It’s faded and food-splattered and written in very neat but very archaic cursive handwriting.

It was my mother’s hand that penned that recipe!

Mom has been gone now for 15 years now but the taste of her traditional cooking lives on through her recipes.

Thanksgiving is only a few days away. Thanksgiving is all about God, gratitude and great food.

Karen Rose Wils

Parades, football games, shopping trips and deer hunting are nice, but Thanksgiving focuses on family and friends around a table.

The old song says that on Thanksgiving Day we go “over the river and through the woods. To Grandmother’s house we go.”

When I grew up my mother was the matriarch of the family. Aunts, uncles and cousins, about 50 of us, gathered in my folk’s basement/banquet hall for the holiday feast.

Mom roasted the turkey — sometimes turkeys — and made the stuffing, gravy, potatoes and pies. Each auntie had her own specialty item that she would make and bring to our house.

Aunt Nancy made the most delicious homemade rye bread and pies. Aunt Rita made baked corn, so creamy and sweet. Sandy had baked beans and homemade pickles to share. Squash, yams, salads and Jell-Os showed up on the grand buffet, too.

The aroma is permanently etched in my brain!

I remember as a young girl peeling potatoes. Even Dad peeled some with his jackknife until Mom’s largest kettle was full! After they were boiled to tenderness with a dash of salt in the water and drained, the spuds were mushed. Usually, a big brother with lots of muscles mushed the steamy hot potatoes. Mom never measured but added butter, milk, cream cheese and dried onion flakes until the consistency was smooth, white and fluffy. Pyrex bowls were buttered and the mashed potatoes placed in them and then they were sprinkled lightly with paprika. Now they would stay nice in the warm oven.

Dressing, or “stuffing” as we called it, was prepped ahead of time, too. The turkey neck and giblets were removed from the thawed bird, covered with water, chopped onions and celery and boiled to a broth. They were cooked, cooled, the meat removed from the neck and then ground with the meat grinder. More onions and celery were sautéed in butter, and the ground meat and ground giblets were added. This, along with the turkey broth, were mixed with mounds of cubed dried bread and poultry seasonings to make the dressing.

Many helpful hands in the kitchen made the Thanksgiving meal taste even better.

Over the decades, my mom wrote down some of her recipes and these cards I now treasure. Young cooks today simply look up recipes on the internet and save them on their computer or phones if they like them, but there’s something special about holding your mom’s handwriting in your hands as you prepare a family meal!

Happy Thanksgiving to all — Here is an old family favorite recipe, for Cherry Bars.

Aunt Jane’s Cherry Bars

Crust:

1½ c. flour

¾ c. butter

5 Tbs. powdered sugar

Combine and pat into a 9-by-13-inch pan. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Pour the following over hot crust:

3 eggs, beaten

1½ tsp. vanilla

1½ c. sugar

¾ c. coconut

3/8 c. flour

¾ c. chopped walnuts

¾ c. maraschino cherries

¾ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.