Frying pan cookies and canned peas? Recently, while browsing through some of the recipes in the My Mother’s Cookbooks collection I came across one of Mum’s handwritten holiday menus. A list of all of the special foods she planned to prepare, share and serve during the season. It contained all of the usual suspects, SquashContinue reading “The Holiday Favourites list…”
Author Archives: elizalyonsmorrison
Friends, Fruit and Sultana Cake
For Mum, Christmas Holiday baking began in October. Fruit cakes, plum puddings, gum drop cakes, things which need curing were first, followed by the long list of sweets and savories which had become favourites in our family. Christmas baking for Mum meant focusing on special recipes those reserved for Christmas, including Elizabeth Moody’s Sultana1 Cake.Continue reading “Friends, Fruit and Sultana Cake”
Christmas Doughnuts and House Girls…
There were many baked treats on Mum’s Christmas preparation list, but only one item warrants two versions…Doughnuts. The most Canadian of doughnuts does not come from a coffee shop, it does not have maple icing or a fancy name…it is a cake doughnut made with molasses. Once fried, the doughnuts may be rolled in granulatedContinue reading “Christmas Doughnuts and House Girls…”
Christmas stockings, a potato and lemon nut loaf
My first Christmas stockings were Dad’s socks repurposed for the night. Don’t get me wrong I was not disadvantaged nor was I unusual, it was the 1960’s, and my parents believed Santa was not really what Christmas was about. Despite that, in the weeks leading to Christmas eve, I heard reminders about Santa’s naughty listContinue reading “Christmas stockings, a potato and lemon nut loaf”
Miner’s Wives and Mothers…
There are a number of recipes in My Mother’s Cookbooks which are traditionally associated with mining and mining communities…Welsh cakes, Cornish pasties, Welsh pasties, hand pies, etc. Although mining of various minerals is very much a Northern Appalachian/ Acadian regional reality, in some areas coal was king. Canadian mining communities which thrived during the earlyContinue reading “Miner’s Wives and Mothers…”
Baked Beans and …the Scots.
This blog is the first in a series which features early Scottish settlers to the region and the McDougald, MacEachern; McKinnon and McGraw families among others… The tradition of enjoying a Saturday night supper of homemade baked beans is one familiar to families through out Atlantic Canada. Of course there are several versions of bakedContinue reading “Baked Beans and …the Scots.”
Buckwheat & River Rocks…
featuring My Mother’s Cookbooks Buckwheat cake, traditional Northern Appalachian / Acadian fare. After thousands of years of having wheat in their diet, you might think early European settlers to North America expected that to continue in their new home, but they didn’t. Wheat, they knew requires weather and soil conditions not available everywhere, so theyContinue reading “Buckwheat & River Rocks…”
Buckle up…its Blueberry picking time
Blueberries feature large in the My Mother’s Cookbooks collection, muffins, pies, cakes, even blueberry vinegar. Some recipes have unusual names like Blueberry Grunt, Blueberry Bang Belly and Blueberry Buckle, a legacy of this delicious little berry’s reputation with those who came to live in Northern Appalachian/Acadian region’s coastal district. Today’s commercial harvest of wild blueberriesContinue reading “Buckle up…its Blueberry picking time”
The ‘making’ of Cape Breton Pork Pies…
On the surface many areas of Northern Appalachia / Acadia appear to have been marked by the settlement of a single group of Europeans. The ‘tastes’ of the region are more reflective of the complexity and nuance of reality. Cape Breton Pork Pies don’t contain pork, but they do resemble the hat1. The origin ofContinue reading “The ‘making’ of Cape Breton Pork Pies…”
Blueberry Muffins…An Appalachian treat?
A classic recipe from the Northern Appalachian and Acadian region, wild blueberries grow through out the region from the Adirondacks to Newfoundland and Labrador. One of my favourite recipes in the My Mother’s Cookbook collection is for a ‘traditional’ blueberry muffin. As a child I thought blueberries only grew near the railway… that this BlueberryContinue reading “Blueberry Muffins…An Appalachian treat?”
My Mother's Cookbooks 