Growing up on Jugtown Mountain

My parents built a house next door where all nine children were raised. I have 6 brothers an 2 sisters and as a young family we were always hungry. To raise and feed nine children was a real challenge for my parents. In the summer time my brothers, Kenny and Peter and I would go out in the woods with recently sharpened axes, hatchets and two man saws to build forts and log cabins. I thought my mother was crazy because every spring she would take us and the axes, hatchets and two man saws to the hardware store to be sharpened. Why, I thought, would she sharpen them like that, did she want us to cut our limbs off or what! Later I found out that sharpened equipment cuts easier and has less chance of being cut.I can tell you that we as children ate pretty good.
My mother fed seven boys and two girls three to four meals everyday and I was always in the kitchen with her. For some reason I liked being int the kitchen, it was my favorite place in our house. I would make breakfast for all of us on Sunday mornings, mostly eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes or waffles.

One of my duties was to cook breakfast when my Uncle Joe came up to pick up his mail. This guy was a mean old man, always complained and liked his eggs cooked a certain way. One time he even had the nerve to send his eggs back and had me recook them. I was so scared and I was glad my mother was there to help and teach me.

I really consider her a chef even through she most likely does not. Anyone who can feed a family of nine has to think like a chef. Shopping was such a task. When she went shopping, she always took a couple of the children with her in order to haul hundreds of dollars of food throught the store, into car, into the house and put up on the shelves. Believe me this was a process. My mother would choose different stores to shop according to the freshness and savings. We would buy our meat from a local butcher and purchase the whole side of beef. The butcher said she would save some money and he would break the side of beef into smaller cuts for her. Her bread would come from a outlet store and she new what day the bread was delievered fresh. The milk from a thrift store and in the summer months the produce from a local farmer The balance of the items would come from the A&P, a local grocery store. After a long two hours of shopping we would end up with 4-5 large baskets of items.
Cooking was a passion for her, she enjoyed making people happy through food. She slaved hard with shopping, cooking and cleaning and enjoyed bringing the family together through food. I remember on warm summer nights after our dinner the entire family would walk across the

street to my Grandparents house for ice cream soda’s. My grandmother would buy cream soda or birch beer, my favorite (until she turned me on to sarsaparilla), and place in a cold glass with ice cream. As a child, the combination of ice cream and birch beer was unbelievable. I would get so full the I did not feel like walking home, yet the effort helped with my tummy. My grand mother would make things like pigs feet in gelatin, borscht, chilled beet soup and blond brownies. I also liked the darkest richest chocolate brownies in the world and the lightest crumb cake around.

Lets start with the crumb cake, very simple but good recipe. The video will be at the end.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and position your rack in the middle of your oven. Butter and flour two 9 inch oven proof glass dishes. Peel and medium dice 5 granny smith apples.

Melt 1/2 stick of butter over medium heat until slightly brown which will add a little nutty flavor. Add the diced apples along with 1/3 cup o dark brown sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. When apples are soft. remove and place into a dish to cool. Cream 1/2 pound of room temperature butter with 2 1/2 cups of sugar. Add 2 teaspoons of salt, 4 teaspoons of Baking Powder and 4 cups of all purpose flour. To make the crumbs remove 2 cups of the mixture and add to another bowl. To this add 1/4 pound of butter, 6 Tablespoons of dark brown sugar, and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Set aside. To the remainder mixture add 4 eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Spread the dough onto the two buttered glass dishes. Distribute the cooled apples between the two dishes and then top with the crumb mixture. . Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. cool on a cooling rack. Slice and enjoy.