Old Soul, Young Heart

Scalloped Corn Recipe from: Grandma Whiteside (my mom's mom) Ingredients: 1 can cream style corn 1 can whole kernel corn and liquid 2 eggs (beaten) 1 cup sour cream 1 stick butter (melted) 1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix a dash of pepper 1 teaspoon salt ½ cup minced onion Directions: Mix above together in a large bowl. Pour into a large glass baking dish sprayed with Pam. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until golden brown. Also known as "corn casserole," this is a super easy side dish to take to any gathering. It's cornbread with a twist! It's a staple for us at Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is something I can't really screw up! Although I was close to screwing it up once when I wasn't paying attention and almost added cream cheese instead of sour cream. *sigh*

Lasagna Recipe from: Kris Baugh (a State Farm colleague of my mom's, I believe) Ingredients: 2 lbs ground beef 1 large jar Prego spaghetti sauce 1 large container cottage cheese 1 egg 4 cups mozzarella cheese ½ cup parmesan cheese garlic salt seasoning salt onion salt Directions: Make a day ahead! Brown the ground beef Season the ground beef with garlic salt, seasoning salt, and onion salt Drain off grease Add the spaghetti sauce and mix well Mix in a large bowl: cottage cheese, egg, and parmesan cheese Spray large 13 x 9 pan with Pam Layer lasagna noodles, cottage cheese mixture, ground beef mixture, mozzarella cheese, and sprinkle some extra parmesan cheese; repeat 3 times Bake at 350° for 1 hour I do not do well with unprecise information, like "1 large jar spaghetti sauce." I'm not a confident cook or baker, so I need things to be exact. I made some guesses here and it turned out well. I used a 24 oz jar of Prego and a 24 oz container of cottage cheese. I also use...

  I definitely wanted my second recipe to be a treat like the first one I posted since this girl's got herself such a sweet tooth, but I realize I should have a good mixture of items here. So here we go with... Chicken & Rice Bake Ingredients: 2 cans chicken soup 1 cup water ¾ cup rice seasoning salt 6-8 boneless chicken breasts Directions: Spray glass dish with Pam Mix soup, water, and rice in dish Place chicken breasts on top of rice mixture Sprinkle with seasoning salt Cover Bake at 375° for 1 hour or until done The chicken looks pink, but I promise it was done! This was a Scheffert household dinner staple. I had never made it before, but I can see why it was a popular one because the ingredient list is short, the prep work is as about as simple and quick as it gets, and it uses only one dish. About halfway through baking, the house started to smell like it and it was such a familiar smell which was interesting. 😊 I've never purchased "chicken soup" before, so...

This time of year has become increasingly difficult for me. The couple of weeks leading up to Mother's Day and then the actual day on Sunday--it's a lot. Advertisements for gift ideas in my email, on tv, in the stores, on social media. The card aisle lined with glittery pink and purple designs filled with words I wish I could say to my mom. The posts on social media from friends and companies. I dread it and just want the day to be over. You'd think it would get easier as time goes on, but grief is a funny thing. Hilarious , in fact. The past two years on the Saturday before Mother's Day I've participated in a Zoom call for motherless daughters, hosted by Hope Edelman who authored a book many years ago by that name. I was so moved last year to be in the company of hundreds of women who get what it is to lose their mom, whether it was 60 years ago or just a few weeks ago. In the call this year, Hope suggested that we think about a characteristic of our mom that we...