Add a dab of your own flavor. It will be delicious.

Beef Roast
(3-4 lb. chuck or “English”)

1/2 cup Italian dressing (or packet dry Italian dressing mix)
1/4 cup soy sauce (or healthy dose of salt)
1/2 medium onion, peeled and chunked
1-2 Tbs. coarse black pepper (depends on your taste)
1/2-1 cup coke (not the Southern “any soda is coke,” but coca-cola)
Water to cover the roast

The story behind the recipe:

It is handwritten on a green Stuart Hall spiral bound pocket notebook. Written there because she knows things don’t have to be fancy to be good. And that is probably what she had at home in her stash of new notebooks, cards, and such that she keeps to give as small gifts or for her own writing. She writes too, and better than I, about glimpses of life from her perspective; about memories from her childhood. Memories of the good times in a less-than-idyllic upbringing. She writes a lot about her mom, my grandmother, who held it all together while her dad, a good man but with a hearty taste for rotgut whiskey, seemed bent at times on ripping it all apart.

My piece of her memories is in this notebook: Recipes that she used; ones she knew I didn’t like, but that other normal folks would (i.e. anything with onions); recipes my grandmother passed down; and many I should’ve known, but didn’t.

She gave it to me as one of my wedding gifts, alongside some blue willow dishes that had been my great aunt’s and ones to match the treasured set my mom had given me.

This little book also contains my grandma’s secret donut recipe (use canned biscuits), the family salty dill pickle recipe, the foods she knew I’d love (fudge brownies), and ones she knew my husband would like (Pork Chop Casserole). It has cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls, easy cobblers, punch, and even headache and bee sting remedies – all that and they don’t even fill the 100 page capacity.

This little map of cooking is much like the lady who wrote it – full of love and humor. Always there and ready to help, but content to sit on the shelf until I have sense enough to seek it out. My aunt Kathy has always been there when I needed her. She has helped guide me and provided comfort when I didn’t even know I needed it.

She was there when my mom battled a rare bladder disease for more than 10 years. She drove my mom to the doctor visits and hospital stays those times my dad had to stay home and work as he was the lone provider. She was there to celebrate and assist with graduations and weddings and anniversaries. She was one of the first to be there when someone in our community or congregation died and the family needed a shoulder or a casserole.

She was able to throw things together quickly and make it good. This is because she never measured. I must remember to thank her for the exact measurements in this book – a dab of this and a spoon of that. Confusing at times, but it taught me to stop and think about what would taste good and to add my own flavor. I think she did this on purpose.

I referred to it the first time I decided to cook a roast after I got married. This is one of those things I should’ve known, as I’d watched my mom cook delicious beef roasts my whole life. I’d bought a roast and got it home and then stood with the roast on my kitchen counter, realizing I hadn’t the foggiest notion of how to cook this hunk of meat properly. My mom had used an electric skillet. She’d sear it in the skillet first, season it with salt and pepper, and cook on low in that skillet with onions and a little water to steam it and make it tender. It was delicious. I had no electric skillet, so I guessed cooking this thing would be impossible – because there’s only the one way, right?

I’d previously leafed through my little green spiral bound book of gold just to see what it held, and I remembered something about a roast. Sure enough, there in her half-print/half-script writing was a recipe simply titled “Roast”. It had a Crockpot method and an oven method and used simple ingredients; and was written as if she was standing next to me, telling me just what to do. Her recipe used Lipton onion soup mix, which I had on hand, and was delicious, as well.

Now I use a combination of their methods and add my own touch, my own flavor. And every time I cook a roast, I think of my mom over her electric skillet and my Aunt Kathy writing this book for me. Small dabs of delicious memories. What’s a dab? That’s up to you.

One recipe she included that has served me well:
Love your enemies – It drives ’em crazy.