My grandmother loved food. She was growing up during the Great Depression, so I am not exactly sure how this love of food developed, but I remember with great clarity wacky cake (a recipe developed during the Great Depression for a desert that didn't have a lot of flour or sugar) served with fresh whipped cream. I even managed to overdose on the whipped cream as a little girl...to the point where I wouldn't eat it again for many years.
My grandmother was a gourmet cook who loved Frank Sinatra and Broadway musicals. She was vibrant and funny, and very stubborn. She was definitely in charge of our family, a crazy matriarch who made sure her opinion was not only known, it was followed.
I remember the first time I tried hot tea...with my grandmother. Raspberry flavored, always raspberry. My grandmother loved fresh raspberries and anything with a raspberry flavor. When I went to college I found this little candy shop that sold locally made twists (kind of like twizzlers) that came in a raspberry flavor. Granma couldn't get enough of them. So I always brought some when I came to visit.
If it is possible to inherit a love of food, Granma would definitely have been the person to inherit from, but not anymore. She died last evening. May all of our family remember what a wonderful woman she was.
A crazy, wonderful, loud, stubborn liver of life.
