Welcome to Mom's Home Cooking

Mom, Barbara Ilene Reid Nielson, grew up in Southern Utah and Nevada, born of English, Scottish, Welsh and Prussian Mormon pioneer stock. Some of her ancestors even crossed the plains on foot with handcarts. They were strong people -- and great cooks!


Family Recipes

Some of my favorite recipes came from pioneer life on the western frontier: dried corn reconstituted with added cream has a very nutty and wonderful flavor; pickles called Chow Chow with a sweet & spicy mustard pickling sauce over a mixture of small diced cucumbers, pearl onions and cauliflower; pomegranate and chokecherry jelly with unforgettable tangy flavors similar to currant jelly. Roasted pinenuts are the best treat ever and I have fond memories of harvesting pinenuts out in the pine tree desert forests--a sticky but rewarding endeavor. Later I learned that pinenuts are also great in rice and pasta dishes.

Other of Mom's recipes came from locales in California, Oregon and Washington, where different foods were available, and foreign dishes were popular. I especially loved Mom's Mexican and Chinese meals.

Pies

My mother, like her grandmother, was famous for her pies-- the best flakey crust and homemade fillings to be found. We would gather red rhubarb, wild huckleberries, ripe strawberries, juicy blackberries, even green gooseberries for Mom's pies. All of Mom's desserts were absolutely scrumptious. Sample some of her recipes listed in the left column.