By Jessica Mayfield
At 78 years old my grandmother Betty Byers is still cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Grandma learned most of what she knows from her Aunt Iva. “She was the best cook in the world, and I wanted to be exactly like her,” Grandma says. This is what first sparked her culinary interest.
Her passion for cooking emerged from what first was just a way of survival on a small Sayre, Oklahoma homestead in the 1930s. This culinary passion has spiraled down through multiple generations in the Byers’ family. Lots of time in the kitchen as small girls propped up on stools, imitating their mothers, is where it all began for each of us.
Grandma had mostly a rural food influence growing up as she was raised on beans and potatoes. There was no extra money to go around for extravagant dishes. They had to use what was locally available and affordable. “Daddy was a cowboy and momma was very young and inexperienced in the kitchen,” she says. Grandma ended up leaving home at thirteen and landed a waitress position in Brownsville, Texas. A couple years later she had worked her way up to being a cook and the profession has stuck ever since. She still holds down two cooking positions at the local VFW and hospice care center in Great Bend.
Grandparents owned restaurant
My mother also spent a lot of time in kitchen herself. When she was little Grandma and Grandpa owned a little restaurant outside of Great Bend called The Country Kitchen. The restaurant was literally out in the middle of the country in between Great Bend and Hoisington off a small highway. They served a variety of bar and grill type foods there with various home-style dishes too. The Country Kitchen was where my mother, aunt, and uncle lived. They all grew up there and it became their private stomping grounds for over ten years.
My mom says the very first cooking experience she can remember is making Jello at about four years old there. She also remembers having to be on call for dish duty too when needed and helping here and there with food prep for the restaurant.
My mom’s all time favorite recipe growing up was Grandma’s eggplant casserole that was only served on special occasions and to this day remains a family classic dish.
As Grandma was reminiscing about her nostalgic memories I was beginning to understand more about my own food habits and how her influences were passed down to my mother and then to me. We all share the same value of being able to be creative in the kitchen and as grandma says we love to cook, “just because.”
The family cookbook was Kansas Country Flavors
There is one cookbook though that my Grandma gave my mother when she got married and even I was cooking out of at a very young age called Kansas Country Flavors. This cookbook was published by Cookbook Publishers, Inc. in 1987. The pages are yellowed and torn, the binding is falling apart, there is handwritten substitutions and recipes to what was once the back blank pages, and there is caked, crusted and gooped bits of food that have found their way to the pages throughout the years. This single cookbook encompasses our family’s cultural cuisine as just plain ol’ Kansan comfort food.
The same cookbook is pulled out during special occasions too. At holidays our meals consist of a fusion between both my parents sides of passed down recipes. When all the dishes are gathered on the table an instantaneous sense of nostalgia takes over. The memories of past occasions bring an even stronger sense of togetherness to the table. There truly is no place like home.
Grandma’s Eggplant Casserole
From Betty Byers
1 large eggplant, peeled and cubed
1 ½ cup grated Colby cheese
2 large eggs
2 cups saltine crackers, crushed
4 ounces evaporated milk
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 9×13 inch pan. Peeling and cubing the eggplant. Parboil just until tender for approximately 5 minutes.
After the eggplant has been parboiled place the eggplant in the bottom of the buttered pan. Add the cheese, whisked eggs, crackers, and milk to the pan. Mix together and bake for 25 minutes.