I remember, from a very young age, sitting at a kitchen table helping to clean green beans, snapping off the ends and breaking them in two into a pot. This was a favorite side dish or even a main dish in the summer when there were lots of bright, fresh green beans, best picked fresh from your own garden. You can make it with or without the addition of ham and potatoes. It does get better the next day.

1 lb green beans, ends removed and snapped in half 4 large red skin potatoes, scrubbed and chopped (leave the skins on)

6 oz ham, chopped

1 cup water or chicken stock

Place all the ingredients in a covered pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Allow to simmer until beans and potatoes are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This was the first thing I learned to cook with my great grandmother and grandmother. Alas, I am sad to say that we do not have the original recipe in any of the old handwritten cookbooks. I remember the steps exactly, but have no record of the actual amount of the ingredients. I have spent years trying to recreate it.

Here is my favorite adaptation of my grandmother’s Chocolate Pudding Pie.

1 pre-baked pie shell (homemade of course)

6 oz unsweetened chocolate

½ cup sugar

1¾ cups milk or heavy cream

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons butter

Whipped cream for serving

Melt squares of dark chocolate over the steaming water in a double boiler. Stir slowly, till melted. Scald the milk over medium heat without scorching, let cool. Beat eggs till foamy. Mix cornstarch into the sugar. Little by little add the warm milk until it is thoroughly blended, then add the beaten eggs. Now add the melted chocolate a small bit at a time into the egg mixture. Return the custard to the double boiler and cook stirring over hot water until thick and satiny. Pour into the baked pie shell, cover with plastic wrap and chill till set. Serve with mountains of whipped cream and remember the cook gets the first bite.

I have always loved anything to do with a pumpkin. I have grown innumerable varieties in my gardens, love handblown glass pumpkins and recipes calling for pumpkin. One of my sons’ and grandkids’ favorite ways to eat this vegetable, cause they really didn’t want to eat veggies, was in a muffin. I buy lots of whole, fresh pumpkins in the fall, if I don’t have enough ripening in the garden before the frost. Over the years I have learned that the large white pumpkins have the best dark orange flesh for cooking. I will sometimes substitute a dark green skinned turban squash. I always steam bake my own pumpkins or squash till tender then scoop out the seeds and smash or puree the soft dark orange flesh. I put it up in the freezer in two-cup containers to use for pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins and spicy pumpkin soup. They are all favorites of mine. You have to make a double batch at our house.

1 cup fresh pumpkin puree from 1 large pumpkin or dark orange fleshed winter squash (instructions on next page)

1½ cups flour ½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup brown sugar

¾ teaspoon baking soda

1½ teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix (recipe follows)

½ cup vegetable oil

2 eggs, beaten

To bake the Pumpkin

Cut the pumpkin in half or into several pieces if it is really large, fit it cut-side down into a deep baking pan and add enough water to come halfway up the squash. You can remove the seeds before or after baking, I have done both. Steam the pumpkin in a 350° oven until it is soft. Let cool. Remove the seeds, if you have not done that. Scoop out the juicy flesh into a bowl to mash with a potato masher or process in a food processor or blender till smooth. Measure out into containers to use or freeze, 1 or 2 cups work nicely.

Muffins

Preheat oven to 350˚ Mix the dry ingredients together. Mix the wet ingredients together and then add to the dry ingredients. Stir lightly; over stirring muffin batter makes them doughy. Just a few strokes to combine the wet and dry ingredients is perfect. Bake in a 350˚ oven in oiled or paper lined muffin tins for 25-30 min until they are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean.

Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix

1 part nutmeg 1 part allspice 3 parts cinnamon Store in a lidded spice jar. Use in place of plain cinnamon on toast, in pumpkin pies and cinnamon rolls.