Skip to content

COLUMN: A taste of maternal memories

Okanagan Regional Library to publish community cookbook
25037433_web1_cookiesontheset2
The Okanagan Regional Library is looking for your favourite recipes for an upcoming community cookbook. Do you have Mom’s favourite baking recipes? (Annelie Krumm photo)

When I think of my mom, I think of many things — love, kindness, strength, and baking. There’s just something about her chocolate chip cookies that taste so much better when she makes them (trust me, I’ve tried many times to replicate them — it can’t be done!)

Many of our family traditions are based around my mother’s baking. Cinnamon buns and cheesecakes at Christmas, lemon meringue pie for Easter and every time we made a trip to Alberta to visit our family, you better believe we were never without Tupperware containers filled to the brim with cookies, brownies and the ultimate favourite, Jackie Squares.

READ ALSO: City of Nanaimo points to correct recipe after New York Times botches batch of bars

READ ALSO: COLUMN: Feeding the family

To everyone outside of my family, these treats are called Confetti Squares. Simply made with just four ingredients, butter, peanut butter, butterscotch chips, and rainbow marshmallows; they are extremely sugary and have a chewy gooey texture. They are so rich and sweet, sometimes I can only eat just one (but only sometimes.)

The squares received the new moniker from my family because my Grandma Jackie loved these squares so much that my mom always had to bring them for her. After she passed, every time someone enjoyed the sweet, peanut buttery, butterscotch perfection they would remark, “Oh, Grandma loved these squares!” and from then on we just called them her squares and everyone knew what we were talking about.

These squares are special to me not only because they remind me of my childhood, but they also remind me of two important women in my life, my mom, who I am so lucky to get to spend so much time with and my Grandma Jackie who I only got to spend the first five years of my life with.

Every time I bite into one of these squares, memories of her sweet demeanor and me riding around on her cane like it was a pony come flooding back to me.

In many households, there is a recipe that is held near and dear to the heart. The Okanagan Regional Library would love to have you share yours with the community and you can even win prizes for entering your recipe.

At the end of the year, recipes will be selected and published in an Okanagan Regional Library Community Cookbook for all to enjoy. To participate, just head to www.libraryplus.ca and click on Submit a Recipe. I can’t wait to taste all your favourite snacks, meals and desserts.

Kayley Robb is an assistant community librarian at the Summerland branch of the Okanagan Regional Library.

To report a typo, email:
news@summerlandreview.com
.



news@summerlandreview.com

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.