Food From Mama's Table
Living for most of her married life in the same house that we moved into when I was five, my mama, Anna Maria Friesen Doell, loved her small kitchen. If I have a consistent picture in my mind of my mother, it would be that kitchen corner, and my mother with her back to me, cooking something. Changing over the years from turquoise to white, to yellow to beige to gray and white, that kitchen always had the same small countertop that most cooks today would not tolerate. Yes, that little corner is where the magic happened for over 50 years. Most of us love our mother’s cooking. This book was written to honor my mother who showed us love through her cooking. She was born in a time when food was precious, and often scarce, so if she could see her family eating food she cooked, she felt she had done something good for us. When we brought home boyfriends and girlfriends as us three siblings got older, she also impressed them with her generous helpings. Anna married for love and attraction, and as a homemaker, became a good cook by trial and error. Her husband, Jake, loved her cooking . She willingly handed down her recipes (many of which I am sharing here with you), but she preferred to stand in her small little kitchen and do all the work herself. For this cookbook, I am including only my own experience, and my mother’s recipes, some of which will be slightly different than other Mennonite recipes. So what’s in your kitchen? Join me in trying some of the wonderful recipes here. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
