Of course. What format do you need? I have it on my Mac in Clarisworks. I
can translate it to Microsoft Word if you would like. I think Claris gives
the option of saving in several formats. I have a few copies in hard
copy--three ring binder type-- but that is much harder to transfer. I could
e-mail it to you a section at a time and you could copy paste it into your
word processing program. Just let me know if you want it and I'll send it
to you at your private email so everyone on the list won't need to down
load it.
I will copy in the introduction on this letter so you can read it.
Forward: Introducing "Ma Painter"
Alice E. "Ma" Painter was a fine cook and a wonderful
grandmother. I should know; she was mine.
Born in 1880 she was an unusual woman for her time. After
the birth of her daughter, Elizabeth, in 1907, she was divorced from her
husband, a man I never met and about whom words were rarely spoken. As
a result she was faced with Alice E. "Ma" Painter supporting herself
and her daughter. I have no idea whether her former husband helped or not;
I only know she used the skills she had to make a living for herself and
her daughter.
Her skills were that of most women of the era, cooking and
housekeeping, and with those skills she provided for her family. Born in
Camus Prairie, Idaho on a homestead worked by her family, she learned to
cook for her brothers and her father, working men with healthy appetites.
As her daughter grew up and needed to go on to school "Ma Painter" moved to
Boise, Idaho, bent on making sure her daughter got a good education and
could support herself. Her daughter became a teacher; Alice went to work in
the mansions of the wealthy who lived on Warm Springs Avenue, a very
exclusive area of Boise at that time.
As a cook and housekeeper she was outstanding. Her home was
immaculate and her table was delightful. Not only was the food delicious,
but she carried her love of flowers and gardening into her dining room. Her
table was decorated with the beautiful flowers she tended in her yard. The
flavor of the food she prepared was enhanced by the fact that it was
freshly harvested from the huge garden she tended as carefully as she cared
for the inside of the house.
After she left Boise and could buy her own place, she
opened a boarding house, first in Carey, Idaho and then in Bellevue, Idaho
where she continued making her living with her skills as a cook,
housekeeper and gardener.
Learning to Cook from "Ma Painter"
Ma Painter was a tough lady, but I'll always remember her
as the person who taught me to cook. When I was still a preschooler she
would bring me into the kitchen to "help" her with the baking. "Baby," she
used to say. "A good cook always wears an apron." And she would tie one
around me to keep my clothes from getting "too covered with flour," hand me
a rolling pin and a clump of dough and stand me on a chair beside the table
to make cookies, rolls or pie shells, just like her.
Like the oral tradition in literature, cooking was a skill
passed down from one generation to the next by direct instruction. Written
directions were considered unnecessary; her skill was to become my skill by
watching, listening and practicing.
She taught me when baking to always cream the sugar and
shortening together first; then start adding the other ingredients, first
beating in the eggs, vanilla, and seasonings; then adding the dry
ingredients, and finally adding the other liquids, mixing thoroughly as I
went. She cooked with "a pinch of this and a dab of that" and she passed
that rather unscientific method on to me. She taught me to measure with my
eye, no need for measuring spoons and cups.
Her stove was an old-fashioned coal and wood kitchen range
like that pictured on the cover. There was no preset temperature gauge to
set. If the oven needed to be hotter, she added fuel to the fire, wood for
quick heat, coal for slower longer lasting heat that would sustain for a
long period of time. The recipes say bake in a slow (275 to 325 degrees),
medium (325 to 375 degrees), or hot (375 + degrees) oven; if in fact, they
give any directions at all. A good cook just knew these things; a novice
had to experiment until she got it right. The cook also had to watch the
food being baked, no setting the timer to ring when the baking was done.
Of all the recipes included, my favorite is Angel Food
Cake. The process for making this is nothing like the normal process for
other cakes and cookies. I used to watch her separate 12 eggs and beat the
egg whites to stiff peaks with a hand operated egg-beater. She would
painstakingly sift the special cake flour four times, mix it with the other
dry ingredients and carefully fold it into the mountains of egg white. This
was the special treat she made for my birthday every summer. She would
frost the cake with divinity frosting ( I now use the recipe for White
Mountain Frosting in the Betty Crocker or Better Homes and Gardens Cook
Book). Then she would place a bud vase in the center with a fresh flower
from her garden in it. To me, this is the only real birthday cake.
Of course the same day she baked the angel food cake, she
would have to make a pound cake to use up the yolks from the thirteen
eggs-waste not want not-so all the work involved in the preparing of the
angel cake was just part of the day's labors.
