Cooking from Scratch

Is there anybody out there who cooks as much food “from scratch” in abundance every day like our parents and grandparents did back in the day? That generation said if their kids brought home ten friends at dinner time, there was always plenty of food to go around. The grandmothers in their multi-purpose aprons who made seemingly endless large quantities of amazing food would say, “I hope you’re hungry! Help yourself!” There was always pies of all kinds too, with flavors from berries of every assortment, to mincemeat, mousse or meringues. In fact, they’re probably pantry prepping for Thanksgiving as we speak. Kids back then weren’t allowed to say no thank you to Grandma, or I’m not hungry. That was not ok, and us kids back then knew better. That’s why during the “Rudolph” 1964 movie when Mrs. Claus says, “Eat Papa, Eat! Whoever heard of a skinny Santa,” it was totally accepted and believable as a plausible scene we never questioned…as was the time lapse of extreme weight gain Santa had in one sitting when she made him a feast. Today if kids show up with ten friends, that means it’s time to order pizza. There’s most likely no sizeable smorgasbord ready just in case someone that needs to be fed shows up. Pretty much the only way there’s enough dinner for that many is when it’s planned for a party known weeks in advance. Although not all Moms from the previous generations welcomed that many, and they weren’t shy about telling the neighbor kids to skedaddle and “git on home, it’s supper time!” BUT there has been a recent upsurge in excessive baking, and that’s because stressed is just desserts spelled backwards. Stress eating is a thing. We can say that we’re baking up a storm in case of company, but deep down we all know nobody is coming over. It’s because comfort food tastes pretty darn good right now. Channel your inner Gramma and bake away! What was your favorite pie or dish your parents or grandparents made? (My mom made the best strawberry rhubarb pie from scratch, and she always saved some of the raw dough for me to eat straight up because I was as obsessed with that as I was with raw cookie dough…and my mother-in-law was most well known locally for her incredible potato salad she used to sell.)