To My Mudear

I am fortunate to have grown up with an awesome grandmother. She let me tear up her kitchen on many a weekend! She always had cakes for me to bake, ingredients for cookies and her big, red Betty Crocker Cookbook was always at the ready. I learned how to make pancakes from that cookbook...yes kids we used to have to make our own pancake mix, NOT buy it from the store! LOL I can’t recall her ever using a recipe or measuring anything. I mean she made the best pound cake I have ever eaten in my life and she never measured a cup of flour or teaspoon of baking powder/soda. Her cornbread!!?? Don’t even get me started! Nina Mae put it down in the kitchen

Being around my “Mudear”, and other family who cooked, afforded me knowledge you just can’t get out of a book. . I learned how to wash greens, chop vegetables, scale and gut fish, cut up a chicken, fry chicken, bake, etc. from Mudear. She allowed me lots of trial and error but she offered guidance as well. She is quick to tell you about a minor mishap I had in the kitchen involving frying some fish! While the story is not that funny, it tickles her every time she tells it! LOL She will also tell you how “into” learning how to cook I was as a kid. I asked a million questions. She was always so patient with me in my learning process, there was never a silly question or a moment when I felt like an idiot. Let her tell it I was a B. Smith in the making! LOL.

Those times in the kitchen, cooking with her, chatting with her and listening to her hum her old time spirituals is cherished time that I will truly never forget. I pray that I create those types of memories with Babe.

Mudear, thank you for being the catalyst for my love of cooking and baking, for having the patience to instruct me and for sharing with me your vast knowledge of food and cooking. I love you so much!