Like Mom's home cooking....Tastes like homemade..... These are terms we use to describe food that's simply delicious. Sometimes even the smell of certain foods will remind us of a favorite taste we grew up with and evoke memories of the sweet aroma of a familiar kitchen and memories of Mom at the stove. Traditions like family dinners at Grandma's house are often among one's fondest childhood memories.

Whether your Mother was a great cook or a not so great cook, as a child, you probably spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen with her. You may have watched her make dinner or maybe you even helped with the cooking (or the clean-up) as part of your daily chores. Whether you love to cook or you only cook because it's something you must do to feed yourself or your hungry family, you probably learned the basics of how to cook by watching Mom. Many good cooks will proudly tell you they learned all about cooking in Mom's kitchen and some of their best recipes came from Mom. Though no chocolate cream pie will ever taste quite as good as Mom's, making one with her recipe is the next best thing.

If you don't have some of the recipes for your mother's or grandmother's family favorites, Mother's Day weekend might be a good time to get them. Whether her recipes are neatly hand-written and carefully filed, or her filing system is a stuffed kitchen drawer, chances are she'd love to share her kitchen mementos with you. Somewhere among the scraps of paper with barely legible ingredients, the clippings, well-worn booklets, package inserts and labels she's saved, you might find recipes for forgotten old favorites.

If your mother is one of those great cooks who only stores her best recipes "in her head", take the time to interview your favorite family chef and create written versions of her recipes. Better still, if you live nearby, ask her to let you know when she's going to make one of the recipes you want, then make plans to spend some time in the kitchen with her. Record her recipes, learn her techniques, and make note of any special tips she has offer.

Recipes have long been passed from generation to generation by word of mouth or they were simply "learned" after watching mothers make them so often. Today we spend less time in our kitchens. Even children lead very busy lives. They don't have leisurely after-school hours to wander into the kitchen and see what Mom is making and, if they did, few Mom's would be there. Enjoying a weekday meal together is a rare treat in many families. I think it's doubtful that recipes will continue to pass from generation to generation by word of mouth or by daughters watching mothers cook. Make sure you have written versions to pass on to your children for even basic everyday recipes, those you might have learned from your Mom and other good things you cook without a recipe... their own favorite recipes from Mom.

Preserving family recipes in a keepsake album is a wonderful way to show your mother, mother-in-law and grandmothers how much you love and appreciate them! Click on the picture above to "Create a Family Recipe Keepsake".

Like all good Pennsylvania Dutch cooks of her generation, many of my mother's recipes were stored only "in her head". She could tell you just how to make a pumpkin pie and exactly what to add to the salad dressing, but she measured by heaping cups, heaping spoonfuls, pinches and enough to make it look right, feel right or taste right. Here's few a few of my Mothers favorite recipes, translated into standard measurements...

Pepper Cabbage Sweet & Sour Bacon Dressing Chicken Pot Pie Weiner Schnitzel (Breaded Veal Cutlets) Lemon Sponge Funny Cake Crumb Cake Apple Dumplings Rhubarb Crumb Pie Click on the picture to the right to see my Mother's Day tribute and get more fine old Pennsylvania Dutch recipes from "Need a Recipe... Call Mom!"