Farewell Grandma!

I lost my Grandma almost two weeks ago. Although she was 79 years old, it still was not expected. My friend Laurie put it best--when you lose a grandparent, you feel very small again. I've felt very small lately and miss her already.

My Grandma was an excellent seamstress and not too many years ago said to me, "They don't even teach you how to do flat-felled seams anymore in home ec. classes!" I was quickly thankful that I knew how to do a flat-felled seam so that I could swing my arm in mock exasperation with my Grandma and say, "Yea, why not?!"

My Grandma was an excellent cook. She helped start my first recipe box when I was 10 years old. The first recipes I wrote down? Her macaroni and cheese--complete with a can of evaporated milk and chopped onions and of course, egg nog. She decorated wedding cakes, entered and won recipe contests, and wrote recipes for her local paper. I loved her 'Flub Dub', her homemade chocolate Easter eggs, her avocado pie (Grandpa was a citrus and avocado rancher) and her pomegranate jelly made from her own tree of course. She made the best animal pancakes when my parents were out of town and we always looked forward to those visits.

She died on Ilene's birthday so I cried that day as I made my daughter a homemade chocolate cake. Although sad, I thought it fitting that I baked a cake the day I lost her. I had wanted to make her a red velvet cake and thought I would call up Grandma and ask her what she knew about red velvet cakes. But I never got the chance.

Yesterday I read the food section in the paper and clipped out a recipe for a Chinese Wonton Soup. As I did so, I smiled and thought of Grandma and her endless clippings of recipes from newspapers as well. I was sure she was smiling too. Farewell Grandma! I hope you get to teach cooking classes in Heaven because Heaven wouldn't be Heaven without you and delicious food.