I’ve always loved to cook. There’s something about preparing a favorite dish and gathering everyone around the table that feels like home. And the older I get, the more I realize that my love of cooking probably began long before I ever picked up a wooden spoon.

You see, both sets of my grandparents were in the restaurant business.

On my mother’s side, Mom Mom and Pop Pop Carr owned the historic Spray Beach Hotel on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, which had a restaurant of its own. On my father’s side, Mom Mom and Pop Pop Marlin owned Marlin’s Restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Two very different places, but both were built around food, family, and making people feel welcome.

My Mother’s Side of the Family

Mom Mom and Pop Pop Carr

The Spray Beach Hotel has a history dating back to 1890. I love looking at the old color photograph from the years around my grandparents’ time there: the porches, the railings, the ocean beyond the building, and those wonderful old cars. It’s a glimpse into another era of seaside hospitality.

I was too young to remember much about the hotel days so the memories I treasure most aren’t really about that, they’re about my grandparents themselves and the time we spent together.

Mom Mom and Pop Pop Carr, Thanksgiving at the Big House, and the historic Spray Beach Hotel.

The Grandmother I Remember

Mom Mom Carr and Those Pancakes

Mom Mom Carr looked like the very picture of a grandmother. She always seemed ready to go to church, with her hair in a perfect bun, a dress, stockings, low-heeled shoes, and, of course, an apron. I remember her smiling so much that it’s hard to picture her any other way.

And oh, could that woman make pancakes!

I still think they were the best pancakes I’ve ever eaten. Here’s the part that makes me laugh now: sometimes there would be mold on top of the syrup, and we’d scrape it off before pouring the syrup over those pancakes. Of course, today I wouldn’t dream of using syrup with mold on it. But that’s how I remember those mornings, and those pancakes were unforgettable.

It’s funny what stays with you: her neat bun, that ever-present apron, her smile, and a stack of pancakes that no one else has ever quite matched.

Family Gatherings

Thanksgiving at the Big House

Mom Mom and Pop Pop Carr lived in Delanco, New Jersey, in what we always called the Big House. And it really was a big house! I have a photograph of its beautiful old porch, but the picture I return to most often is the one of our family gathered around the long Thanksgiving table.

There we all are, surrounded by dishes, glassware, and familiar faces. I look at that photograph and wonder about all the conversations and laughter that filled that room. If those walls could talk, I imagine they’d have wonderful stories to tell.

Little Things I Remember

Corn, Peas, and Pop Pop’s Squirrels

Some of my favorite memories of Pop Pop Carr are the simplest ones. I remember shucking corn and snapping peas with him, sitting together and working through the vegetables that would eventually find their way to the dinner table.

And then there were the squirrels.

Pop Pop would set up a trap and sit by the kitchen window, watching and waiting for a squirrel to get caught. Once he had one, he’d drive it across the river and release it on the other side.

We’d always laugh and say, “They’ll be back!”

I don’t know whether any of those squirrels ever made the return trip, but I can still picture Pop Pop keeping watch from that kitchen window. Isn’t it funny how the smallest everyday moments become the stories we remember best?

“Sometimes the smallest moments become the memories we treasure most.”

My Father’s Side of the Family

Marlin’s Restaurant — Good Homey Food

On my dad’s side, Mom Mom and Pop Pop Marlin owned Marlin’s Restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania. I’ll never forget the words on the sign outside: “Good Homey Food.” Three little words that seemed to say everything about the place.

Pop Pop also ran his notary business out of the same building. I wish I had a photograph of the restaurant’s interior, because I can still see pieces of it in my mind: the dining room where I helped set the tables, the kitchen, the shelves of beautiful homemade pies, and the ice cream. Oh, the ice cream!

I remember turkey, mashed potatoes, and satisfying meals, and a room that overlooked the creek. Those rooms are gone from my everyday life, but not from my memory.

Mom Mom and Pop Pop Marlin, the restaurant sign, family photographs, and treasured recipes.

A Sound I’ll Never Forget

Pop Pop Marlin’s Laugh

Pop Pop Marlin was a rather grumpy man, as I remember him, and he didn’t have much to say. He certainly wasn’t one to fill every silence with conversation.

But when he laughed, you could feel it in your bones.

It was such a deep, rich laugh, all the more wonderful because you didn’t hear it all the time. I may not remember many of the things Pop Pop said, but I can still remember the sound of that laugh. What a gift it is to carry someone’s laughter with you.

From Mom Mom’s Kitchen

Mom Mom Marlin’s Famous Pies

If there was one thing Mom Mom Marlin was known for, it was her pies. Her Peanut Butter Pie and Coconut Cream Pie were favorites at the restaurant, and I can still picture them lined up on the shelves.

I also remember something else about Mom Mom: she loved iced tea, but I think she loved sugar even more! She’d pour so much sugar into her glass and stir and stir, yet no matter how hard she tried, there would still be a pile of sugar at the bottom. I can see it as clearly as if I were sitting beside her.

And I have something especially precious: a family recipe for those famous pies. It’s an old-fashioned custard filling that could become either Peanut Butter Pie or Coconut Cream Pie. Like so many recipes handed down through generations, the instructions aren’t as precise as you’d find in a modern cookbook. There’s even a question mark after the amount of peanut butter!

I’m preserving the recipe as it was passed along to me, unanswered questions and all. Those handwritten details are part of our family history, and I don’t want them lost.

Summers to Remember

The Creek, the Cement Pool, and the Fish

Our memories of Mom Mom and Pop Pop Marlin went far beyond the restaurant. There was a cement pool with fish in it, and believe it or not, we children would swim right along with the fish!

It sounds unusual now, but to us it was simply part of the adventure. I have photographs of my grandparents beside that pool and of my siblings and me gathered with them. I remember the creek, those summer days, and a dog I believe was named Chippy.

When you’re a child, you don’t realize you’re making memories that will last a lifetime. You’re just having fun.

“I may not have photographs of every room or every moment, but I carry those memories with me.”

Looking Back

Two Families, One Love of Food

When I look at the family photographs side by side, I see more clearly how much both sides of my family had in common. There was the seaside hotel and the Thanksgiving table in Delanco. There was the Altoona restaurant with its home-cooked meals and shelves of pies.

And behind those places were four people I remember in such different ways: Mom Mom Carr in her apron, smiling over a plate of pancakes; Pop Pop Carr watching the squirrel trap from his kitchen window; Mom Mom Marlin stirring that impossibly sweet iced tea; and Pop Pop Marlin with a laugh so deep you could feel it.

If I could go back for one afternoon, I’d visit those kitchens again, sit around that Thanksgiving table, help set the restaurant tables, and listen to the voices I remember so well.

Of course, we can’t go back. But we can remember.

We can look through photographs, tell the stories, and make the recipes that connect us to the people we loved. Maybe that’s what cooking has always meant to me: not just preparing something delicious, but creating memories that last long after the meal is over.

I guess my love of cooking really was in my blood all along.

Come on in,

Roxie

The Story Continues

The Kitchen I Grew Up In

My grandparents planted the seeds of my love for cooking. But the story doesn’t end there. Come along to the kitchen of my childhood, where so many of those family traditions became part of everyday life.

Stay Awhile

There’s always something happening around here.

Wander around the house, see what’s growing in the garden, or find out what project I’ve gotten myself into next.

At Home with Roxie

Good food. A well-loved home. A curious life.