She always managed to make things happen and get things done. Her mother died when she was young and at 15 she left home. She talked about living in boarding houses and going down to the ice box late at night to steal some milk, then replacing what she'd taken with a little water so no one would notice. It must have been a traumatic thing for her, because her refrigerator always had at least one gallon of Vitamin D real deal milk. And she'd freak out if we ran out- you had to go get some ASAP. She was diabetic, but she loved sweets (if you tried to buy her sugar-free sweets, she'd pretty much laugh in your face). She was always joking and making fun of people. She's where my whole family gets its sense of humor.
After the revolution in Cuba (in the 60s), she had five children to feed and managed to do it using the government-approved ration cards and the black market. She sewed up shoes out of rubber and canvas and traded them for meat to cook for dinner. My mother and uncle used to deliver these shoes by hiding them at the bottom of a bag of oranges. She had a high standard for nurturance. So much so that when a pair of swallows made their nest in the overhang of her roof (now my mom's roof- this picture is from today!), she got mad that sometimes the mama bird would let her baby die if it fell out of the nest. One year she refused to even let her make her nest because she was a "bad mother." I guess seeing the hungry chicks reminded her of something. You can see three hungry babies in that nest today, mouths open. They just hung open like that forever. I took something like 4 pictures! Once I realized mama bird wasn't returning because she was waiting for the giant camera wielding monster to go away, I stopped snapping photos.
I'm going through her old recipe books as part of a project I'm working on with a friend to publish our grandmothers' recipes. Her grandmother is Polish and also has some interesting food-related stories to tell. I picked up the books at my mom's house. My mom said that my grandmother would often sit at the kitchen table writing out recipes carefully in a book so that we would have them when she passed away. It was totally morbid at the time, which she acknowledge, but such a treasure to have now, even if nobody sees them but me. This picture to the left is just so...her. She didn't have a stapler with her or a paper clip, but she had a sewing pin. Viola!
This is a project I'd really like to make happen. I am going to be going through these recipes, doing translations, making the dishes, and photographing them in my spare time. Maybe by the end of January I'll have enough to start doing some research (January will be mydown time at work) on the historical side of things. If you have great original recipes from your grandmother and an interesting story to go with them, preferably with a connection to a historical event or period, we'd love to see it! Leave a comment with your e-mail (Don't worry, I won't publish it for the world to see).
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