Photography By Scott Suchman
Vicki Sammons
Director, Milton Chamber of Commerce
“My former mother-in-law, Ann Sammons, was a cafeteria worker in Milton and got this corn pone recipe from Mrs. Gordy, then the head cook at Georgetown High School. She said it was the best ‘pone’ she ever tasted. Ann always served it with fried fish. It’s still served once a year at the community dinner sponsored by the D.A.R. chapter of Lewes.”
Shirley Phillips
Co-owner, Phillips Seafood Restaurant
“I grew up on Hoopers Island, south of Cambridge. Only 800 people lived there when I was a child. My grandparents were born there and so were their parents. My mother was from the Hooper family on her mother’s side. She grew all her own vegetables; everything we ate came out of that garden. She raised her own pigs, too. We ate good in those days. Even though there was a Depression, people never wanted for anything, we always had food. Most of the people who lived there were watermen, so we always ate a lot of seafood. Whenever my mother would have a baked ham dinner, she would save the bone of the ham and make this lima bean soup. It’s a hearty meal; you don’t need anything else. My mother always added dumplings, but it’s good even without them. It seems strange to give you a recipe that isn’t crab, but my mother always made this dish, and it’s always been one of my favorite meals.”
Mitzi Perdue
Columnist, cookbook author, Frank’s wife
“Like Frank, I grew up with chickens, but not exactly on the same scale. While he had hundreds of thousands of them, my family had maybe a hundred. Still, that meant that Mother ended up serving chicken quite frequently. She was a good cook but almost never a fancy one.ÊI remember once, my father, who was in the hotel business, brought a famous chef from one of the hotels home for dinner without warning my mother first. The chef praised her soup to the skies, and Mother, who couldn’t believe that a famous chef would find a humble soup to be one of the best he’d ever tasted, was afraid he was making fun of her. My father assured her that for a man used to complicated recipes, a homemade soup really might have been one of the best things he ever tasted.”
New England Chicken ‘n’ Corn Chowder
John Shields
Maryland Public Television cooking show host; owner, Gertrude’s
“Baltimore is one of the sauerkraut capitals of the world, and our house, with my grandmother, Gertie Cleary, at the helm in the kitchen, was no exception. During the holiday season, there wasn’t a feast served without a large bowl of steaming kraut. Gertie generally paired this dish with a gigantic roast turkey or fresh ham. I use this sauerkraut often with quail. The quail are stuffed with a fresh sage leaf, then wrapped in thin slices of prosciutto. They’re roasted in a very hot oven and served atop a bed of sauerkraut with the pan drippings.”
Gertie’s Sauerkraut and Apples
Jim Farace
Research Chef, McCormick & Company
“This recipe belonged to my great-grandmother, Molly King Dorsey, and has been in my family since the 1800s. My great-grandfather, Owen Francis Dorsey, who worked for the B&O Railroad, was given the recipe by one of the stewards from the dining car service. For as long as I can remember, we traditionally served this dish the day after Christmas, the feast of St. Stephen or Boxing Day, with colcannon and baby carrots with cream.”
Janet Dudley-Eshbach
President, Salisbury University
“For many years, my mother, now eighty-six-years young, has been making a delicious sherry cake. It’s a bit ironic that this became a Dudley family favorite, as we were raised as Methodists who “did not partake.”
Whitey Schmidt
Author of eight food and travel books about the Chesapeake
“I grew up in a family with eight brothers and five sisters.With fourteen kids, my dad would sit at the end of the table, and every time one of us finished our dinner he would dot the center of our forehead with ashes. For years we thought he invented Ash Wednesday. Sunday was always an exciting meal time. It meant family members would come back home, and nieces, nephews, and cousins would show up. A casserole dish would always go a long way. As far back as I can remember, my sister Louise made this dish.”
Margie Kauffman
Co-Owner, Chesapeake Bay Gourmet
“My mother-in-law would serve these meatballs in a brown sauce over noodles for dinner. I deleted the noodles and made the sauce richer by adding half-and-half. I started making this dish for a Christmas Eve treat when my boys were young. I’d serve it as soon as we arrived home from church to slow them down, to get them to enjoy each other’s company. The next morning, they would devour the cold leftovers, which there were seldom much of. We now have daughter-in-laws and grandchildren, and all of them would be very disappointed if Christmas Eve came and this dish was not part of our after-church fare.”
Barbara Mikulski
United States Senator
“This is my mother’s crab cake recipe. Over the years, I’ve tried to make it more heart-smart. My grandmother owned a bakery in Baltimore, so I use bread in the recipe, but you can also use an alternative, like crackers. And remember, when you make crab cakes, they should look flat like cookies, not round like meatballs or golf balls!”
Senator Barb’s Crab Cake Recipe
Betsy Skinner
President, Orrell’s Maryland Beaten Biscuits
“My grandmother started this biscuit business in 1935 and ran it till she was eighty-six, when my husband and I took it over. She made the best pancakes I’ve ever eaten by grinding up leftover biscuits. She would serve them with strawberry or maple syrup, but my grandfather would use straight molasses.”
Norma Lee Burton Derrickson
Member of Delaware State University Board
“My mother, Mary Simpler Burton, created this recipe, and it is unique. I’m a sixth- or seventh-generation Delaware native. Growing up, we ate sweet potatoes in many ways— they’re so good for you. My mother used to grow a few, but she would buy them by the basketful. We always looked for nice fresh ones with a little bit of dirt on them, meaning they were fresh from a farmer’s field. We ate sweet potatoes many evenings instead of white potatoes; they were our staple or starch, more so than rice.”
Rachel Bandarenko
President, Junior League of Annapolis
“A New York City Italian, my husband’s father welcomed me, a rural Pennsylvania Polish girl, into the family by teaching me how to cook. I can’t begin to count the number of phone calls from him that began with, ‘I’ve gotta tell you what I made for dinner last night.’ His is the type of family that wakes up in the morning and begins planning dinner before the breakfast dishes are put away.”
