Cook of the Week: Woman's love of cooking is all in the family
Lynne Argentine, of Mount Prospect, is known for her chocolate-covered strawberries; the funny thing is, she doesn't even like strawberries.
“My daughter Kelly loves strawberries. When she was in high school I made them for her and her friends. I couldn't believe how many of them they would each eat! Then my sons and their friends liked them.” The strawberries are an often requested, often expected treat, as are many of Lynne's baked goods.
Lynne's earliest memories of baking are with her mother.
“Mom was Slovak. She was born here, but her parents were from Czechoslovakia and she learned to cook with all the moms and grandmas. She was learning the ‘method' from them, more than recipes. It's knowing the consistency of the dough, what it feels like, knowing not to overbeat it, knowing to chill it before you bake it,” Lynne explains.
“When I first started baking, I used to beat the heck out of the dough,” she laughs. Now Lynne seems to have the same innate ability for baking that her mother did. When she's in the kitchen baking and using her mother's old Mixmaster, she feels close to her mother. Lynne remembers baking 10 different kinds of Christmas cookies with her for family and friends.
“Now I make them just the way she did. I almost feel like she's in the kitchen with me.” Lynne also remembers making apple strudel with her mother. While she is adept at making the cookies, the strudel is something she hasn't tried on her own. Lynne shares a few of her family's favorite cookie recipes with us today.
Still, Lynne isn't just a baker. Ask her three grown children and their spouses. One Christmas, they gave her a cookbook of all her recipes. The forward reads,”This cookbook is dedicated to you Mom. No more loose-leaf pages and walking up and down the stairs to find all your delicious recipes — they're all in this book! We will pass this cookbook on forever and always have your tasty recipes to look forward to ... well; at least we'll attempt to make them as good as you do!”
The book has her old family favorites, but she also likes looking for recipes. Her favorite resource is her friends; she is always quick to ask for the recipe when she tries something she likes. She also likes Cuisine at Home, an advertisement-free magazine.
Frequently requested meals, for birthday celebrations and the like, are her pasta and meatballs, chicken tetrazzini and her eggplant Parmesan. Boursin potatoes, a side dish made with Boursin cheese, whipped cream and thinly sliced potatoes, is a favorite they enjoyed during the recent holiday.
At the urging of her kids, she shares her meatball recipe with us. According to Lynne, her kids would make good cooks of the week as well.
“They are all really good cooks and to tell you the truth they never cooked when they lived at home, not even so much as a boiled egg! Both of my boys are really good eaters though, and once they went off to college and then got married, they started to cook.”
Lynne loves that her kids enjoy cooking as much as she does.
“I think I like cooking because I feel like I'm good at it and it is a big part of our lives. It brings me closer to my family — it's a common thread we share — we are always on the phone talking about recipes. That is what our family likes to do together — we like to eat!” she laughs.
Lynne's kids put the cookbook online so they can all access the recipes when they need them. Perhaps the last line of the forward says it all, “We love you! Let's eat. We're hungry!”
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