often took over meal preparation when there was a new baby in the house. She baked bread and made noodles, dumplings, cakes, pies and more.
When I think about my mother's cooking, I remember how different it was back then to put food on the table. Her meals were fruits of love, prepared from scratch. Nearly everything was homegrown.
COOKING for a crowd came naturally for my mom, Antoinette D.
A CLOSE FRIEND of my mother's once declared, "You don't meet Blanche, she meets you." And once Blanche Metzgar meets you, you're likely to join the large circle of friends who relish her dinner parties, annual Christmas party and memorable Memorial Day brunch at my parents' home in Mamont, Pennsylvania.
It's a tradition at our house to have dinner together each Sunday. Even now that my brother, sister and I are adults, we still gather at my parents' home in Erin, Wisconsin for one of Mom's incredible meals. It's a time that our family reserves for each other.
It didn't matter if you were a relative, a neighbor or a friend. When you came to our house, my mother would ask, "Did you eat? Sit down and have a bite!"
MY MOM, Margaret P. from Bloomington, Minnesota, never has to fish for compliments when she cooks—especially when we are on vacation.
ENERGETIC is the word that best describes my mom, Theresa Handlos, of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. When my sisters, Marie, Dianne and Laura, and I were growing up, Mom not only cooked every night for us and our father, but also for members of our extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins who frequently joined us at the dinner table.
My mom, Nancy Larkin, is a true artist—both on canvas and in the kitchen. When she's not painting watercolors in her studio, she's busy creating in the kitchen.
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