The Best Kind of Kitsch: Grandma's Recipes

I'll start off by posting some of my Grandma Mary's recipes, which I have recently been attempting to collect and write down as most of them seem to exist only in the minds of my mom and her siblings. I am eternally grateful that my sisters and I were able to grow up next door - literally - to our maternal grandparents. I never realized how odd that was until I went to college. We had a big meal every Sunday prepared by grandma, and while I can't say I liked all our meals (I'm talkin bout you, chop suey), I loved most of them in all their high carb, bouillon infused, meaty glory. Her recipes might not be considered highbrow these days, but it is some damn good comfort food. Two of the family faves are Gourmet Potatoes, which my mom still makes for holiday brunches, and Calico Beans, which are sometimes prepared at our annual camping trip in the Leelanau Peninsula.

Gourmet Potatoes (I might rename this Heaven in a Casserole Dish)

Ingredients

-10 baking potatoes

-Few green onions

-1 stick butter, melted

-8 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated

-8 oz sour cream (a little more won't hurt anything except your heart and waistline)

Boil, cool and peel potatoes, then grate them into a mixing bowl. Add all ingredients plus salt and pepper to taste, and stir. Put in casserole dish, cover with foil, and bake for about 1 hour at 350 degrees. Take the foil off toward the end of the cooking time to get a nice brown crust - that's the best part!

Calico Beans

Ingredients

-8 oz bacon, chopped

-1 cup onion, chopped

-1 can pork n beans

-1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

-1 can Northern Beans, drained and rinsed

-1 can butter beans, drained and rinsed

-1/2 cup brown sugar

-3/4 cup ketchup

-1 Tbls Worcestershire sauce (or as grandma affectionately called it, "what's this shit here sauce")

Brown bacon in bottom of large pot. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix, and cook on medium high heat until it's tasty and hot. Mmm mmm good!

Next up from grandma's recipe collection: ROLLS GALORE.

Food Bloggetry

Eating is something that we all do every day - why not appreciate it and do it well? Few things are more satisfyingly simple and gratifying to our natural human urges as preparing and consuming food. There is a push these days to go back to cooking instead of eating out, choosing fresh ingredients over processed, local over transported from hundreds to thousands of miles away, eating more plants, and simply getting healthier. I wish to contribute to these movements in my own trivial way. But really, I just think it will be fun to mix two things I love most: cooking and writing. I love food blogs and while I don't anticipate this one being groundbreaking or well-known, I hope that a few people will get a good recipe or two out of it. This is a forum for recipes and food-related discussions, to which I hope that my friends and family members will contribute.