• 2 pounds summer squash,1 grated carrot, some grated onion, 1 stick margarine, 1 8oz package of herb stuffing, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 cup sour cream

1. Line 9-inch square pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides.
2. Bring sugar, butter and evaporated milk to full rolling boil in 3-qt. saucepan on medium heat, stirring constantly.
3. Cook 4 min. or until candy thermometer reaches 234 degrees F, stirring constantly.
4. Remove from heat.
5. Add chocolate and marshmallow creme; stir until melted.
6. Add vanilla
7. mix well.
8. Pour into prepared pan; spread to cover bottom of pan.
9. Cool completely.
10. Use foil handles to lift fudge from pan before cutting into squares.

I asked Brenda Waye Norris for a recipe that represented her mother's cooking. Brenda was born in 1953 and spent the first part of her childhood in suburban Massachusetts in a neighborhood erected in the flourish of post WWII building. Her mother, Mary Marston Waye, was born Mary Emily Marston to a rural traveling doctor in Maine in 1928. The recipe that to Brenda represents her mother's cooking was Smashing Squash, a simple dish that her mother picked up in Massachusetts. Mary was surprised, when the family moved to Maine, that the dish was known and not regionally exclusive to Massachusetts.

Brenda reflected that her "mother loved to collect recipes from soup cans and boxes of food, often cutting them out to store in her cupboard." Her mother would never make a recipe for which she didn't have the exact ingredients. Her suburban pantry was full of "instant" food and cans of soup, and she cooked the recipes that often came on their labels. Mary grew up in a very rural setting, often traveling with her father as he made house calls in which he did everything from pulling teeth to delivering babies. Mary did cook meals for her family from scratch, yet Brenda recalls that, "she never improvised very much and probably wouldn't know how to make a simple roux off the top of her head, even though she would make one often as part of a recipe." Brenda represents a departure from this, "we make the same type of meals yet our approach is very different." Brenda will look to see what she has on hand in the kitchen and "piece a meal together referring to the Joy of Cooking for some guidance. My mother never strays from the recipe."

Smashing Squash would become a staple at family dinners but Brenda was perplexed that, "It has been forgotten, but I don't know why." Brenda volunteers at a soup kitchen for hungry teens in Portland, Maine and has cooked a dish inspired by this recipe for the kids. Brenda explains her cooking style, "I do not tend to use recipes but mimic them piecemeal, using substitutions, like making a white sauce to replace the creamed soup."

I asked Brenda what she found most interesting about her mother and food. She said it was Mary's comment, "We didn't get raised on organic food and we turned out just fine." This was perplexing to Brenda, who "wanted to tell her that she did get raised on mostly fresh if not organic food in rural Maine." Brenda recognizes that it was her generation that was one of the first to really not have "organic" or natural foods as a staple. Smashing Squash for Brenda was, "typical of her mother's cooking because it has pre-made things you mixed together." Brenda does not discount her mother's effort to provide a healthy meal for her family, merely notes how quickly ideas about food can change from generation to generation.