“If baking is any labor at all, it’s a labor of love. A love that gets passed from generation to generation.”
– Regina Brett
I remember coming home from school in September and being greeted by the smell of whatever my mother was canning — tomatoes, pickles, relishes and more. Every vegetable from the garden was being preserved. As a result of living through the Great Depression, my mother never wasted anything. Anything not canned was frozen.
Of course I had my favorites.
First there were the strawberries that arrived in June. My mom and I would head to the local fields to pick them. When we had picked about 12 quarts, it was time to head back to the farm. We paid 35 cents a quart and my mother would complain all the way home about the price being so high! The next day we went back for more. All those strawberries went to make jam, and the smell of that jam was heavenly.
The peaches arrived in August. My mother’s fresh peach pie was the best. Not only did she can peaches, she also had a special way of preserving them.
She would line her pie plates with oversized pieces of aluminum foil and set them aside. She then proceeded to make peach filling for a fresh peach pie. After mixing the ingredients, she poured the filling into the foil-lined pie dish. She gently folded the foil edges over the filling and carefully placed it in the freezer. When frozen, she pulled out the pan, lifted out the foil-wrapped filling, and sealed it in a plastic bag.
She repeated that process over and over until she had a stack of these in the freezer. At a later date, she would make her pie crust, pull one of the peach discs from the freezer, defrost it, and bake a “fresh” peach pie. I’ll tell you this: When the snow was flying during the winter, there wasn’t a dessert in the world that would compare to that warm pie.
Another family specialty was my grandmother’s pickles. She would pick the largest cucumbers from her garden and put a slit into the side. She then would take a fistful of fresh dill and place it at the bottom of a large jar. She placed the cucumbers in the jar, along with kosher salt, and covered them. She never refrigerated them. They naturally fermented and the brine got cloudy. After two weeks, they were ready to eat.
To this day I have never tasted a pickle as good. I almost found one in a supermarket about two years ago. Although those pickles were close to the flavor I remembered, I could visualize the horror on my grandma’s face if she knew I had spent close to $7 for a quart of pickles!
These recipes that get handed down from one generation to another are the ones we hold dearest to our hearts.
Recently I had the pleasure of meeting Kelley Hughes, owner of Harpswell’s charming Itty Bitty Coffee Shop. The shop makes top-quality coffee and lattes, and Kelley’s baking scores high marks with her patrons.
Prior to Itty Bitty, Kelley owned and operated Wildflours, a gluten-free bakery in Brunswick, for 15 years. She developed a love for Harpswell while frequenting the trails here during her spare time. Having so little of that spare time led her to sell Wildflours. Soon after she decided to sell, she saw the old Harpswell Anchor building for sale. The rest is history.
As one might guess, Kelley’s mother was quite the baker herself, and Kelley often uses her mother’s recipes. I asked her to share one of her favorites and she chose her mother’s chocolate chip cheesecake. It came from a cookbook her mom put together of all the recipes she had made over the years.
This cheesecake is delicious. It is dense, creamy, rich and absolutely divine. Want a dessert for an autumn get-together with friends or family? If you love cheesecake and chocolate, give this one a try. Your guests will absolutely love it.
Chocolate chip cheesecake
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups crushed Oreos
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- 3 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon flour
Directions:
Combine crumbs and butter; press firmly on bottom of 9-inch springform pan.
Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in condensed milk. Add eggs and vanilla, beating constantly.
Toss 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips with the teaspoon of flour to coat. Fold chips into cheese mixture.
Pour mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup chips over top. Bake at 300 degrees for 55-60 minutes, until very little jiggle is left in the center.
Cool to room temperature, then chill in the fridge overnight. Remove the side of the pan and cut into wedges. Serve. Refrigerate leftovers (if there are any). Enjoy!
Harpswell Aging at Home always needs cooks for its Meals in a Pinch program, which provides nutritious meals to older adults in need. For more information, contact Julie Moulton at 207-330-5416 or juliemoulton28@gmail.com.
