I am a baker because of Mom. Growing up at the Never Sweat Ranch we were always preparing for a meal or cleaning up from one. We girls helped with meals a lot in the summer when we had a hired man to help hay. One of my contributions was as the baker of cakes and cookies and Mom was my tutor. My first cookbook from Mom was "Betty Crocker's Cooky Book"copyright 1963, spiral bound, with both covers long off which I got when I was probably 10 years old and still have.
Dad said "Pegg, I don't know where you learned to cook, but you sure are a good one." She learned from her mother, Pansy Hale Williams Nicolarsen, our "Grandma Nick." Being 42 miles from a grocery store Mom always had extra cooking ingredients on hand in the basement pantry. One of the hired help, Larry Winberg, who married our cousin June said if he was ever stuck in a snow storm he wanted to be at our house because he knew he would eat well! Here Mom sits at our kitchen table with two of my three sisters, Linda Kyle (a great cook that I call all the time for cooking advice) and my sister Liz Ferguson, who is also a great cook and baker, owned "Kat's Korner" in Taylor where she sold hormone free beef, and still cooks for Uncle Buck's Lodge in Brewster. They brought Mom to Omaha to a medical appointment and spent a couple of nights. I made some Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies and Mom helped put them on the cookie sheets. Mom looks great for being less than three weeks shy of 90 years old, doesn't she?Thanks, Mom, for teaching me how to bake!
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