Thanksgiving Baking--and memories

My thoughts are filled with my mother today.  I spent the afternoon making “her” rolls, “her” date nut bread (one of her favorite foods) and “her” banana bread.  These recipes came from church cookbooks through the years, though the banana bread was in her recipe box in a little wire-bound tablet, it had a brown cover and a beaver on the front.  I remember her telling me it came from an old church cookbook but she didn’t have a copy of it, just her handwritten version in a notebook.

I even used her little pans, they are smaller loaf pans.  I never could find any in stores in this size so I made sure I got them when we cleaned out her kitchen things.  They’re basic ecko brand, kind of beat up, but you can tell they are old because they say “U.S.A.” on them.  She had them as long as I can remember, and that is almost 50 years a long time!  You get two loaves from a recipe when you bake in these pans, rather than one big loaf.  You can give one away--or keep it in the freezer for later.  They look so cute on little bread trays on the Thanksgiving table.

I think of mom often in November, it was six years ago that she was very ill over Thanksgiving, and she went to be with Jesus just one week later.   I still miss her every day.

But this post isn’t meant to be about sadness and death, but the wonderful memories I have of her, and of her good food.  It is me making the same good food for my family to enjoy.  It is about how just a simple dime-store pan can be a treasure.