I enjoyed reading Rod's account of his dad's sticky buns that he wrote about on their
food blog, Smithbites. I do recall Don making these treats for the kids sometimes on weekend mornings. I made them, too. But I never got up in time to make them for breakfast treats. I usually only included them in company or party meals.
But Rod doesn't know the whole story about the sticky buns. These were the favorite bread served at my mother's party room. They were so popular that people would call and special order a whole pan of them to take home. This was really pretty funny because they are so EASY to make, and my mother made them in a few minutes using the
canned biscuits that you buy at the grocery. She never revealed the secret!
But since my mother is no longer with us, and I think the whole world knows by now, I can tell you the story of Mother's party business and the sticky buns. Plus I may tell some other secrets, too.
About the time I was a senior in high school, or had just started college, we lived in a rented house near downtown. Behind the house was a quaint, ivy covered carriage house with a three room apartment above. It was rented off and on while we lived in the house, but had remained empty for quite some time during the year I mentioned. For some reason my dad had always wanted a restaurant, but never had the skills or money to invest in such a business. My mother and dad decided that they would also lease the carriage house apartment and Mother could start a small party business where ladies clubs and groups could make reservations for meetings and refreshments.
They painted the apartment, made pretty curtains, and spruced up the kitchen. Three of Mother's club lady friends offered to help by being her servers. It was a really cute little party place, and Mother became fairly busy with her little business, but the space would only seat a maximum of about twenty people. Mother had many calls asking about larger parties.
After a year or two, my folks found a perfect house and were able to swing the deal to purchase the very first house, and the only house they were to ever own. On the back of this house was a large addition that had been used as a family room. It had windows all along two sides, and was an attractive, light-filled room. And it would hold a much larger group for her party business.
Mother was very busy with her business at this location. During the holidays, in November and December, I think she must have roasted at least one turkey every day.
The other menu items that I recall most clearly were individual ham loaves, chicken cassaroles, lots of green beans, and I think she made mock baked potatoes. These were mashed potates put into foil boats with cheese on top. But, she was most famous for her desserts. Mother made hundreds of her ice cream cakes. These were made by cutting an angel food cake into three layers horizontally, putting two kinds of sherbet as the filling, and icing it all over with softened vanilla ice cream.
Hostesses loved this dessert because you could change the colors of sherbet to match a color scheme, and it was a wonderfully light dessert.
Another dessert that I recall from the holiday season was a cake-type pudding dessert that my mother called "Holiday Pudding." However, the recipe was called fruit cocktail pudding, and I guess it was similar to fig pudding. It was good, crunchy, brown-sugary, and delicious warm with whipped cream on top. I remember times seeing six or eight ice cream cakes lined up in our freezer.
Of course, like with all good ideas that succeed, we dreamed of an even bigger success. When my dad retired from his General Motors job, he studied and became licensed as a real estate salesman. While working in real estate, he learned of a
very large old colonial home that was up for lease in a neighboring small town. We all got swept up in the dream, and soon my folks put their own home for lease, and we all moved to the large "Mansion."
This house had five bedrooms and three baths upstairs, along with a huge room
that had been at one time a sleeping porch. The sleeping porch had been finished and heated at some point, so it resembled a large party room upstairs. Downstairs there was a
huge glass enclosed sunroom, a formal living and dining room, two kitchens, and a three room maids apartment. Well, it was an adventure! It was not entirely unsuccessful, but during our time there, Mother nearly died from a ruptured gall bladder, and had a long recovery. Then, during our last summer there, Dad learned that he had leukemia. He died in July of that year. And that was the end of the
party business adventure.
Don and I were married at the time of this last adventure. We also leased our house and moved with them to help with the business. And we had Randy, who loved every minute of time he spent there. He truly thought he was the manager, even though he was only three years old. Don kept the furnace going, and the huge lawn manicured, while teaching full time. I cared for Randy, took classes at Ball State, and helped with any part of the business that I could. There are many stories, some funny, some
sad, and some disastrous from that era. But I will save those for a later time.
Anyway, there were hundreds of pans of sticky buns baked at all three locations!
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