Archive Monthly Archives: May 2018
Full Circle
Sometimes it’s really hard to believe that mom is gone; every time I make her pastry I can still feel her presence behind me guiding me and I can hear her voice telling me not knead it too much, don’t add too much flour – you will add that when you start rolling the pastry for the pies.
I often reflect back to those days when it was so busy at the restaurant, when all the truckers arrived in the morning for their breakfast before heading out on the road. They would stop in again on the way back for their coffee and piece of pie, or sometimes a quick burger.
The Brock Road students would pop over every day for their fries and gravy. Mom knew exactly when they would arrive and dad would say “get ready, they’re coming!”. The kids would line up at the register to order their fries and gravy, and sometimes a soda, before sneaking back onto the school grounds. Those were the days.
Mom’s recipes are the best and I often chatted about doing something with mom’s worn out cookbook; now that same old cookbook is gracing the cover of a brand new cookbook! So much baking and testing, and I don’t think we gained a lot of weight during this process – thank goodness for Zumba!
Mom will always be with me as I bake or cook. I have now taken on her role, adding and changing recipes depending on how I feel that day. I miss her and my dad every day and thank them for a great opportunity to grow in a restaurant environment and for giving me the confidence to improvise in the kitchen the way mom used to.
Donut Balls
I know that Deb had it clear in her mind how all of Grace’s recipes worked, but sometimes when she provided them to me, the directions were…what shall we say…a tad on the sketchy side. A flurry of email questions would ensue, ranging from “What oven temperature should I use?” to “Can you let me know the quantity of the ingredients and how to put them together?” (this last in response to a recipe she sent that consisted of ingredients only, no quantities or instructions).
The very first recipe I tackled was Grace’s donuts. I started the deep fryer up and proceeded to follow the instructions for the donut batter. It seemed weird and glue-y…I tasted the batter thinking it should taste yummy like cake batter, but it tasted awful. If I hadn’t already heated the fat in the deep fryer I would have pitched the batter then and there. However, I thought I might as well fry some up and see how much worse things could get. They took about 4 minutes to cook, I dumped them onto a paper towel and rolled them in cinnamon and sugar. Then I made Alex eat one, no way I was going to try it. A look of surprise crossed his face as he declared “Hey, they’re good!” So I had one, then another and another, they were good! Called Deb and made her come for her first official taste test, sat her down with a cup of tea and a plate of warm donut balls covered in cinnamon and sugar. When she bit into the first one, a misty-eyed look came over her face as she said “Oh this is just like sitting in my mom’s diner!” Nailed it on the first try!