Raisins, Coconut, and Coffee Grounds

       There are another couple of kitchen stories I’d like to share about my grandmother. From these memories, you might think Granny was not a good cook. That is not the case! It’s just that one does not often think it is interesting enough to write about mashed potatoes, beef tips, and carrots smothered in dark rich gravy.

my Grandmother circa 1946

       Actually, mashed potatoes, beef tips, and carrots smothered in dark rich gravy is the meal she made for me at least twice a week when I was going to college and living with her. I remember telling one of the dorm students about this one time, and I literally saw his mouth start to water! And there I was, the grand-daughter ungrateful enough to think that dish was getting boring!

       Meat and potatoes were Granny’s usual entrees. She only did pasta maybe once a month or so, and it was always goulash – not spaghetti or mac ‘n cheese. The goulash was really good – she didn’t put green pepper in it like my Mom did.

 I don’t recall her cooking any rice dishes either, but there might have been.

       One time some green beans burned in a pan on the stove accompanied with the burnt smell. The next thing I knew, there was a smell of something else burning coming from the kitchen. My grandmother was in the kitchen the whole time. The green beans had been an accident. But what was this new event?

       I asked her what was going on, and she told me that the smell of coffee would cover up the burnt food smell. She just had not meant for the coffee grounds to boil dry and burn too!

       It was a toss-up as to which smell was worse!

       If it was lunch, dinner, or if you just dropped in for a visit, there was always dessert!

       Homemade! Lovely! Granny made cookies, pies, cakes. And they were all wonderful.

       There was something extra special about her cake icing. It is a tip that would come in handy for any of us.

       You know when you are making homemade icing, and the recipe calls for confectioners’ sugar? And you stir and you stir, but invariably small lumps of confectioners’ remain? Sometimes even bigger clumps of the white stuff can still be seen after the cake is frosted? What do you do?

       Well, that is when Granny would get out her supply of raisins. Or if raisins were not quite right for a particular cake, then coconut would do. A raisin on each spot, or a sprinkling of coconut over the whole cake not only gives the dessert a special touch, a festive look, but covers up what you don’t want others to see!     

playing Barbies with her great grand-daughters Christmas 1994

      My kitchen does not have fresh cookies in a tin in case folks drop in, nor do I have at any given time all the ingredients for a homemade cake. But I do have a stash of coconut and a container of raisins, and I know how to use them.

       And thanks to the writing of this today, I’ve googled coffee grounds and gosh, there’s so much I could be doing with those!

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