Everyone speaks fondly of learning pies from their mother or grandmother. I learned from my dad! Mom, a wonderful cook, couldn't make a pie to save her life. Or fudge, another tasty item my dad taught me to make. Used to make her furious! . His pies were divine, and his crust recipe was from an odd little 1949 pamphlet promoting a cookbook by one Aunt Chick. The pamphlet is in tatters now, over-used and over-loved. But her straightforward recipes are still the best! I wonder if her book ever made it to print! About that fudge...we occasionally would find a box of Mom's dreadful attempts at fudge, grainy and hard as a rock, hidden away in unlikely places. She had tried, recognized another infuriating failure when she saw it, and stashed the evidence. Her depression-ingrained frugality wouldn't allow her to just throw it out!

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