I was musing on food this week, recalling how as a youth, Auntie Kay’s cooking was delicious. Of course no kid feels that anyone cooks as good as his own mother cooks and I was no different.

Auntie Kay made the best cinnamon rolls ever. She always used butter coated with golden yellow sugar and cinnamon for the inside of the roll. When the rolls finished baking, the melted sugar was always lightly colored , which made it mouthwatering especially fresh out of the oven. I have never found cinnamon rolls quite the same as what Auntie Kay made.

Auntie Kay made pancakes that were distinctive too. It wasn’t until I was working in the oil patch in northern Alberta at Rainbow Lake in 2006, when I tasted Auntie Kay’s pancakes again. The camp cook was making pancakes and burned some. Because she was short on time she served them anyways along with the good ones. By the time I got to them only the burnt ones were left, I took them anyways. I took one burnt bite and realized they were just like what Auntie Kay made, and to me they were delicious!

As far as I remember, the pancake was the only food Auntie Kay ever burned. She baked pies, cakes, bread, squares, casseroles, and roasts; as well as all the pan fried foods and boiled foods. We didn’t ever barbecue though.

All summer long the Wally Smith family ate supper outside under the shade of a large Bing cherry tree. Two reasons for eating outside were that after preparing the meal inside, the house was just too hot, and at supper hour the outside air was usually not windy.

At Auntie Kay’s suggestion, I went to cooking school in Kelowna where I learned to use spices and seasonings. When I returned home for a visit, suddenly Auntie Kay’s food seemed bland, I was profoundly disappointed! That is what happens when reality sets in. I didn’t try to change anything with her style of cooking, I just accepted it as is.

The summer of 1982 was the time chosen for the celebration of Wally and Auntie Kay’s 50th wedding anniversary. Auntie Kay asked me to help her with the cooking. I showed up on time and went about preparing the meal.

I filled a pot with water, put it on the stove, and turned the burner on. Auntie Kay came along and turned the burner off. I turned the oven on, Auntie Kay turned it off. I looked at her with some aggravation and said, “hey, I’m the cook!” She said, “you may be the cook but I’m the boss.” Upon finding my place, she steered the ship.

In 1989, I was asked to cook for a weekend youth camp. Someone else bought the food but didn’t plan the meals thoroughly. Sunday lunch preparation arrived and all I had left to work with was a bottle of ketchup, 2 packages of wieners, a tub of uncooked oatmeal, and a pot of cooked spaghetti. What do you do with those ingredients?

I boiled the oatmeal until you couldn’t tell what it was. I added the ketchup, chopped up the wieners and added them to the reddish slurry, seasoned it with salt and pepper and voila! Meat-sauce! With the re-heated spaghetti lunch was served. The kids loved it!

Everyone wanted to know what was in it.( I have a character flaw where I always think that people will see the positive side of my presentation of the facts. ) I should have just shut up, but no, I have to tell them how clever I’d been, thinking that they would appreciate it.

I begin my disclosure with “oatmeal, then I said ketchup”, and that is all they heard. “Oatmeal and ketchup, yuk!” Several of the boys ran for the toilets. The cook hero became the villain in the twinkling of an eye! The youth group never again asked me to cook for them.

Most of the food we eat today is cooked from scratch just as it was during Auntie Kay’s day. Some things are faster such as rice and oatmeal but everything else is pretty much the same, although we have a bread maker, thanks to one of my sisters. Just as Auntie Kay used seasonings sparingly, we also do the same. I have come full circle.

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