Catherine Quinney is known as the “Cookie Queen” by many of her friends. photo by Carlie Quinney
These are some of my favorite meals cooked by my mom.
My mom has always loved trying out new cooking recipes for the family as well as continuing the old meals that she has carried on from her childhood. From cookies to various sandwiches, my mom has taught me to engrave these recipes in my mind so that I will be able to use them when I have my own family. I am so lucky and grateful to have my mom cook me a warm meal everyday, so I thought I would share some of the most impactful dishes that she frequently makes.
Starting with a classic, my mom’s chocolate chip cookies have played a role in my household for as long as I can remember. My mom learned this cookie recipe from her grandmother, who made these simple yet delicious desserts for her granddaughter frequently. The cookies are made from scratch, and they incorporate many small steps that personalize this delicacy. To start, my mom mixes dry ingredients together, including all purpose flour, cane sugar, and salt. She adds more salt for a memorable flavor that makes these cookies her own. Then, she will slowly mix in her wet ingredients, including eggs, butter, vanilla extract, and brown sugar. She combines both salted and unsalted butter. These steps are always conducted very carefully, and she absolutely nails these cookies every single time. Since I was young, I have always favored just adding some chocolate chips to these cookies, but we have recently realized that we can customize these cookies and make some more fun batches. My mom loves to make a white chocolate chip and cranberry version.
We genuinely love these cookies within my family, and they really never get old. My mom has also impacted several individuals outside of the family; her friends and co-workers show their love for this recipe all of the time. In fact, some of my friends will randomly ask me if I can bring them a bag. My favorite part about my mom’s baking is the way she admires others and their happiness. My mom solely cooks in order to spark joy in others. There will be times when she stays up late making several batches of her chocolate chip cookies, so that she can distribute them out to all of her favorite people the next day as a pleasant surprise. I also love hanging out with my mom while she bakes the cookies, as she has taught me heaps of her cooking tips and we always have a fun time together in the kitchen. Since I was five years old, my mom would always let me have one lick of the batter left over on the mixer. This has been, and still is, something I look forward to everytime she bakes the cookies. Both my sister and I run to the kitchen to taste the batter to this day. As for the final result of the cookies, we love to keep them in the freezer because they taste the best cold. These cookies are so delicious, and I will most definitely bake them when I have children of my own.
Another recipe of my mom’s that I love is her penne pasta. This pasta is absolutely mouthwatering and is our go-to dish for special occasions. The recipe took inspiration from other dishes that my mom demonstrated interest in, so she tweaked multiple pasta recipes in order to create this meal. My sister specifically loves this pasta and asks my mom to make it every year for her birthday. The dish includes a yummy, light white wine-based sauce that goes exceptionally well with the noodles and some bread on the side. This meal is excellent, but what really makes the dish special is the memories that come with it. We always eat this meal when we get together with extended family or really close friends. When I think of this pasta, I think of a longer dinner meal that comes with stories and good laughs. This dinner is also really meaningful to me because my mom takes a lot of time to make it for us. All of her hard work and effort is front and center in the results of this warm pasta, and our family will never stop appreciating this meal.
Something that I crave very often is a good sandwich for lunch. My mom has some amazing sandwich-making skills; she can make a simple white bread sandwich for lunch while also possessing skills to make an extravagant pressed sandwich. Her simple sandwich recipe can be reproduced by anyone, but this dish always tastes a little better when my mom is the one to make it for me. When conducting a pressed warm sandwich, however, I’m not so sure anyone else can match the status of her delicacies. She will use a fancy french bread and cook up a mixture of turkey and vegetables. She also makes a tasty homemade ranch to top off this sandwich. My dad and I look forward to the weekends because this is a go-to lunch in our family. My favorite part about these sandwiches is that my mom discovered this recipe by grabbing random items from the fridge that we had and creating something with them. My mom is a great cook and gains lots of experience through working with whatever we have at the moment. I love how I can always count on her to make me something delicious, especially when we are lacking ingredients at the house.
Although I could go on forever, the last lovely dish that I will talk about is my mom’s quiche. Breakfast is one of my favorite meals of the day, so I am always thrilled when she makes a quiche. We typically have it on Christmas morning, which is a tradition that started about three years ago. Ever since, my entire family looks forward to this dish. The delicious breakfast is always the perfect texture and has a really good flavor. All of the fixings (a varying combination of jalapenos, sausage, bacon, peppers, spinach, and tomatoes) in this dish go really well together, and we love to have homemade salsa on the side. My dad got my mom a homemade salsa cookbook and a food processor, perfect for making different salsas, so she makes all kinds of delicious dips that match the flavor profile of the quiche exceptionally. Even though this quiche is delectable year-round, I still find the Christmas batch to be the most impactful to me because this breakfast gives me a warm feeling and a sense of family when we indulge. There’s nothing better than enjoying a winter holiday with a warm breakfast.
I am so thankful for my mom and the food that she makes me every single day. I look forward to the many more meals I can share with her, as well as the new recipes that she will continue to bring into our household. I am forever lucky to have someone that I can learn from and enjoy meals with, so I will most definitely pass these recipes on to more people. That way, they can share similar experiences with their own families, and I also plan to carry these traditions into a family of my own one day.
