What can I make you for dinner?

To say Wilma was a good cook is an understatement. She learned the basics from Mom who was a genius in the kitchen. Wilma was helping in the kitchen from the time I was big enough to have a memory. Mom spent most of her life in the kitchen and Wilma spent a lot of her life in the kitchen. Have I overused the word kitchen? Well the kitchen was the most important room in our house growing up and the most important thing in the kitchen was the refrigerator. A Well stocked refrigerator!

Wilma's refrigerator was always full and anything you might need to cook a meal was generally at hand. However you could have fed another complete family from the things we would throw away that just never made it to the table. But my point is that friends and family could show up unannounced and Willie could whip up a full meal in no time without going to the grocery store. And trust me friends and family showed up at her door for a great meal often. Her recipes were always in demand and she was always coming up with new ones.

I think my favorite all-time entree was her "Beef Stroganoff" (She called it California Steak). My goodness I still cannot make it as good as she could even using the same recipe. I think we all pretty much have our favorites and I am so thankful that we put them all in our family recipe book. A book I treasure and use so often. When I cook do I think of Willie, yes indeed I do. After all, she taught me how to cook and how could I ever make all those wonderful things she used to make without thinking about her. I treasure each hand written recipe that she shared with me. You knew it was a keeper if she wrote it down. Her busy day soup is still my favorite to whip up on short notice just like she used to do and I long for her chef salads that she introduced me to at the age of 14. But I guess if I could pick one particular recipe of hers that would tower over them all it would be her corn bread dressing. I hope that when I get to heaven and see my sis again that she will be able to whip up some of that incredible dressing one more time!! Love you sister!!