The Oliver-Hill Family Cookbook

The alarm clock blares as loud as possible at exactly 5 a.m. There is no snoozing this one, ladies, there is too much to be done. It’s time to get up and get dressed for the big day- Thanksgiving Day. The whole day and night yesterday were devoted to making pie after pie after pie, which leaves the twenty-something other dishes that need to be made to feed the whole family. First though, breakfast. Great-Grandma Nancy would never make you skip breakfast- she was up way earlier than everyone else to make sure we had a filling breakfast. And you’ll want to eat that breakfast, it will feel like the meal takes sixty-seven hours to be finished. After breakfast, it’s time to get started on all the main dishes. That starts with toasting the bread for stuffing, chopping up potatoes, boiling pasta for macaroni, and more. Once all of these things are done, and the dishes are ready to be baked, they will just have to wait. It’s time to get the turkey cooking first. If you’re going to cook in my great-grandmother’s home, you’ll have to do everything in her preferred order, whether it makes sense to you or not. Once the turkey has invaded the house with its meaty scent, and is finally finished cooking, it’s time to start throwing the dishes you prepared in the morning into the oven. By this point, the feeling of starvation begins to hit, and you feel like you haven’t eaten in twelve years. You’ll offer to fill the beautiful china dishes with the pickles and olives just to sneak any morsel of food you can get. Once it is finally time to eat, you will stuff yourself more fullthan you ever have before. But then comes the most exciting part! It’s time to break into all TWELVE pies that were prepared the night before. There are so many options- apple, pumpkin, pecan, chocolate, lemon chess, coconut cream- and don’t worry! There’s at least two of each! Don’t forget to grab a random assortment of old sour cream and butter containers to fill with a take-home portion of all your Thanksgiving favorites!

My family has always done huge meals for all the big holidays. On Easter, some of us would go to church, the others would go to my great-grandmother’s house to cook. The meal after church would always be a typical southern potluck. Two types of potato salad, as some people liked mustard and others didn’t, deviled eggs, baked beans, the dish of pickles and olives, and my favorite, creamy baked mac and cheese. The house was always full of kids running around, excited to hunt easter eggs. The women were always in the kitchen, conversing and cooking, while all the men sat around on their asses watching whatever sport was currently in season- this does not change no matter the holiday. On the 4th of July, it would be time for a fish fry. The fish were always freshly caught that morning, for the longest time, in the lake that was just out the back door at my great-grandparents house. My great-grandpa and his oldest daughter (my grandma) would always help us kids bait the hook with wriggly, dirty worms or crickets that never stopped chirping in the cylindrical tub they resided in. He would always clean the fish himself, which I quickly realized was a disgusting act to witness. The sound of an electric knife still makes me queasy to this day. Christmas dinners were always a big hit. Christmas was always the time to try out recipes that hadn’t been used before, or in a long time. It was always fun to have something new to try. Most of these recipes came from a very special cookbook- the Oliver-Hill family cookbook.

That’s right, my family has our very own cookbook! It was started by my great-grandma sometime in the early 2000s. She wanted a more organized approach to family recipes, from her mother and her mother’s mother, and so on. No more handwritten notecards! A proper binder cookbook, typed up and separated into sections based on food categories. There’s over four hundred pages, but still plenty of extra space to add more! There is an entire section of recipes from Grandma Stadler- my grandmother’s great grandmother.

I remember seeing the cookbook for the first time. Pictures are strone throughout the book of everyone in the family. I even made it into a few of the photos! The one I remember the best is one of my sister, great-grandma, and me, showing off the vegetables we picked from her massive garden. I remember a decent amount of that day, which is surprising because I was very young- I don’t remember exactly how old I was. Older than 4, younger than 8. My great-grandparents used to always have a large garden, and they would can the majority of the vegetables and fruits they grew so they could be preserved and shared with the whole family. That particular day, I remember making lots and lots of pickles. Pickles were always my favorite of everything we canned. Well, I loved the dill pickles anyway. Sweet pickles made me go “BLEGH!” (And they still do.) My sister and I helped my great-grandmother use her recipe cards on canning to make the most perfect batch of homemade dill pickles. It was times like these, I think, that made her want to type up a family cookbook. The recipe cards were getting old, and some of the writing was becoming illegible. After we were finished with the pickles, the house smelled like vinegar for most of the day afterward, but I never did mind the smell or taste of vinegar. That day, we also canned lots of tomatoes. Some were just plain ole tomatoes that could be used in pasta sauces and soups. But we also made salsa and rotel. It may not have been the best salsa in the world- my family is extremely white, so seasonings and spice were kind of beyond them. As a kid, I didn’t mind it that much, but now when I open a can, I have to add garlic powder and cayenne and other seasonings so it isn't so bland!

The best part about the cookbook is that there isn’t only one copy. Everyone in the family has their own copy. Some people like my grandmother have both the original and the newer “revamped” cookbook. Because I was too young to cook when the original was made, I only have the newer versions. Though, it has all the same stuff as the new one, and more! Plus, a lot more photos, which I love. The cookbook is always super helpful. On any of those days when I’m feeling nostalgic, and I remember a particular recipe that I used to love as a kid, I just have to open up my cookbook! From homemade biscuits and chocolate gravy, to any and all of my favorite cookies, to homemade tomato soup, I can find it all right there. My great-grandmother really helped out the entire family by doing this. We will always remember how much time and love she put into the cookbook, and all the recipes from it she ever made for us. Even though she is gone now, it is my greatest hope that I will make her so proud when I finally have a family of my own to cook for. I can’t wait to open up the cookbook with my children, explain to them where it came from, and how important it is to our family. I’d love for them to help me make a mess of the kitchen making my favorite childhood recipes that they will hopefully love just as much as I did!

We love and miss you Grandma Nancy, but this cookbook you made for us will continue to keep us close to you through cooking. You never once let us go hungry at your house, and now we can implement your amazing meals into our everyday lives.