Comfort in the Kitchen

I woke up Saturday morning to a text message letting me know that my Aunt C lost her battle with cancer. Upon opening my social media stream, I saw yet another notification that another person I had once worked with lost his cancer battle as well last night. Two beautiful souls no longer with us, both moving on to the next part of their journeys while we remain to remember them.

When I think of my Aunt C, I think of her cooking. She made the most delicious desserts, pies with mile-high meringue. She shared her passion for gardening, canning, and making all things delicious and decadent. Her Facebook feed is full of recipes and photos of the foods she made for her husband and herself for dinner, or for her kids, or for friends. If food was a love language, making food was certainly her’s.

I made sugar cookies with my kiddos last weekend. They mostly helped with the decorating but its something that they enjoy doing. My cousin T gave me her recipe for the cookie dough and royal icing and they are ah-mazing. The cookies taste fabulous and the icing works wonderfully well when we pipe it onto the cookies. Whenever I mention making cookies, they immediately think it’s going to be the sugar cookies. They get quite sad when I tell them I’m making something else like chocolate chip or oatmeal.

As I mixed the sugar and butter, added the dry ingredients to get just the right consistency for the cookies to cut cleanly and bake without losing their shape, I thought about Aunt C. She poured countless hours into creating food for her family that stuck to the ribs and satisfied those with a sweet tooth. She remembered who loved what and just how much she’d need to make. No one could ever say they left a family gathering not completely stuffed to the gills from her food.

I remember asking her for a recipe for banana pudding and man, she sent me very detailed step-by-step instructions. “I am giving you the recipe for Banana Pudding that I make homemade and have made it all my life. My kids grew up eating homemade Banana Pudding and it is one of their favorites.” As I type this out, I can still hear her voice as clear as if she was reading it over my shoulder. Of course, her instructions were prefaced with “Hey Cutie Pie!”, some tips about how much to make for what size of gathering, and then letting me know that I “better keep that little one well fed Girl!” Actually, all of her Facebook messages to me throughout the years would start off with “Hey Sweetie!” or a similar endearment. That’s just how she was. At the end of my banana pudding recipe, she even included a little marital advice for my hubby: “So….if J ever asks you what you want for a gift and you are in need of a good mixer….Kitchen Aid is the way to go!”

She battled cancer for the last couple of years but it didn’t stop her from thinking of others. She sent me some of her stepson’s honey from Iowa a few months back just out of the blue. She knew I loved honey from all places around the world so she had him send me a little care package of honey and honey items. Over the years, I would ask her about family stories and history as she knew my dad for years. She had sass and she had heart and she served up so much love both in the kitchen and in her life.

As my boys and I made our cookies this past weekend, I thought about Aunt C and how her food and her love was so strong in my memories. I found comfort this weekend thinking of Aunt C while I made memories with my boys.

I love you, Aunt C, and we will miss you dearly but I know we’ll see you again. I’ll keep cooking and baking for my family with all the love you gave to us. Just like you asked, I’ll let you know when I make one of your recipes and how it turned out.