Pauline's Blueberry Coffeecake, I Can Smell It Now, Oh The Memories!! Snakes??

Oven 350 40-45 minutes

As I have mentioned before, I am envious of those who have sooo many memories and stories of cooking with mothers, fathers, and grandparents growing up. As I have also mentioned, I had no one in that category who really liked to cook, only doing it because it was necessary. My recipes are slim to none from the past, but there are a few. Today's recipe is one from my mother, from 54 years ago, right after getting married, that I found rummaging through some boxes the other day! So I got to enjoy my memory from the past!

As I have also stated we were not well off and ate a lot from our garden, fishing, and of course berry picking, like I think a lot of people did in those days. We picked sooooooo many blueberries when I was young, which in those days were wild and free, but small and a lot of work, not like these pick your own patches today, where hugh berries pretty much fall off into your container. I remember walking forever to find a bush and enough berries to fill my tin can my dad made for me with wire so I could hang from my pants or belt. The idea of that was you could pick more with both hands instead of one, and in theory more berries. I'm not sure that helped a lot because I spent most of my time looking for snakes, which I hated then and still do to this day. Needless to say I am afraid I did not contribute much to our haul as everyone liked to say. Oh the memories!!

Here is her very simple, basic recipe, like most in those days, mainly not many expensive ingredients:

Fix first: 1 cup blueberries, mixed with 1 teaspoon flour (this keeps the berries from sinking to the bottom)

2 Tbsp of crisco, yes shortening

Scant cup of sugar, cream these two together well

Add 1 large beaten egg

Next add 3/4 cup sour milk, WITH 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda added in the milk first (has to be sour milk to make the baking soda work) to mixture

Next add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or to taste

Finally add 2 cups of flour of choice, then your blueberries last of all

Pour mixture into sprayed or greased pan, 8x8 or 9x9

Sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon/sugar or nothing at all, or your fav mix, your kitchen your choice

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes depending on size of pan used

Note: make your own sour milk, using 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar letting it set a bit

Memory recipes as I like to call them, simple, basic and oh so good!