#179--Baking with Nana

The genealogy theme for this week is nurture.  When I looked up the definition of nurture, I found things like to take care of, feed, or protect.  The word feed struck me and reminded me of my material grandmother (Nana), Regina Minarcik Eitelbach.  She was an amazing cook and often had her family for Sunday dinner.  That dinner might consist of a roasted chicken or pork loin, two vegetables, potatoes, and a cake and pie for dessert.

Nana was best known for her baking.  She could bake anything—all kinds of cakes and pies.  I remember her lemon meringue pie had a wonderful flaky crust, a nice lemony filling and a lot of meringue.  When I was little, sometimes I went to visit Nana.  We would go to the park, grocery shop, and visit a five and dime type place, called Lewis of Woodhaven. Sometimes she came to visit us.  Often, she and I would bake.  Usually we baked cupcakes.  My favorite part was to frost them in a rainbow of colors—pink, blue, green, yellow.

Unfortunately, Nana died before she could really teach me how to bake.  However, my mother had a notebook of Nana’s recipes, which I now have.  Some of the recipes are easy to follow and others are not.  I have no idea how much butter is the size of an egg or how much more flour to add to a cup so that it “feels right.”  Here is the recipe for those cupcakes which is pretty clear.

Nana’s Cupcakes
¼ pound of butter
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs
2 full cups of Presto flour
¼ cup milk
tsp of vanilla
Cream the butter and sugar
Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla
 and then slowly add the flour
Frost with confection sugar  and butter

There is no oven temperature listed, but I think 350 degrees for about 20 minutes would be good.

I really wish I could talk to Nana about baking.  How she learned, what her favorite recipes were, did she ever bake something that failed?