Anyone that knows me, knows that you will rarely find me anywhere near the kitchen, except maybe during this pandemic, in which I’m practically forced to cook for myself out of necessity. It’s not that I’m a horrible cook, it’s really just the fact that I have absolutely no interest in the act of cooking or baking. Also, my least favorite thing is cleaning dishes, and those just stack up when you cook, so my solution is don’t cook. I also detest the fact that women are just assumed to be the default domestics of the family, but that’s an argument for another day.
Week 5: In the Kitchen
There were, however, some folks in my tree who gravitated toward the kitchen and left a breadcrumb trail of their activities in that room.
Photograph of Edna Arlene (Dean) Millhouse in the dining room off of the kitchen, 1 Jan 1984, Hawthorne, California, photo in possession of granddaughter Kira D. Foltz.
My maternal grandmother, Edna Arlene (Dean) Millhouse, had a tradition of boiling sauerkraut on New Year’s Day each year. It would stink up the whole house. As an adult I rather like it, but as a child, this was not a welcome aroma. I never got a chance to ask her who she inherited this tradition from, but she claimed it brought good luck. January 1st, 2002 was the first year that I recall in which she didn’t prepare it, and oddly, she passed away by the end of that month. I’ve always found this quite intriguing, apparently not enough to carry on the tradition myself though, ha. But I do like pondering on it.
Photograph of Alta and Harry Foltz in the den of the Millhouse house on Yukon Ave., 1 Jan 1984, Hawthorne, California, photo in possession of granddaughter Kira D. Foltz.
My paternal grandmother, Alta Leone (Eggenberger) Foltz, died just before I was born, so I never met her, but my dad has always raved about her German potato salad. The special characteristic was that it was prepared warm. Warm potato salad. As a native Southern Californian, this does not sound appetizing one bit (I’ve only been brought up on cold potato salad), but he claims it’s the best potato salad he’s ever had. And he has struggled to find any restaurant or deli that comes close, or better yet, even offers it warm – including traditional German delis. Needless to say, I’ve always questioned his memory of this dish.
Recently, I emailed my aunt (my dad’s sister) to inquire as to whether she had their mother’s recipe, since he said my aunt had once tried to recreate it for him. While she didn’t have the exact recipe, she passed on what she had been taught by her aunt Vera, Alta’s sister. She called it Aunt Vera’s German Potato Salad, which now makes me wonder where the sisters picked it up in the first place. The Eggenbergers do have Swiss roots – could the tradition actually date back to their original immigrant ancestors from Switzerland? The recipe…
Ingredients:
Potatoes, peeled and boiled
Bacon, diced
Celery and onions, chopped
Vinegar to taste
S and P to taste
Extra oil
Directions:
When potatoes are cool, slice and set aside.
Cook diced bacon in large skillet. Remove bacon, but leave the grease in to saute the celery and onions.
Add the sliced potatoes and bacon to the skillet. Mix.
Add vinegar (generous amount) and lots of salt and pepper.
Heat through and taste to get the right flavors.
If it looks or tastes too dry, add some olive oil.
My aunt mentioned that she knows some recipes call for a roux and some call for sugar, but that neither were a part of Aunt Vera’s recipe. This makes sense to me as a I research southern German and Swiss potato salad recipes. Generally, they seem to just call for bacon grease and vinegar in most cases.
A few years ago I asked my German friend Nadja if she knew an authentic recipe for German potato salad that she could share. Her mother gave her this one, which does call for “sugar to taste”…but overall appears to be quite different from ours. It may be important to note that her family is from a northern part of Germany, and different regions actually sported completely different potato salad recipes! Anyway, for fun, here’s her recipe if you’re interested. Yes, it’s in German. But a simple use of Google Translate will help ya out (although I’m not sure what she meant by Wurdtstüchen….
Rezept:
1,5 kg gekochte kartoffeln
250 g miracle whip
Mayonnaise
Wurdtstüchen
Eier
Gurke
Mais – kleingeschnitten
Salz
Pfeffer
Essig
Zucker nach geschmack evtl.
Senf
Speaking of the Eggenbergers, Vera and Alta’s father, John C. Eggenberger, would also appear to be a whiz in the kitchen. He actually ran a few confectionaries in his lifetime in Kansas and Missouri. In fact, he even apprenticed with the Alisky Candy Manufacturing Company in Portland, Oregon before opening up his own businesses. In the late 1910s he was mentioned in the paper as trading in his farm for an ice cream parlor! It’s a bummer none of the recipes for any of his treats were passed down in the family that I know of! His wife, Ethel, took over as confectioner in Ottawa, Kansas following his passing, until she eventually moved to and retired in California.
“Tomorrow - The Sweetest Day of The Year,” Ottawa Herald, 5 Oct 1917, Ottawa, Kansas.
“J.C. Eggenberger,” Ottawa World, 18 Jul 1918, Ottawa, Kansas.
“Something New,” Ottawa Herald, 26 Nov 1917, Ottawa, Kansas.
A recipe for some sweets that have passed down in my family came from my maternal side. My great aunt Frances (Dean) Wise would produce chocolate-covered coconut bon-bons yearly over the holidays. While I don’t think she ever thought of them as a ‘family recipe,’ my mom and I easily became hooked on them. Every Christmas, we’d expect a tin of them to be mailed to us and when they stopped coming, my mom instantly jumped in and started making them herself. I’m still chomping away at this year’s batch a month later! YUM.
Photo of coconut bon-bons handmade by Beann Foltz by Frances Wise’s recipe, 31 Jan 2021, Thousand Oaks, California, in possession of daughter Kira D. Foltz.
Photo of inside of coconut bon-bon handmade by Beann Foltz by Frances Wise’s recipe, 31 Jan 2021, Thousand Oaks, California, in possession of daughter Kira D. Foltz.
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