Writing Off More Than You Can Chew

It was the best 25-cents I’ve spent in a long time.

Saturday, perusing the selection of books at Second Chance, I was attracted to a thin, yellowing spiral-bound book.

The cover said “Home Town Recipes – AARP.”

In smaller print on the bottom of the cover it said “Fayette County AARP Chapter #2317, La Grange, Texas.”

A quick look inside and it was clear this was one of those cook books filled with recipes from local folks published as some sort of fundraiser.

I stood at the bookshelf flipping through the book, hoping I’d recognize some of the names inside.

I was not disappointed. The first one I found was the most surprising off all – a recipe from my grandfather Joe Fietsam Sr.

While his wife, my Grandma Fietsam, was a homemaker who cooked, and baked a lot, he was not a legendary chef. In fact the only thing I remember him ever cooking were open-faced cheese sandwiches in a toaster oven he’d offer to make us when we’d visit. He used homemade cheese that had caraway seeds in it that I did not like in the least, but I never told him that because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

He died back in 1986 (one of my saddest early memories is when he had a heart attack on Thanksgiving day in the back yard shortly after lunch while all of us were still over at their house) The fact that he’s been gone for 38 years gives you an idea about the age of this cook book.

Another clue to the book’s age is that it’s filled with long-since gone local businesses like The Short Stop, Remington Savings, and The Cozy Theatre. The area code for all the phone numbers in the ads are still 409 too.

But back to grandpa’s recipe. Right there on Page 11 (between Rachel Witt’s Old Fashioned German Potato Soup and Leona Giese’s Zucchini Soup) was my Grandpa Fietsam’s recipe for “Potato Soup.”

Just six ingredients, and a short two-sentence description of how to prepare it.

Now being that he died when I was just eight years old. I don’t have a ton of memories of Grandpa Fietsam, but I do remember him being a hard working farmer and carpenter of few words and simple tastes, so the recipe fit him.

I, of course, bought the book at Second Chance for 25 cents. Over the weekend I gathered the ingredients and made my grandfather’s simple potato soup.

The rest of my family was not impressed. But I loved it. The soup took me back in time to the potato soup that my mom used to make for us as kids – clearly derived from this same recipe.

Elsewhere in the book, I found a recipe from my Grandma Fietsam for her Cheese Pie.

I have yet to make this one, but I am most familiar with it. Every other birthday or so, that’s what my mom makes to give me as a present.

It may not sound good to you, but it’s amazing, and one of my most cherished birthday traditions (today, Dec. 13, is my birthday by the way, and I’m hoping I might get another cheese pie).

Beyond the family connections to the book, other recipes stand out as a sort of time capsule of days gone by.

There’s Mossie C. Peck’s recipe for Carrot Pudding. Irene Yeager has a recipe for Glorified Rice Salad. Evelyn Stephanow’s got a recipe for Baked Beef Tongue. Donella Pantel’s recipe for Welsh Pork Cake on Page 32 includes all the traditional ingredients of a fruitcake, but also includes a pound of bulk pork sausage.

Longtime readers of The Fayette County Record will certainly remember Aileen Loehr, whose recipe for Pea Salad appears on Page 14.

Aileen was a great friend and mentor. She worked at The Record for an amazing 44 years before retiring in 2013. She died in 2016.

I’m typing this column in her old office. Here at the newspaper, Aileen loved her big mugs of heavilycreamed coffee, and that love apparently extended to other foods.

Her Pea Salad recipe calls for a quarter cup of coffee cream powder.

I think that’s the next thing I’ll make from this cookbook.

Jeff Wick is the editor of The Fayette County Record. He encourages you to check out the book selection at Second Chance to find your own special treasure –- for pocket change. He can be reached at jeff@fayettecountyrecord.com.