Post #51 – Women’s Memoirs, Book Raves – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Have you ever thought about your life through the recipes you’ve cooked? Judy Alter not only thought about her life this way, she has written an incredibly charming memoir/cookbook to share those thoughts with us.
I opened Cooking My Way through Life with Kids and Books and began to get the lay of the land. She opened with the story of a friend who suggested they write a cookbook together. Needless to say, that story changed as she got into the process of writing.
Writing, however, isn’t new to Alter. She has written about 60 books (by her best count), most of them for children. She is the director of TCU Press in Fort Worth and has spent her life with the combination of cooking, children, and books and wraps all of that into her most recent volume and first memoir.
I love to cook so I was eager to dip into Alter’s book. Before I knew it, I was reading some of her mother’s favorite recipes and quickly noted that many were the same ones that my mother fixed — wilted lettuce (p 17), beets and greens (p. 17), fried mush (p. 18), the dreaded sauteed liver (p. 19), and even my mother’s favorite, tongue (p. 19) My mother, also a product of The Depression, had one other favorite that Alter didn’t describe, pickled pigs feet.
We read memoirs for many reasons and a good one connects with us on multiple levels. Alter’s book constantly evoked my own memories. For example, she shared a childhood coking disaster when she put 9 t of baking soda in a cake (p. 20). It turns out that was how the recipe had been written and she didn’t have enough experience to question it. Do you have your own cooking disasters? Alter’s story immediately reminded me of the mashed potatoes I made as a child — the ones I added blue food coloring to. I didn’t have enough experience to know that blue potatoes would basically be inedible.
In Alter’s second chapter focusing on her early marriage years, she discussed receiving a National Defense Education Act (NDEA) fellowship while pursuing her Ph.D. (p. 43) Again, bells went off for me although the specifics varied as I had an NIMH fellowship. How lucky we were in those years to have fellowships that not only paid our tuition but gave us small stipends for our living expenses. I was also married during those years and her book recalled the period well. Her recipes from that time were simple such as the Plain but Good Pinto Beans (p. 53). That particular recipe was similar to the recipe my mother gave me when I married. In those days, salt pork was a cheap seasoning.
While I may have lived on less money than Alter did during those years (for one dinner party, I prepared waffles and the table cloth was one of my grandmother’s quilts), she mentioned Mateus wine (p. 57) and that was certainly a treat in the early year’s of my marriage, always reserved for when we had guests for dinner.
Alter beautifully weaves her personal story throughout the mix of recipes. In her chapter of life as a single mom, we learn how she managed to work and raise four children on her own. She called those her Casserole Years. I smiled when I saw her recipe for Shepherd’s Pie (p. 77). I’d never heard of that until I was away at school. And now, as a vegan I’ve adapted my recipe so that it features lentils and walnuts under the mashed potatoes (no longer colored blue).
Another walk down my personal memory lane was triggered when I saw her recipe for Tamale Pie (p. 110). She uses prepared polenta rolls, but I always remember it with mush, the way my mother taught me.
By now, you can tell I felt that Alter and I were old friends sharing life stories and recipes. So when she went into great detail about her favorite restaurants in Santa Fe, a place that she and her children often when for Christmas (p. 152-153), I immediately made a note to try the ones she mentioned that next time we visit Santa Fe.
Alter’s book is a good blend of life story, family, and recipes. Bon appetit.
