My mom was my best friend.  She was the first person I called whenever something wonderful happened in my life or catastrophe hit.  We never lived more than 30 minutes away from each other and talked daily, sometimes about insignificant things, sometimes about life-altering experiences.

 

 

    Medora Coar had three passions: books, travel and good food. The latter two were connected because she was a true Francophile, always enjoying the French and their cuisine. Medora had started out as a nurse and then in a mid-life career change became a librarian, yet another passion. She was

    “If you can’t grow it or sew it, you can’t have it”.  This was my mantra I raised my two children with in the late 70’s, early 80’s (poor dears).  Even though the refrigerator seemed bare, there was always food – you just had to forage and use your imagination.  We used to say we could make

    Joyce Freund, my mom, was raised in a small town in upstate New York. Food is not extravagant or fancy there, just simple and fresh. Dinner is served at 2 or 3 in the afternoon and can be a really big meal. Meat, potatoes and vegetables. All the basics.                      

    When my mom

    When my family and I cleaned out my Mom’s house in Corvallis, Orgeon, getting it ready to sell in 2006, we each chose things to keep.  I kept her recipe box. In the box was this card for Summer Shortbreads, written by my paternal grandmother, Grandmother Mervil, second from the right in

    My grammy, who died in 1993 at the age of 89 was a remarkably indifferent cook. She ate almost the same meals every day for the last 50 years of her life. She  had a toasted English muffin with butter on it for breakfast and another English muffin with melted Wispride cheese for lunch followed

At the age of 18 I traveled to Bitburg, Germany as an exchange student for one year. For the first time I was exposed to a European lifestyle of cooking and shopping for food. I was fortunate that the mother in the household was a retired chef . She had cooked in Alsace so her food had a mix of