Most of you probably remember the squash casserole that showed up at every Pot Luck or Family Reunion. When I received my new Southern Living magazine, I sat down with a glass of tea (sweet of course) and and began to read the new recipes. The back page of each SL is the first place I look. It is always a great story by Rick Bragg, which always takes me back to my dream of living in the deep South and also bringing back so many memories of things we grew up with. This month, he talked about tomato sandwiches. Before you say, “yuck” remember that there was a day when the word”cholesterol”  was not ever mentioned or heard of a sandwich that didn’t include mayonnaise. His story brought back a memory of my Aunt Gladys!…

Years ago, my Aunt Gladys, who lived with us after her husband died, would make herself a mayonnaise spinach sandwich. She was a rather large lady who made all her clothes, because back then, we didn’t have all the stores which had clothes if you were her size.  She  would place one of those mayo spinach sandwiches in each of the two front pockets and head to her room, where she would watch TV and snack on those awful sandwiches.  But I have to hand it to her, she was always the relative who came to my rescue when my mom would get mad at me for something by telling my mom, “now Hope, she didn’t mean to do that and after all, Trudy is so sweet, you can’t get mad at her for dropping that antique dish”.  She would rescue me from any lizard that would get in the house. She was a lady who made everyone laugh. Her personality was as large as she was. If you are wondering how I got off on her, it is because she loved squash casserole and when I began to write the recipe, her face just came to mind as well as her contagious laugh. She has been gone since about 1980 and there are so many things which still bring her to my mind. She gave me my first cookbook, which she collected from her old grocery store in Ardmore, OK. Each week, when she would go buy groceries, they would give her a whole section of the cookbook, which after about 16 weeks, would be compiled to make one complete wonderful cookbook. I wish I still had it. It was one of those huge books that weighed probably 5-8 lbs and I finally gave it away. I still have several more cookbooks that she had given me. One of those is a cookbook that she received from a friend who was a cook at the local school cafeteria. It has recipes in it that are for large groups because it was the recipes that the school used to feed the kids. I love that book. It is wonderful when I am trying to feed a big group of folks. Would have been such a great thing if she could have lived to have seen Princess on The Porch. How fun to think that she would be so excited to know that I completed a cookbook of my own.  It would be so easy to imagine her walking to her room, with the book in hand, already laughing at some of the stories and yelling back at me, “will you make me a brown sugar pound cake to snack on and let’s have squash casserole for dinner.  How does that sound Trudy K?”

Will post the recipe on a separate page so you don’t have to go through the story when you are trying to see the recipe. Got a little carried away today with memories! But isn’t it wonderful to have memories. How they bless our lives!