From the Kitchen Of: The Women of My Family - Mother's Day Recipes Part 1

One of the best ways for people to come together and celebrate is with food. Most of my happy memories with my family involve a meal of some sort with delicious home cooked sweet and savory treats. So as I was thinking about this upcoming Mother's Day, I thought what better way to honor the women in my family then by telling their stories and sharing some of my favorite foods from their own recipe books. Many of the photos of recipe cards I will be sharing are written in their handwriting, so its really cool to look back through time to when these women were making these dishes. I'd like to thank my aunt Janna and my mom Suzanne for helping me collect these recipes and stories!

I come from a line of German-Russian and Norwegian farmers that Immigrated to the American Midwest back in the 1800's (my aunt can correct me if I'm wrong! She's our family historian!). Because of this, the women of my family have made lots of wonderful recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation. Some of my fondest memories involve sitting at the dinner table breaking bread and enjoying some of these delicious foods. So, with permission, I'd like to share with you all a little family food history! This will be a 2 part post, because it's so hard to narrow these recipes down since they are all so good. I also want to share some family stories as well, so in order to make these articles not too terribly long, I'm going to post one today, and one tomorrow! Check back to read part 2!

Great, Great Aunt Dora

I will start with my Great, Great Aunt Dora Dick McDaniel. She was born October 21, 1903 in Hadar, Nebraska. She was named after her two grandmas Dorothea Dick and Anna Maria Stroh. Her full name was Anna Catherine Dorothea, but she went by Dora. She married Burnel McDaniel in Moorhead, MN on June 5th, 1929. Here she is on her wedding day with Burnel:

She had a recipe for a dessert called Peach Rolly Polly. Here are her handwritten recipe cards.

I always find vintage recipes interesting because the directions are so vague. For example, Dora writes "use enough cream to make a soft dough". She also notes on the bottom that she got this recipe from her Aunt Mabel. This peach dessert sounds really good, and I'm going to attempt to recreate it for you all soon!

Great, Great Aunt Ragna

The next recipe I'd like to share comes from my other Great, Great Aunt Ragna Bergh. She was the aunt of my Grandma Millie, who I'll be talking about in part 2! Ragna was born June 29th, 1900, and she lived to be 97 years old! Everyone said she was the sweetest little old lady ever. Here is Ragna with her husband Alfred on their wedding day. She taught elementary school for 8 years before getting married at the age of 31.

Here is her recipe for brownies (which are actually more of a soft molasses drop cookie). This recipe was re-written my my mom. Mom also told me that she loved these cookies! Step #2 says to drop cookies with a spoon dipped in butter to prevent the batter from sticking.

Great Grandma Susie

The next woman I will talk about today is my Great Grandma Susie Bergh, who is the sister-in-law of Ragna and the mother of Millie. She was born February 12th, 1895 and lived to be 94 years old. Her daughter (and my Great Aunt), Helen, wrote this about her mother:

"Mom said, to be a good housekeeper, you had to have a system and be good manager of time. Mom was a superb housekeeper, homemaker, hostess, and caring mother. She believed cleanliness was next to Godliness, and most of the time these intertwined. Meals and coffee times were regular and guests were entertained graciously whether for meals or overnight. Mom baked, cooked, and entertained in her home until the age of 90. Mom was consistent in detail down to buttering bread on sandwiches to the edge so they would not be dry."

Here is a photo of her on Millie's wedding day with my grandpa's parents (Susie is the woman on the left with her husband John).

I have a few recipes passed down to me from Susie's kitchen, but every single one is just so good that I had to share them all with you!

Brownies:

Susie also has a brownie recipe, but this one is more like a traditional brownie than Ranga's is. This card was written in her handwriting. This recipe is another example of a vintage recipe being a little vague in it's directions, but it looks like you are supposed to melt the butter and chocolate together and let it cool, then add the sugar, vanilla, and eggs and "beat real good", and finally mix in the flour and salt. It also says to bake in a 9 x 13 inch pan for 25 minutes at 350 degrees F. The little note on the bottom looks like she got this recipe from someone in 1966.

Big Batch Drop Cookies:

This recipe is one of my mom's favorites! These cookies were ones Susie would make in huge batches, and then she would put them in cookie tins on the buffet table in her dining room. My mom remembers that they could freely go and get cookies from the tins whenever they visited, and she probably ate a dozen at a time! This recipe was typed up and submitted to a local paper, but my mom saved a clipping of it.

Fruit Cocktail Cake:

This is another of my mom's favorites the her Grandma Susie would make for Christmas Eve. My mom said she loved it warm with a big spoon of whipped cream on it. This recipe is also written in her handwriting, and even though it says it's a pudding, it is more of a cake-like dessert! I am guessing this is baked at 350 degrees, even though it does not say on this recipe card.

Aunt Janna

The last recipe I am going to share with you today in this part 1 of the recipes from my family comes from my Aunt Janna. She makes this crab dip every Christmas, it truly is the Best. Crab. Dip. Ever. just like this photo says. My little brother Michael loves this crab dip too, so this is a screenshot of her sharing it with him on Facebook.

Going through all of these recipes really makes me nostalgic. Its amazing how food can help us remember great memories of our loves ones. Tomorrow in part 2, I will be sharing recipes from my Grandma Millie and my mom Suzanne. I hope you enjoy this post as much as I've enjoyed writing and reminiscing through my family history. As summer progresses and I have a little more time, I am hoping to make some of these recipes for myself, since I have eaten some of them before, but others I have not. Please try any of these recipes out for yourself, and if you do, let me know how you like them!

Happy Mother's Day!

-Carley <3

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