The recipes included in this book were those I found after
my mother's death, written in my grandmother's own shaky hand in a little
old notebook she left behind when she died. My mother, Elizabeth, had
rewritten many of them in her beautiful handwriting in another notebook,
but their words did not always agree, and, since they are both now gone, I
can't check with them as to which is accurate.
As you can see, this is a collection of neighborhood
favorites recorded in a small Idaho town early in the 20th century. If you
never cook a thing from the recipes included in this book, you can still
gain insight into the life of women prior to fast-food restaurants and
prepackaged foods. The things not included in this book, recipes for meat
dishes like roasts, stews, casseroles, and vegetables also tell a tale.
These skills were considered common sense. They didn't need to be written.
I hope you enjoy sharing my grandmother's recipes as much
as I have enjoyed bringing them to you. Here's wishing you "Good cooking,"
and remember, "A good cook always wears an apron!"
Elizabeth A. Patterson
>Liz: You won't believe this, but I used to live on Warm Springs Avenue!
>I'm not even close to a millionare, either. Is there some way you could
>share this wonderful cookbook with us? What a precious thing to have!
>Love, Kathy
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Elizabeth Patterson <eapat@ewa.net>
>To: mol-cancer@lists.meds.com <mol-cancer@lists.meds.com>
>Date: Friday, November 27, 1998 9:39 AM
>Subject: [MOL] Kathy & PJ
>
>
>>Kathy & PJ
>>At this time of year we tend to remember family, even those gone a long
>>time. I have one thing I think is great. I have my grandmother's old hand
>>written cookbook. I have all the recipes in a book on the computer, "Ma
>>Painter's Old Fashioned Cookbook, (Not for the faint hearted novice in the
>>kitchen). All of the recipes are "from scratch". Some take some knowledge
>>of how to approach the art of cooking, since directions are sketchy, but
>>they provide a peek into the past. My grandmother was a cook. She made her
>>living cooking for the millionaires on Warm Springs Ave. in Boise back in
>>the early 1900's.
>>Liz
>>>Oh, PJ, you Sweet Thing!!!! Have you written a cookbook? Can I have your
>>>recipes -- all of them? I love Italian food. Can I especially have your
>>>mushroom recipe? Lasagne, too? Although I make pretty good lasagne
>myself.
>>>I have Mama Leone's cookbook, but some of the ingredients are hard to come
>>>by in Boise, Idaho. We don't have much of an Italian population here,
>>>more's the pity. In exchange, PJ, I can probably scrounge up a bunch of
>>>Basque recipes. They have a wonderful cuisine, too! Love, Kathy
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: PSerritell@AOL.COM <PSerritell@AOL.COM>
>>>To: mol-cancer@lists.meds.com <mol-cancer@lists.meds.com>
>>>Date: Wednesday, November 25, 1998 9:33 PM
>>>Subject: [MOL] Hi Nanc/Mom Wishes You All
>>>
>>>
>>>>Yes a brochure. I think I sent you my address.
>>>>My Mom wanted to send you all her love and prayers for a healthy
>>>thanksgiving.
>>>>
>>>>I'm sorry I missed your IM, but I was on the computer before for a short
>>>>minute to look up a recipe but I had pies baking and needed to shut down.
>>>>I'm finally done.
>>>>I made
>>>>2 large pans of lasagna,
>>>>2 platters of mushrooms,
>>>>2 pumpkin pies,
>>>>2 dozen cookies (1 angels, 1 teddy bears),
>>>>12 meatballs (for my sauce)
>>>>12 saugages (for my sauce)
>>>>3 meat brasioules (stuffed meat with garlic and herbs) for my sauce
>>>>
>>>>I started to prepare my stuffing but became too exhausted.
>>>>I also vacuumed, washed 2 loads laundry and folded and I made dinner of
>>>>spagetti and clam sauce (with real clams).
>>>>Now tomorrow is the test I need to wake up at 6:00 a.m. for 7:00 church.
>>>Then
>>>>prepare the capon. My family doesn't like turkey. Frankly I cant' taste
>>>the
>>>>difference.
>>>>
>>>>I have 6 people to feed and I hope I have enough food. I also made some
>>>dough
>>>>for fresh pizza just in case.
>>>>
>>>>With my love and best wishes to you and Don for a Joyous and Healthy
>>>>Thanksgiving.
>>>>PJ
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