Grammy's Cooking and Other Hints

Morning from Grammy and Mama and me.  Heritage recipes and cooking hints make us think back to a special moment we spent with an ancestor.  I know I think of Grammy each day that I set out to cook her recipes or use her hints.

I remember days when I went to her house and the house smelled like sugar cookies.  And then I would see the big old aluminum dutch oven she kept her sugar cookies in. I would head right for it, but I had to ask if I could lift the lid to get a cookie.  That was her rule.   After the first day she would put the aluminum pan in the freezer and drag it out when she got visitors knocking on her door.

I treasure the days I spent with grammy during the last years of her life.  Her and I sat for hours discussing her life and household hints (with me writing them down) and going through her recipes.

I  don't want to let grammy's wonderful recipes slip through time.  I definitely want to preserve the heritage of my family and document grammy and mama's hints, knowledge and recipes.  Sure, some might not work in today's fast paced world, but who knows if you haven't tried them.

Here are a few things that explain the terms used in recipes.

1.  What is a moderate oven?  About 360 degrees F.  Slow oven is about 300 degrees F. Hot oven is about
400-425 degrees F.

2.  What is "butter the size of an egg equal to?  About 1/4 cup.  Butter the size of a walnut is 1 tablespoon. 

3.  What is "a teacupful" equal to?  About 3/4 cup.

4.  What is "a tumbler" equal to?  About 1 cup.

5.  What is "a peck" equal to?  Two dry gallons/8 dry quarts.  Four pecks equal a bushel.

6.  What is "a saucerful" equal to?  One cup.

7.  What is a dash or a pinch?  The amount that can be picked up between the thumb and the first finger....less than 1/8 teaspoon.

8.  What is "a gill" equal to?  1/2 cup

Grammy also told me about cutting fat into flour when making biscuits.  She told me if you didn't do it right, the result would be biscuits as heavy as a rock.  Here's how to do it according to grammy:  "Cut the fat (shortening) into the flour quickly and lightly.  Do not press down and mass the fat.  Cut in the fat until the shortening is in little particles and the flour resembles course corn meal.  Use two knives or a pasty blender (the best to use and they are cheap)."

Grammy also told me to always spoon flour into a cup and don't dip it.  It changes the volume.  Also always sift flour before it's measured as sifting changes the volume.

When grammy was raising a family, she not only was a mother but also a farm wife which meant she had to help with the milking, do the egg gathering, churning of the butter and help gramps clean the cream separator when he was done with the cream separation.  She had to take shortcuts in her household duties just so she could get everything done.  She didn't have pre-prepared meals like there are today.  Her hands were always busy and knarled from arthritis but she kept working each day from early morning until late at night.

Grammy liked to have her house smell good with the scents of the holidays.  She told me that she would make her own potpourri (but she didn't call it this....she called it house smellers).  The recipe she told me she used was:

 ~~  Slice pumpkin about 1/4 inch thick from the side of a peeled pumpkin and then chopped these slices up.  Dry them in a slow oven. When these are almost dry, sprinkle these pumpkin pieces with lots of cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg and stir.  After dried, mix these dried pumpkin pieces with cinnamon sticks, dried orange peel, whole cloves, and bay leaves.  Put the "house smeller" in a fancy bowl.

One day I was looking through grammy's ton's of recipes and household hints and found a piece of paper with the following written on it:

"Be grateful for your doors of opportunity

and for the friends who oil the hinges."

My grammy was grateful for just about everything.  She didn't have a lot of education but she knew more than most because of her common sense and her experience.  Come on back again and experience the goodness of the generations.   From grammy and mama and me, have a good old fashioned day.

Grammy's Medicinal Recommendations

Grammy wasn't a doctor or a nurse or a midwife but she sure knew her stuff when an ailment came along.  She didn't have a bag hanging from a belt like a medicine woman, but she had her tricks up her sleeve.

If I had an ailment, all I had to do was mention it to grammy and she would sort through her mind for the perfect solution to my ailment.

The one "tonic" she had for a cold was a Hot Toddy.  That hot toddy would kill you or cure you.  First of all she would say.....now you have to make this at home because I know your dad has some whiskey.  She would tell me she didn't keep whiskey in the house because she was afraid gramps would drink it.  Her recipe for the Hot Toddy was one shot of whiskey in a tea cup, then squeeze the juice of one lemon in the cup and add one tablespoon of sugar and fill with hot water.  I'd make that Toddy and start sweating profusely.  I guess that was the purpose....sweat out the cold.  I would go to bed that night still sweating, but awake in the morning feeling much better....thanks for grammy and her Hot Toddy remedy.

The "B" in Basil is for blood is what grammy always told me.  She said to go out and get some basil leaves and put it on your food so your blood flowed freely. 

Grammy always said ginger was the best spice to
have on the pantry shelf.  She said it could be used  to settle an upset tummy, as an antihistimine, for arthritis, to thin your blood, and a sore throat.  She always said to make a cup of tea and put ginger and sugar in it so it tasted good. 

Although I never had it before she told me her cure for ringworm.....put a penny in vinegar and let it sit until the penny is green.  Wash the ringworm with this vinegar penny water 2 or 3 times a day.

She told me that fig syrup was a very good laxative.  She said that many years ago you could buy fig syrup laxative but she always made hers by boiling the figs and adding sugar.  I know I have that recipe and will locate it. 



One time I got a cut on my arm when I was out in the barnyard.  She said to wash the cut with soap and water and to put honey on the cut.  She said the honey would kill the germs and would help heal the cut and would prevent a scar.  She was right....it did all of those things.  From personal experience I know that 1 tablespoon of honey mixed with one tablespoon of cider vinegar is the best thing for a sore throat.....take it several times a day....if you can get by the taste of vinegar that is.

Grammy didn't tell me but a dear friend of mine told me a home cure for hemorrhoids....she said to use Vicks Vapor Rub on the hemorrhoids....it worked!!!  I've told many people this and they have tried it and were totally surprised that it worked....then I told my daughter who is a medical practitioner....she told a person (she didn't perscribe it, just told them) who was having trouble and couldn't find a thing that worked......Vick's Vapor Rub worked for that person......it might sting for a moment then total relief.

Grammy also told me some funny medicine related things.  One day she said, do you know what "benign" is.....I said I think so....she said that is what you be after you be eight.  I laughed and laughed.  She said she went to a garden club meeting and they passed out a list with medical terms on it.  Here's some other of her medicine term funnies (you can see my grammy had a good sense of humor - like me):

**barium =  what they do after doctor's patients die

**fibula = just a small lie

**nitrates = cheaper than day rates

**medical staff = a doctor's cane

**morbid =  an offer more than I bid
**urine = opposite of you're out

Old Folks had their way of curing all kinds of things out on the farm.  Grammy knew so many things, but she probably had lots of experience being a farmer's wife with three kids to raise back when modern day cures didn't exist.

I'll keep on using old wife's cures.....maybe they help and maybe not, but it gives me peace of mind that I tried to do it as grammy said.  Come back again ya'll.  She's got more hints to share.