Someone once told us of waiting with brothers and sisters for the school bus on wet winter mornings. We've forgotten the storyteller, but remember the story. The otherwise miserable wait was made bearable because each child had had a boiled potato slipped into each front pocket right before they left the door. The potatoes replaced mittens the family couldn't afford and the core heat of the potatoes would still be warm at recess when they were eaten.

We've had to make do with this story about far-sighted and practical motherly love for years. Now with Suzie Flatau's book we have an avalanche of anecdotal stories of the mother-child relationship. Stories of love that extends beyond the bus stop and endures long after recess.

We would've been content to have Ms. Flatau's Counter Culture Texas continue into many volumes. At least the trail has been blazed for restaurant reviews that include the people behind the food and Suzie Kelly Flatau has shown how it's done.

In this book, one of the women we're introduced to is an Estonian war bride who convinced her daughter to read to the chickens (so that they would produce more eggs). The daughter is now a professor of surgery at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston. We're not sure how the chickens turned out, but coincidentally one of their recipe contributions is "Chicken for All."

From My Mother's Hands is an antidote for the disease of daytime television and for families that wear their dysfunction like a badge. Here are women who aren't at all frightened about becoming their mothers.

The 33 mother and daughter pairs are accomplished in many ways, but that's not the point of the book. The older women aren't stage mothers who want famous daughters; they're women who want to raise women who will raise good children themselves. To create good and cultivate it.

Their recipes might surprise you with their simplicity, but they shouldn't. Loving memories aren't necessarily made from fancy food. The recipes, like the mothers, are practical and memorable. Think of your favorite childhood food, then think of the preparation. If your favorite meal was four spoonfuls of sugar on white bread, you might be scheduled for Geraldo. If you remember something that took a little more effort, you'll want to buy the book.

And let us also say that the reference to hands is not confined to cooking. A cool hand on a feverish forehead and stitches sewn in the middle of the night are also "From My Mother's Hands"

There's a recipe index by chapter thoughtfully provided, and what's more important is a list of questions you can use for "creating your own mother's journal." Many, if not all of the questions/suggestions were used to produce these wonderfully candid interviews.

If you're looking at From My Mother's Hands in a book store, pick up Counter Culture Texas and look through that as well. We're indeed lucky that both books are available at the same time. The common threads through both books are food, love, and the reassuring fact that we're not as bad as television would have you believe.


September, 2000
© John Troesser