For anyone who has taken a peek at my bio page, you know that the inspiration behind this blog was my Grandma Ruby.  Yesterday would have been her 93th birthday, so I thought I would celebrate her with dedicating today’s blog post to her.

My Grandma loved to cook and feed her family.  Some of my favourite childhood memories involve being with my Grandma and eating her delicious treats.  She always had a tin of cookies ready for all her grandchildren to devour.  Her favourite cookies to bake were:

• Chocolate Chip – which, I have never been able to replicate
• Sugar cookies – absolutely perfect for dunking in a cup of tea
• Peanut Butter Cookies – complete with the universal fork marks on the top
• Shortbread Cookies – my sister’s all-time favourite

Whenever we would have big family gatherings (Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas) there would always be an over-abundance of cookies, squares, cupcakes and pies.  Grandma loved to make pies.  Our big family dinners were only 17 – 18 people, but Grandma thought it was necessary offer a wide assortment of pies to please all of us.  You would be guaranteed to see the following pie selections at every family gathering:

• Apple
• Raspberry
• Pumpkin
• Cherry
• Lemon Meringue
• Maple Syrup*

*We lived on a farm and had the luxury of having a sugar bush on our property, so Maple Syrup pie was in our regular dessert rotation.

Grandma did so much baking (desserts, breads, buns, biscuits, etc.) that she purchased her all-purpose flour and white sugar in fifty pound bags!  There were always two steel drums in her hallway, filled to the brim with flour and sugar respectively.  My sister, Cherie, and I loved to “play” with the flour.  We would take turns using Grandma’s flour sifter to sift pound after pound of flour.

She used to make this wonderful dessert that she called quick pudding.  It was a combination of butter, brown sugar, flour and eggs.  She would cook it on the stove top and it would create a cake with a caramel sauce.  It was requested quite often (by me!!)

Grandma didn’t just bake, although I have a feeling that she had a pretty serious sweet tooth buy the amount of baking that came out of her kitchen, 😉 she was also a great cook.  She made the best roast beef dinner and I can only hope that one day my turkey dinner will bring as much pleasure to family and friends as hers did for us.

There is one funny story that my sister and I always speak fondly of when we talk about Grandma.  We were staying overnight at Grandma’s and she had cooked up a big roast beef dinner for us to enjoy.  When Cherie and I were setting the table, we mentioned how it would be nice if we were grown-up so we could have a fancy drink with dinner.  Grandma made the great suggestion that we could make a fancy drink by adding food colouring to our glasses of water.  We chose yellow and added a lot to our tall glasses of water.  Take my advice; a glass of water with half a bottle of food colouring does not taste good!

Grandma, I think of you every day, and I am so happy to think that even though most of my readers have never met you, they are getting to know you.

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