The adorable woman in the middle of the picture above was my Aunt Ella Lea Landreth. She was my great aunt and she was a great aunt. Her sister and best friend, Oma Wonderly is standing to her left, another outstanding woman. Ella Lea was born on February 16th, 1915 and died on February 17th, 2011. She was a wonderful woman, with a sharp wit and a contagious laugh. Her mom died when she was younger and she and her sister had to teach themselves how to cook. She learned to make a cake on a wood burning stove, without the advantage of a mix, mixer, even heated oven or the advice of her mother. And yet, she was one of the greatest home cooks I've ever known and someone who took great joy in cooking and baking. When we were packing up her house, where she had lived since 1945 we discovered hundreds of thousands of recipes. Every slip of paper had a recipe on it. Ever recipe had a recipe on the back and almost every recipe had a note about how to make it even better. She knew how to stretch a dollar, make a delicious meal for no money at all and make ever meal an event. In her honor, I wanted to share some of the recipes with family, friends and you. If you try a recipe. Send me a note and let me know how it went. I'm sure Ella Lea would love to know what you had for dinner.
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