What’s the one item in your kitchen you can’t possibly cook without?
A spice, your grandma’s measuring cup,
instant ramen – what’s your magic ingredient and why?
Maybe it’s because I hate to cook that no specific special ingredient comes to mind. I do wish there was a magical elixir like a spice or something. If I had to choose, maybe it would be powdered gravy!
But if we are talking about “items” and not food ingredients, I would choose my Mom’s flat bottomed sauce pan.
I silently call it “Mom’s Pot.” Mom is long gone but I still miss her, so that pot has deep meaning.
Because it belonged to her and I always saw her cooking things in it, I figure it must have wondrous qualities. Mom would only want the best for her kids – like the best mashed potatoes (even though hers were always lumpy).
Still, I have my issues with Mom’s Pot. I think I have mentioned she was not a good cook and maybe she could blame that pot and never told me.
It burns everything I cook in it.
I spend hours soaking the thing and then scraping off the stuck on stuff with a sharp instrument.
But hey – it’s Mom’s Pot and it is the one thing in my kitchen I would never want to do without. And I would NEVER give it up.
“Cooking with memories is a far finer thing than serving a good meal.” ~Dor
Awwww…..I cook with Jim’s mom’s pots……
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Hi Dora, Love this post. I cannot do without my grandmothers Tablespoon which was passed to my mother and now me. It is so old that half the handle has worn down. I’ve tried using a modern tablespoon but things just don’t seem to cook the same as if I use Grandma’s tablespoon. ” Crazy or what” My other half says if you want to upset Rita, hide her old tablespoon.
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[…] Cooking Without Mom | Virginia Views […]
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My stash of dark chocolate: and that has nothing to do with cooking.
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Haha I like your quote. I have some cooking memories, “Mommy put fire on the burger! Fire on the burger!” Those are the more memorable meals. 🙂
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I love that you still have your mother’s pot, even though it sticks and burns things. I have a pot that belonged to my Mamaw and one day, I’ll have one or two of my mother’s pot also. Have a great week, Dor!
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Those memories are priceless. I take “Mommy put fire on the burger!” to mean you thought your Mom was burning up the place?
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Ronnie, I must admit I’m with you on this….
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Welcome to the ranks of us strange people who get attached to memorable things. Maybe “crazy” is the right word. 🙂
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You too are catching the fever Cindy…..
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No, my daughter thought I was! LOL
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[…] Cooking Without Mom | Virginia Views […]
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I have my mother’s flour container and her coffee mug. I worry that one day the mug will break into bits. It’s at least 50 years old. The flour container was one of the old Tupperware ones that gets yucky on the outside. I have to scrub it about once a year. I swear I’ll replace it one day but it reads Mom on the top in permanent marker in my Mother’s handwriting. What can I say?
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[…] Cooking Without Mom | Virginia Views […]
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[…] Cooking Without Mom | Virginia Views […]
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I think its lovely that you still have your mom’s pot, Dor.
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Bi-carb works wonders on those pots that burn everything 😉
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[…] Cooking Without Mom | Virginia Views […]
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I have one of my Mom’s pots too. It’s a large one and it’s my go-to pot for cooking potatoes or noodles but only when the family is here. My mom was a really good cook, so I did not inherit her cooking gene. 😦
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Keep using your Mom’s pot and I’ll bet her genius will come right to you! Well, maybe. I have inherited my Mom’s Non-Cooking gene.
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Good tip bluebee! I will definitely try it.
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No way can you discard the flour container Kate unless you can forge your Mom’s writing and let it get yucky too. :))
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Well, let’s see I’ve had the pot since she passed away 15 years ago…that cooking genius hasn’t come to me yet! 😉
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[…] Cooking Without Mom (countryliving4beginners.wordpress.com) […]
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That’s what I thought too…not about the forgery but about how I can’t get rid of it.
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Oh, Dor, I get all teary-eyed reading blogs from folks whose mom (or dad) have passed on. My parents are getting “up there” and I am trying to spend every spare minute with them. Which means 3-4 times a year, if lucky. You are lucky to have her pot to remember her by.
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I have a few of my mother’s kitchen items. My favorites are a decorated pie pan and a silver pie server. Guess I am crazy too. My mother was a good cook but she never taught me so I had to learn on my own. She always had me do the dishes so I am good at cleaning up!
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I love the idea of the decorated pie pan…. what a wonderful memory of your Mom.
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It’s a grand thing you are doing to be with your parents as much as possible. Somehow the memories build quicker and seem even more dear when you can see the “getting up there” signs. No matter what, they will always be with you and the mementos will not be restricted to things like pots and pans. 🙂
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You are a very patient woman! 🙂
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Mom wasn’t/isn’t a very good cook. We four kids didn’t starve though, because we always begged her to fix cream of wheat with lumps and lumpy mashed potatoes.
My mother is a beautiful woman, smart too, however she doesn’t laugh much. I think I would want her three mixing bowls. She told me once when they were married, a recently divorced friend of my father’s said she could pick anything out of his kitchen that she wanted. No gift wrap, no bow, no card, no best wishes or congratulations. That story makes her laugh. Yes, I think I want that set of nesting mixing bowls that make her laugh with the memory.
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What a lovely memory that would be – having the bowls that make your Mom laugh. It’s clear that you love it when she does.
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I can relate. My favorite pots are the ones I inherited from my mom, and even a few from my grandma that she brought to the US when she immigrated from Russia.
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Oh those pots would be so special since they came with your Mom from Russia. I think my Mom bought this pot when I was a child. I do have a tureen my grandmother brought over from Germany and that’s precious too.
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Wonderful memories are what gets us through.
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