happy memories

So June 8th was both the birthday of my mom’s mom, my grandmother Stacy; and her sister in law, my grandfather’s sister, my great aunt Rose. Most years they’d have a joint birthday fandango with lots of silliness, laughter, and good food. This year, as it is our first without my dear grandma, we instead did a “celebration of life” type event. With indeed silliness, laughter, and good food.

Several people brought food made from my grandmother’s recipes. My grandmother was a ridiculously good cook and actually ran her own catering business for quite awhile. Here’s what we made:

Apricot “squares”.

Yes, yes, that is clearly not a square pan. It called for a 9 by 9 inch pan, but we did not have that, so we made do, ish. The surface area of this pan with 10 inch diameter (yeah I did pi r squared!) was pretty close. Anyway, they still tasted good!

They are luscious rich shortbread topped with gooeylicious apricot-walnut filling.

 

Mmm mm mm. At the end of our event yesterday, we gave everyone a copy of our recipe, because it has her handwriting.

These things matter, you know? Anyway, for everyone’s enjoyment, here is her recipe. No, it is not lower fat or whole grain or whatever like most of the stuff I put up. But you know what? It’s amazingly delicious, and my grandma had a great bod despite regularly eating delicious stuff like this.

Stacy’s Apricot Squares

2/3 cup dried apricots

The crust:

1 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

The filling:

sift together: 1/3 cup flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 tsp vanilla

confectioners sugar for dusting

Cook apricots in boiling water for 10 minutes. Cool, cut up, and set aside. (The leftover apricot water is perfect for oatmeal or rice pudding, p.s.).

Combine 1 cup flour, sugar, and butter. Mix until crumbly. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Beat eggs well, then beat in the brown sugar. Add flour mixture and stir well. Add apricots and walnuts. Spread over crust.

Bake 25 minutes or until brown (make sure everything is set! The filling I showed you the picture of is actually slightly undercooked, and it makes for difficult cutting!). Dust the final product with confectioners sugar, and enjoy!

I am always kind of amazed by the power of the connection between emotion, memory, and food. Kind of crazy that you feel like you’re getting back a piece of someone by making their recipe, but you kind of do…

All right, enough of that. I woke up feeling poorly today! I stayed home from church and slept til 11:30. That was NEAT. Then I made myself some of my favorite sick food:

Cream of wheat!

Tea with lemon and honey!

YESSSS!

I also had some apple, partly just cause the rest of the food was so hot, and it is June!

My favorite cream of wheat topping is applesauce, but we didn’t have any :( So I sprinkled on a little wheat germ, to recoup the fiber lacking in farina.