Of all the holidays, the one that has the most sentimental and long anticipated foods associated with it has to be Christmas. Everyone has a childhood favorite, and the eternal child in each of us yearns for whatever it may each Christmas. This causes the baker in the family to consult archival family recipe books and boxes for the likes of Aunt Celia’s Sour Cream Chocolate Cake or Bev’s Blonde Brownie Bars. And so, we plunge into the vault in search of the grease-spotted, chocolate spattered recipe cards. From Thanksgiving through Christmas we thumb the recipe cards and consult the favorite cookbooks. It is the season to bake.
Daughter has a food stained, dog-eared cookbook that belonged to the Gardener’s mother, Mary Kelly, years before she wed Oakley Traynor. The inside cover bears her maiden name and the address of her family’s home in Flint. This well used book was likely from Mary’s Home Economics class when she was a student at Flint’s Central High School. It was copyrighted by General Foods in 1933 and was apparently her favorite.
As cooks were inclined to do, Mary stuffed the pages of with collected recipes, torn from labels, the back of boxes and favorite magazines. Now vintage recipes from labels, boxes and the grocery store magazines, Family Circle and Woman’s Day, are well represented. Mary was a devotee and clipped a lot of recipes and ideas from both publications.
Mary, like many women, saved holiday recipe pamphlets too. Cool Whip was a new miracle ingredient in 1961. It became a standard in and atop many deserts and warranted a slot on a holiday recipe pamphlet that year. On the back, along with the tub of Whip, are pictured some other heavy hitters in the Standard Brands family. Included were a red, white and blue flat can of Chase & Sanborn coffee and a like clad jar of the new instant version. They join the Blue Bonnet girl, Royal gelatin and Fleishman’s Yeast on the back of the booklet. Those old package faces feel like long lost friends. Once a package has been changed it doesn’t take consumers long to think that’s the way it’s always been. Only the red and yellow yeast envelopes remain almost the same, Fleishman seeing fit not to mess with a good thing.
Another well thumbed booklet stuffed in the bigger one, is one from General Motors and titled, “Pies Men Like,” copyrighted in 1953 by the Tested Recipe Institute. It catches our eye every time with a still tasty looking pie on the cover. This mini cook book contains recipes for twenty basic pies including, apple, pumpkin, cherry, mince, berry and pecan. I suspect the reason it found a home in Mary’s cookbook is the Lemon Meringue Pie recipe on page 12. Oak Traynor was a second generation GM employee and uncommonly fond of lemon meringue pie. He no doubt brought this little gem home to Mary. She filed it in her cook book.
Oak’s appreciation of a good lemon pie came from childhood visits to his grandmother’s kitchen in rural Flushing. Her pies came from the oven with golden meringue piled high and the tantalizing smell of sweet-tart and lemon filled the air. She must have thought highly of her grandson, for she sliced the warm pie for him. He liked the pie warm and she sliced it that way, knowing that removing a piece before it cooled, meant the rest of the warm filling would run to fill the empty spot, thinning out the whole thing. No one sliced warm pie for him like his grandma did
Oak appreciated a good lemon pie. He was a tough audience and a thumbs-up from him was always appreciated. I never make a lemon pie without thinking of him. It is still on our list of holiday goodies.
As every family does, the Traynors had certain favorites. Christmas Eve meant corned beef brisket for sandwiches. There was a selection of rye breads, mustards and cheeses, crackers, spreads, dips and chips. I think of Mary each year when the small, 2″x2″ loaves of thin sliced pumpernickel appear. This was one of her favorites. She also loved the cheese spreads which come in juice glass containers. Celery chunks stuffed with pineapple or pimento cheese disappeared quickly. The cheese spread also worked well on the small pumpernickel. Mary liked to top it all off with butter cookies and eggnog, with a nip.
Among the many photos in the Traynor photo archives, are black and white snapshots, taken at Christmas and other family gatherings. They are wonderful vignettes of Christmases Past, grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, now gone; siblings and little kid cousins, all grown. We see Mary and her sisters, so very fashionable in their party satins; high heels, tiny waists, curly bangs and pointy glasses. They look like a gathering of Barbie and her relatives. Oakie and his brother-in-laws, hair combed just so, are broad shouldered Ken’s in shirts and ties or bowling shirts. Grandma and the kids are at the tree. And if you look really closely you will see the Christmas Eve spread…little pumpernickel bread slices included.