Remember the Angel Food Cake?

Remember the angel food cake?

I have been on a cooking spree the last week or so, cooking up all sorts of concoctions; everything from a boxed angel food cake to Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon. 

But you know what, none of the things I made can hold a candle to what my mother used to cook for us.  Last night after I was exhausted from a whole afternoon of preparing the bourguignon (and I kid you not when I tell you it took me 4 hours to do all the steps.  Had I been Julia's editor, I think I could have simplified some of those steps), I starting thinking about mom's cooking and how she'd never once cooked one of Julia Child's recipes.  Of course she had other recipes that she used from time to time for desserts, casseroles, etc, but most of the time for her day to day cooking she never used a recipe.  She didn't have time for checking a recipe.........she needed to get supper out of the way so that she could be on to other things or help Daddy outside doing whatever needed to be done.........and there was ALWAYS something that needed to be done on our farm.  Remember driving the cows back to the barn every evening?  And for you city folks, I am talking about walking the cows back home, not driving in a pickup behind the cows.....no you actually had to walk behind them and they were a half mile away.  

Back to the beef...........

Mom didn't make Beef Bourguignon, but her roast beef was to die for and she made it the same way every time.  Salt and pepper a chuck roast or whatever type roast we had in the freezer, cover with flour, sear both sides in a hot skillet, put roast in a heavy pot, add water, put in the oven, and cooking the living daylights out of it........till it literally fell apart.  She almost always put a hefty quartered onion on top of the roast; her favorite part...she loved those soft onions.  Sometimes she would add carrots and potatoes.....a whole lot easier to put them in the pot at 1:00 in the afternoon than to mash potatoes as everyone was gathering in for supper.  Truth be known, I never liked potatoes cooked in the roast, but hubby loves them...give me plain old mashed potatoes anytime and since I don't have the chores my mother did, I will take time to mash potatoes.  That was it...........my mom's pot roast............AND everybody's favorite.  Seriously, there was never a bite left over especially when the in-laws gathered in.

And who doesn't remember Mom's angel food cake?  It was one of her go to recipes.  Take one box of angel food cake and bake according to directions.  That's it!  And gosh it was so good....add the strawberry glaze and yum yum......nothing better at any French bakery.  So when I made my angel food cake last week and topped it with a can of lemon frosting, it couldn't hold a candle to mom's strawberry glaze. 

I am not going to tell you that my beef bourguignon wasn't good.  It was delicious.  But with all the cookbooks out there, with all the Internet recipes reviewed and rated, nothing can compare with Mom's cooking.  If Mom knew my hubby and I were coming down, she would usually have a nice pot roast or perhaps some smothered steak and mash potatoes ready.........and almost always there would be that pink angel food cake setting on the counter.  Remember the angel food cake?  Remember???????

I love you all.