Recipes of hope and health

I’m just going to say it: I love collecting and preparing new recipes.

I love the way recipes are broken down into carefully organized steps and ingredients so I can concoct the entire dish in my mind before I ever assemble the ingredients on my countertop. I love that making a new recipe is a creative escape that soothes the soul by keeping the hands busy while the mind is free to wander.

As the scent of spice hangs in the air and my hand stirs, it becomes a practice in meditation. There is also hope – that when I lift the lid or pull open the oven door, my dish will be beautiful and taste even better.

Like a good family saga told to us by Grandma, a recipe passed down to the next generation is a way to connect the past and present, and eventually the future. Then there are those truly bittersweet dishes we remember that are lost and lamented forever like unasked questions and forgotten stories. The ones never acquired linger unfulfilled on our taste buds throughout our lives.

My poor husband can still taste his own grandmother’s custard. He talks about its sweetness and velvet consistency as it poured from its bowl, but the recipe itself went with the dear lady when she departed.

Learning to make pierogies with my mom a couple of years before she passed away was a blessing. It took us hours of cutting, stuffing, and boiling. But, in the end we’d made nearly 100 pierogies – no small feat if you’re at all familiar with the process.

I have the dented metal pierogi cutter she used, passed down from her mother, to slice the dough into perfect rounds. Mom’s rolling pin stayed with me, too, and I can still picture her standing at our worn laminate kitchen counter, sleeves rolled up, using her weight and small hands to flatten the dough that would be cut and filled with a hearty mixture of mashed potatoes and cheese. When I was a kid, I loved it when there was leftover dough to squish between my fingers and to help her make a few flapjacks which we’d fry in butter and dust with sugar.

I have more recipes saved in paper folders, online pins, and small tin containers than I’ll ever cook up in my lifetime. And, yet I continue to curate this collection of family, hope and meditation.

Reach out and feed somebody

My recipes come from magazines, websites, and friends. There are recipes from my mom and my husband’s mom too – the most special ones written in their own hand. Some of the recipes in their collections are from their own friends that I do not know, like Agnes’ rice pudding and Nancy’s green rice.

Perhaps one day I’ll make my mom’s creamy pudding pie or my husbands’ mom’s pineapple cake.

For now, I’ve set my culinary attention on a bran muffin recipe that recently came into my collection.

The recipe came from Pierrette Sullivan of Somerset, a woman I don’t know well but had bumped into here and there over the years.

We ran into one another recently at New Boston Bakery in Fall River. On this perfect diversion between house showings, I nibbled on a blueberry muffin topped with a thick layer of lemon frosting, and we chatted (from afar) about life and of course, food.

She told me about a healthy bran muffin recipe that she’d been making for years. It really piqued my interest because bran muffins seem to have fallen out of fashion even though they are delicious, in my opinion, and contain healthy ingredients known to lower cholesterol. She said it was a basic bran muffin recipe that she reworked herself to make even healthier. She’d added ripe bananas, an apple, nuts, and raisins. “I’m going to make them tomorrow,” she said. “I like to freeze them.”

A few days later, I received the recipe in the mail with a very sweet note. It remains on my kitchen counter waiting for inspiration and a little time.

Her kindness got me thinking about recipes and how we all long for better times to share family meals and conversation. Food brings us together, even during a pandemic when we can’t share tea and muffins at the same table. But, a newly gifted recipe, or one carefully removed from an old tin container, can give us hope and keep us company if only for a little while.

Pierrette’s healthy bran muffins

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tbs. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt 2

cups Kellogg’s All-Bran original cereal

1-1/4 cups fat-free milk

1 egg

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 ripe banana, mashed

1 apple, chopped

1 cup raisins

1 cup walnuts, chopped

Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cereal and milk. Let stand for 2 minutes or until cereal softens. Add egg and oil. Beat well. Add flour mixture, raisins, walnuts, apple and banana, stirring only until combined. Portion into 12 to 14 muffin pan cups, coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 10 minutes. Serve warm. Can be frozen for later.

Deborah Allard Dion is a native of Fall River and a graduate of B.M.C. Durfee High School, Bristol Community College, and Bryant University. She is a Realtor at Keller Williams South Watuppa, a writer, and an animal lover. Connect at DDion@KW.com or on social media.