Cook & Tell is a digital reboot of the foodletter my mom created 40 years ago, featuring vintage recipes and occasional “orts” from me.
Cook & Tell’s recent mother-and-child reunion issue brought readers both tears and grins. Fair point: I had the Kleenex box at my side while chuckling over my first-grade stab at flash fiction.
“Such a gift to hold your mother's words,” subscriber Sarah W wrote. “Thank you for welcoming us into your childhood.”
Former work colleague, Michaela M, loved reading about my younger self through my mom’s eyes: “It is a beautiful thing you have these mementos.”
And Jason McB, who also spent Mother’s Day without his mum, laughed and cried and even tested out the Peanut Butter Grahams on his family.
“They turned out incredible,” he wrote in his newsletter, Weirdo Poetry. “With a single bite, I was transported back to the cramped kitchen in our Milpitas, California split-level home…snacking on a batch of Mom’s deluxe peanut butter chocolate chip cookies with the little cross-hatch pattern on the top.”
Note to Jason: I need that crockpot!
And the story got picked up by Generational Fare, an online community dedicated to sharing beloved family recipes and the stories behind them.
In this edition of Orts & Reports, I’ve written a couple of new stories for you, along with a virtual tour of how I spent a rainy Sunday in Boston last month.
A Tale of Two Mothers
Not long ago, I came across a recipe for Lemon Yogurt Cake, featured in my mother’s newsletter thirty years ago. “Lemon is my favorite flavor,” she wrote, “and this is a cake to love.”
This is not the first vintage family recipe I’ve encountered lately. Not by a longshot. As most of you know, my mom wrote and illustrated Cook & Tell for more than three decades, working her way into the hearts and kitchens of thousands of home, hobby and professional cooks all over the world. So there are recipes. Many, many recipes.
But this recipe is different. It involves both of my mothers.
Cow tipping. Bivalves from Nantucket. The Popover Lady and the Nut Guy. A lavender latte (it wasn’t that good) and an apple cider sugared mini donut (it was that good). Pop over to my Instagram for an eclectic tour of Boston Public Market, because how can it not be?
We loaded our cars with baking racks and farro; an omelette pan; some ginger. All the ingredients for a potluck weekend of cooking. The little ranch home we scored for a getaway weekend in Joshua Tree was not part of Airbnb’s gleaming and somewhat intimidating Chef Kitchen Collection, but rather an unexpected salute to mid-century modern memorabilia from the moment we opened the lime green front door: macrame wall hangings, ceramic owls, an old turntable and crate of vinyl memories; a basket swing suspended from the living room ceiling.
Hi Amie, thanks for the shout out and I went over to Generational Fair. Thanks for putting me on to their blog.
You really might turn me into a baker. I’m intrigued by the lemon cake