Aunt Gladys' Disappearing Chili Sauce

This chili sauce has a unique history. It came from my great aunt Gladys on my father's side (where she got it I do not know). Aunt Gladys passed it to my mother after she had tasted it during a visit to their Oklahoma home. I remember I was about four at the time, and was quite taken with their lovely home that included a vast rose garden and walk-in freezer. You might want to read those last couple of words again. My mother was in absolute heaven at the thought of a walk-in freezer. She was an avid maker of pies, and could envision them all stacked up waiting to be baked at some future point.

After we concluded our visit and returned home, my mother made the chili sauce. She loved it, I loved it, everybody loved it. Next year, following a bumper crop of tomatoes, she decided to make it again, but couldn’t find the recipe. That recipe stayed hidden for the next decade or so. Aunt Gladys had passed away at that point, and no one knew what had become of it.

Fast forward five more years when my mother pulled out an old cookbook to use, and found the chili sauce recipe that she'd apparently used as a bookmark. Immediately, she sat down, wrote out a copy, and gave it to me for safekeeping, just in case she lost it again. After my mother passed away, I had such a taste for that chili sauce that I went in search of my copy, but, alas, couldn’t find it. About a year ago, I did. It was during the winter, so I decided I was going to put it somewhere for safekeeping so as not to have it escape me during the summer. You know what I’m going to say here, right? I did lose it. Then I found it, and then I lost it again.

When I finally found it for the last time I decided that I was going to do something so as to prevent this from ever happening again -- I framed it. It is now hanging on the wall in my kitchen where I see it every day, and am thankful for my mother, my aunt, and a family history that caused such a stir. Because it gives me such a warm feeling every time I see it, I encourage you to consider giving one of your old family recipes this same treatment, and if you do, I would like to hear about it.

Come back tomorrow for the chili sauce recipe in readable form with my delicious adjustments.

 
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