Tonight I made caramelized carrots, my mom’s way — cook peeled, sliced carrots until almost done then drain. Put about 1/4 cup sugar and a glob (2 teaspoons or so) of butter in a frying pan. Carefully melt it down a bit while the carrots drain well, then add them to the pan. Stir and coat the carrots until all the sugar is melted into a nice heavy syrup. Delicious. Note: It's not quite the same as she made it without the heavy iron skillet that Dad regularly sanded to keep looking sharp.

Mom was a good cook until she decided to stop a year or two ago after 60-plus years of three meals a day, simply announcing, “I don’t do that anymore.” Now Dad does the cooking with rave reviews from Mom, “Your dad’s a good cook, and he’s handsome, too. Aren’t you Papa?”

Other than breakfast, I don’t think she ever made us a meal without all the food groups — meat, dairy, bread, fruit, vegetable and, of course, dessert. But with six kids in the house, she used extreme measures to make sure dessert was still there at dinner. That means we occasionally discovered a chocolate cake in the recipe drawer, or under the couch.

Sunday before church a roast went in the oven (after we girls got done sticking our heads in there to dry our hair!). We got home after service and mashed potatoes and gravy magically appeared. The fruit element was often bananas in jello, usually with whipped cream folded in. But sometimes jello held the vegetables — lime jello with grated carrots and cucumbers. I noticed at the store recently that the jello section is 1/3 the size it used to be. Don’t people make jello anymore?

Mom didn’t really teach us to cook; that’s what Home Ec class was for (although we all watched her and learned and are good cooks in our own right). She ran a one-woman kitchen — except for clean up. Dad made us clean up. But Mom always fussed she’d much rather do it herself than listen to us quibble amongst ourselves.

She deeply cared that we ate well and often worried out loud that I was too skinny. My first real job was sewing canvas car top carriers at a small factory about six blocks from home. I had to work after school over dinner. The night she made stuffed green peppers (a favorite of mine), she trekked down there with my hot dinner on a plate wrapped in tin foil for me to eat on my 10 minute break.

Obey your father's commands, and don't neglect your mother's instruction. Proberbs 6:20