Thanks, Mom, for Cooking Dinner
By Janet Peterson

Children’s memories of Mom’s home cooking are to be treasured and celebrated this Mothers’ Day. Cooking dinner is a significant way that mothers nurture their children, both physically and emotionally, and show love through this often unsung service. Thanks to all mothers for cooking dinner!

Here are cherished memories of some wonderful mothers.

You are the BEST MOM anyone could ever ask for. I think you are the BEST cook in the whole world. Thanks for being the BEST mom ever! (Brinley Bywater, 11)

Thank you for cooking for us. I like your chicken dumplings and your chocolate cake that has cookies around the side. (Ben Bywater, 8)

My mom cooks my favorite foods — sticky rice and sausage and chocolate cake for dessert. I love my mom’s new kitchen. I love my mom. (Mandi Bywater, 7)

I love my mama. She makes good bread. I like to help her. (Emma Bywater, 3)

**

One of the ways my mother showed her love was by preparing good food. She was raised in Douglas, Arizona, which is within walking distance of the Mexican border. Consequently, tacos, beans, enchiladas, chili, albondigas, and our own tortillas were part of our diet.

She also has a talent with yeast breads and rolls. She has amazingly strong arms and can knead enough dough for five loaves of bread. She bottled yeast root beer and made dry-ice root beer for special occasions. She makes excellent pies.

Because she never wasted anything, we learned the fine art of making leftovers good the second time around. She even made a good celery soup so as to not waste the celery leaves. The very best thing about mother's cooking was the teaching and fun that went along with the preparation. My sisters and I all enjoy cooking and knew how to cook long before we got married. (Marilynne Todd Linford)

**

Some of my best memories are those of family mealtimes. Growing up in a family of five children, it was natural and routine for all of us to sit down together for dinner every evening around 6:00 p.m. We seldom had to be called to dinner. When the aroma of Mother’s cooking drifted from the kitchen, it was time for my usual task of setting the dinner table. Remembering those unhurried mealtimes that brought our family close together brings back good memories. (Beverly Blunck)

**

To my mother, food was always more pleasurable when it was shared. A roast beef, chicken, extra thick cream for home made ice cream or even a harvest of fresh garden vegetables were a few happy incentives for additional tables and plates set for relatives or friends. This family dining tradition was her legacy, learned from her mother and her mother's mother before.

However, as a small child, company for dinner, consequently, meant additional clean up responsibilities shared with my siblings, without the aid of an automatic dishwasher. After one seemingly long clean up session, I remember questioning my older sister Sue if she thought we would ever eat a nice meal without inviting guests! Fortunately, my mother's wisdom and love prevailed. I grew to cherish these treasured shared mealtimes with our many guests. Even though we now live some distance from each other, these delightful, cozy times we spent together at our tables helped nurture an enduring and bountiful feast of closeness, love, and friendship between our friends and relatives. (Betty Stewart Draper)

**

For as long as I could remember, a sign hung in my mother's kitchen that read, "No matter where I serve my guests, It seems they like my kitchen best." That was true of my mother's kitchen, especially for family members, and I know it is also true in my own home. (D. Louise Brown)

**

When my mother, Camilla, died, we divided up her belongings. Among the things I chose for myself was her file box of three by five inch recipe cards. Thumbing through them takes me back to mother as-cook.

Born in 1894, she was by training and choice a homemaker. As a young woman she taught home economics at the LDS Church academies in Hinckley, Utah, and Thatcher, Arizona, and even had a plan to study dietetics at Johns Hopkins University, until marriage intervened and made her own kitchen the focus of her skills. A great cook, she offered nothing fancy in her meals, but they satisfied. Her father said her cooking was "salubrious!" ... (Virginia H. Pearce, Glimpses into the Life and Heart of Marjorie Pay Hinckley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1999), 91-92.)

The kitchen table served as the center of the home. There we studied our lessons, played games, ate meals ...

We looked forward eagerly to baking days, when we could come home from school to the tempting aroma of fresh bread and cinnamon rolls, dough spread thin, filled generously with raisins, cinnamon, and brown sugar. No one has ever made them better than my mother. I hear such pastries called "sticky buns," but in my lexicon that would demean them. They're properly "cinnamon rolls."

Grandfather was right; those who sat at my mother's table enjoyed truly salubrious eating. (Edward L. Kimball, “In Camilla’s Kitchen,” in Saints Well Seasoned, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998, 7-8, 10.)

**

I could tell Mom was making chili sauce from a block away. Walking from school on an autumn afternoon, I could literally follow my nose home. Nutmeg, curry, close, garlic, ginger, and cinnamon were piquant enticement. Tonight we’d be having pot roast — with Mom’s fresh chili sauce on it! (Janet Parberry)

**

I never considered my mom’s cooking good or bad until Grandma came for dinner one day. “Your mother is such a good cook!” she said. “Oh, this food is delicious.” I had to say to myself, “Hmmm. This food is pretty good.” Grandma is always so appreciative, and it’s contagious. (Heidi P. Jenson, granddaughter of Marjorie P. Hinckley and daughter of Virginia H. Pearce)

**

So many of my childhood memories are of a wonderful mother who cooked. Coming home from school on a snowy day would mean a warm fire and the smell of homemade bread baking. (Katye McGuire Landro)

**

I remember my sneaking into the "Salt Lake City Dessert," which was often kept in the basement freezer. While I was studying, I would sneak that wonderful chocolate delicacy by the heaping tablespoons, and you never got angry. M -m-m-m-m it was so-o-o-o-o good!

I remember homemade ice cream — particularly pineapple — and cranking the freezer handle for what seemed like hours in order to harden the ice cream.

I remember your frequent entertaining of relatives and setting tables up in the living room to accommodate the guests.

I remember the picnics in the canyon and how we would get up early in the morning and cook in the mountains. We would always have such great appetites up in the mountains.

I remember delicious fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy we aggressively devoured almost every Sunday.

I remember the aroma of homemade whole wheat bread just coming out of the oven and how wonderful it was to eat (except when you put nuts in it).

I remember delicious strawberry waffles topped with whipped cream (that really thick kind of cream we used to drive clear out to Holladay to get) you would have ready for after-date snacks. (Suzanne Stewart Fjelsted)

**

Nothing says comfort food like my mom’s shepherd pie. Whether it’s a family buffet or a Sunday feast, this creation is simply delicious and a beautiful conversation starter ... When we were kids, Mom would place a festive ceramic blackbird in the middle of the pie just a few minutes after it came out of the oven. And every time she served this dish, we would take turns ceremoniously removing the bird and placing it next to our plate during dinner. It’s still a tradition. (Jane Clayson, quoted in Elaine Cannon, Five-Star Recipes, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002, 150.)

**

My mom , Margaret Peterson from Bloomington, Minnesota, never has to fish for compliments when she cooks a meal ... especially when we are on vacation.

Every year, our family spends a week at a lake in northern Minnesota. We’ve been doing this for 16 years. With my brother and four sisters as well as all our spouses and children, there are now 14 of us.

We all enjoy fishing because my dad taught us when we were young. So the finale of the week is, appropriately, a fish fry.

Family is so important to my mom. She did her best to have all eight of us at the dinner table every evening when we were growing up.

I’m in awe of how much my mom has done for us over the years. I’ve told her many times that if I can be half the mother she has been, I’ll consider myself a success. (Julie Jahnke, “My Mom’s Best Meal,” in 2006 Taste of Home Annual Recipes, Greendale, WI: Reiman Publications, 2005, 213.)

Click here to sign up for Meridian's FREE email updates.