Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today  is Mom's (Grandma Buehner or Grandma B, to some of you) Birthday.  She'll is 84.  I bravely ask her how old she would be and she said, "Well, it's not hard to figure out.  When you're born in a year that has a zero on the end, you always know the last number!"  2014?  Yep, that would be 84.  She was born in 1930.   Anyway,  Jon and Jim and family's are out of town, so we're treating her to Sunday dinner here (with Dad, Aunt Chris, and our little family - minus Carianne and Kate).

I've been reminiscing about life when I was a young girl.  I have recipes of dishes Mom used to make that today, still bring back the memories.  Today we're serving chicken ala king.  It's been a long time family favorite.  In 1963, Weight Watchers was formed.  Mom was proud to inform hungry consumers that this dish was a Weight Watchers recipe.  Somehow that made anyone seem like they were in the know, if they served one of their recipes!

Another recipe I remember fondly, though it wasn't for today, was  Italian bread loaf.  Mom used to watch Rita Davenport  on local TV.  She always had good hair.  Mom could always find someone with a good hair- do.  It made her especially happy when she could find a magazine picture to snip out,  take it to the beauty shop, and say, "I want to look like her!"  So, Rita demonstrated this  recipe on her show and it became a family favorite.  We always ate it all; but maybe Mom would have never tried it if Rita didn't have good hair!

I'm also making emerald salad for today.  This was one of her staples.  I think it was a recipe that her mother used to make.  Mom would always make it in a 9 x 13" pan..  The reason is that, in those days, the movers and shakers of the food entertaining world, would display their salad presentations on a separate plate, above the fork.  So, back to the rectangle pan, the set salad would be carefully cut into squares and placed on top of a bed of lettuce on the plate.  I still love the salad, as does our family.    But Mom might cringe if she knew I sometimes make it in a bowl, to be spooned out onto the dinner plate.  Thank you Grandma Neeley!

I'm making saucepan cookies, also.  This is a recipe that has been handed down since my Grandma Neeley, too.  Mom made these all the time.  Chocolate chips, brown sugar, eggs, flour, etc are spread in a rectangle cake pan and baked, then cut into squares.  My entire life she made these, and still does.

We grew up on Cheery Lynn in a home surrounded by citrus trees.  That meant lots and lots of fresh orange juice.  I can still hear the juicer running if I close my eyes and dream.  That was a familiar morning sound, and I simply can't  be your friend if you don't love fresh orange juice.  It's HEAVEN!

I can't forget the cooked oatmeal Mom would make most mornings before school.  If anyone hated cooked oatmeal, it was my brother Jeff.  I don't remember the oatmeal as much as I remember bracing myself for his reaction!

Dear Mom, life is definitely sweeter with the memories of love you showed in your preparing favorite foods for us.  Today's dinner is only a sample of a Big THANK YOU!  It just occurred to me that I have an abundance of 9 x 13" pans - some glass and others metal.  I pride myself on my collection.  Somehow I don't think this is a coincidence!

Happy Birthday, Mom!
I Love You, Dearly!
Jody