Meals.

Today's Women's History Month prompt from Geneabloggers:

March 7: Share a favorite recipe from your mother or grandmother’s kitchen.

My mom is an excellent cook. My favorite of her recipes is her whole-wheat crescent rolls, which I just searched my kitchen for and cannot find; I know it's tucked into a cookbook somewhere. I've only just become comfortable with yeast baking and haven't tried making her crescent rolls for myself, but someday I will...as soon as I find that recipe! There's just something about the smell of yeast and flour that says "home" to me.

I don't remember either of my grandmothers cooking much, although I know they did. When we would visit my grandma Clark in Missouri, she was often working nights while we were there, and so there would only be one or two "big" meals that I can recall, with all the family together, or as many as could cram into her tiny eat-in kitchen. Here's a picture of a meal from the mid-1980's; pictured are my sister Jenita, my dad, my cousin Marissa, my aunt Mary, my cousin Dan, and me and my brother Jeremy with our backs to the camera. Grandma loved having a table full of grandkids.

I don't have a picture of Grandma Clark in her kitchen, but here she is looking fetching in a hostess apron, gathering up Christmas bows to re-use them, no doubt. This would have been Christmas 1972 or 1973. My aunt Gwena is at the bottom admiring her new sewing box.

I remember more meals at Grandma Martin's table, since we lived closer--we had holiday meals at her house until the extended family outgrew the house and we had to start meeting in the church basement for get-togethers. But I don't remember anything specific that she cooked.

Here's a picture of a meal in Grandma Martin's kitchen, probably around 1975. Pictured are my uncles Ron and Larry, one of my twin cousins (either Darrel or Dennis, but who knows which?), my mom, me, my dad, my uncle John and my aunt Molly. It looks like we're eating assorted casseroles, with peanut butter and homemade jam for the kids.

Here's Grandma Martin in her kitchen in the early 1980's with three of her many grandbabies: Melanie, Pamela, and Michael. With eight kids and sixteen grandkids, I think Grandma must have spent the larger portion of her life in that kitchen with a baby on her lap and a pot on the stove.

I think I need to get a picture of my mom in her kitchen, and maybe some shots of the family crammed around her dining room table next time I'm home, don't you?