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i have noticed that i have been thinking about my mother a lot lately. maybe it is the impending holiday rush and i miss her. but most of my thoughts have been about her in the kitchen, and the great cook she was. i spent a lot of time in the kitchen with her, more than normal i think looking back on it. i know she is the reason i am a great cook, not good but great. my mom worked everyday except wednesdays and sundays and worked in the same building for 25 years. first at rascoe's and then newberry's in the yardage department, cutting fabric and helping customers find notions or patterns. i do not know how but she found time to sew and crochet, hobbies i know now relaxed her after a long day. i learned to sew quite well from her and my own adventures with the tons of fabric she would buy and keep in cardboard storage boxes, remember those? she taught me to make patterns from existing clothes. try as i might crocheting was not for me. but the kitchen that is where i felt closest to her. i would watch her roll up her sleeves and make these great dinners after working all day that would put rachel ray to shame.
but the meals i remember the most were the ones that were not the everyday homemade meatloaf and potatos and what i thought then were yukky greenbeans, that i hid on the shelf under the table meant for the extra leaf. no the ones i remember most are special holiday items, special mexican dishes that were taken to grandmas on thanksgiving. simple ingredients like corn tortillas and black olives and red onions with extra sharp and only ever, extra sharp cheddar cheese, these all delicious on their own would marry in a rich mole sauce to create the best ever enchiladas. no meat, but sooo delicious and good that they were often gone before the thanksgiving turkey. and we would make 2 dozen of these! my mothers mole was a staple in a lot of her recipes, her chicken mole was good the first day but always better the next. mole is akin to a roux or gravy if you will and is used in a lot of mexican cooking. the best is fresh made from dried chile and ground in a molcajete or now a blender often a little gritty or coarse. my taste leans towards the powdered chile, only because that is what i grew up on and i am sure it was a godsend to my mother. although she was raised in a big mexican family, by the time she came around being the youngest, my nana was probably pretty damn glad to have gebhardt brand chile powder in her kitchen. it is a staple in my kitchen today, i make my moms mole, and use it in chile beans and i also make menudo with this miracle chile powder. the only things my mom did not make were tamales or tortillas and thank god cause she would've had to had more hours in the day. yet i do make tamale's and i have after 20 years perfected my recipe and they are usually a hit with my friends and family. i know why she did not do it, toooooo labor intensive, and gone too quick. for me it is a new tradition, one i want to keep going in my daughters and my neice and nephew. the christmas tamale. i did sneak moms mole sauce into my crockpot roasted carnitas, the meat for my tamal ohh i can almost taste them, and the lard? nooooo no lard for me, i use canola oil. i will have to take the recipe out of my head and post it on here soon.
i think living with my brother temporarily has also gotten me cooking more like my mom, i have made all of her dishes from albondigas, a meatball soup to chicken mole to chile rellenos, even openfaced tomato sandwiches that she would make every summer. my dad would have a vegetable or what is now in chic gardening circles known as the "salsa garden", chile, tomatillo, onion and red luscious tomatos, yum. i have my own spin on some of moms recipes but there is nothing like the original.
i see her in the kitchen with an apron on or dish towel nearby, cutting her onions and singing patsy cline songs or ceilito
