Mama

Mama is what I called my Grandmother. It was the word I formed when I tried to say Grandma and it stuck. She lived nearby and she always had time for us as kids.  Even when we stretched into our teens and twenties we retained the kind of relationship where we would call in and bring friends and boyfriends with us.

Below you'll see a picture of her in her kitchen, it was teeny, but it was where I first learned to cook.  She would sit me on the worktop next to the cooker from the time I was about 2.  She'd let me taste the food as she was cooking and ask me did it need more seasoning or whether the potatoes were near done.  I was well warned about steam burns, but when I was older I asked was she not afraid that I would put my hand on a pot or burn myself she looked at me as if I was mad "sure why would you do that".  She also told me that the only reason she put me up there was because as you can see its a very small kitchen and I was underfoot wanting to know more.  As I got older I learned about custards and sauces and gravys.  Mantras burned into my brain "hot into cold never cold into hot" "turn down the gas and keep stirring don't worry it will thicken up".  She was skillful, she understood her tools, she understood her ingredients, she understood seasoning, she understood the art of simple well cooked meal and plenty of it. All the while being frugal and re-using leftovers to create something else.

She also made the most wonderful appletarts from the trees in her back garden but I couldnt get the recipe ever because she did it by instinct flour butter sugar a bit of cold water and that was the pastry.  The apples or pears were what ever she gathered from the windfall sprinkled with a little sugar.

She wasnt very fond of baking because she didnt believe in measuring things - Christmas baking was the exception.  There was a dining room which served as the living room and it had a sideboard in it where the drawer on the right had her stash of recipes cut from magazines by my Grandads careful hand, flour packets, recipe booklets that had been sent away for and where only the best survived.

Her patience with me especially when she wasn't in the humor for cooking or baking led me to where I am today.  She has given me something that brings me great enjoyment and richness to my life.