How family traditions, food memories, and simple kitchen smarts can help us eat well, waste less, and reconnect around the table.

In this Family Tree Food & Stories episode, Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely celebrate World Food Day by diving into how food traditions, family stories, and old-fashioned kitchen wisdom can help us better manage our family’s budget today.  From McDonald’s Happy Meals and Burger King crowns to World War II ration cookbooks, casseroles, and potluck suppers, they explore how generations before us managed to feed their families with creativity, care, and a sense of community spirit.

This episode digs into stories and tips of stretching meals when prices rise, making do with what’s on hand, and why simple, hearty dishes—like soups, beans, pickled vegetables, and even Hamburger Helper—are finding their way back into modern kitchens. You’ll also hear about how Sylvia’s granddaughter surprised her with a simple yet delicious treat, reminding us that food—no matter how humble—has the power to comfort, heal, and bring us together, regardless of the time of day.

This episode explores how the lessons of our mothers and grandmothers continue to guide us: waste less, cook smart, and share what you have with friends and neighbors.

This episode explores how the lessons of our mothers and grandmothers continue to guide us: waste less, cook smart, and share what you have with friends and neighbors.

🍲 Key Takeaways:

1. Old Tricks Still Work – Learn how classic budget-stretchers like soups, stews, casseroles, and potlucks are making a comeback for today’s families.
2. Ration-Era Wisdom from WWII for Modern Times – Discover how vintage cookbooks and wartime recipes offer practical lessons for eating well on less.
3. Easy Sustainability Tips at Home – From small gardens to creative leftovers, see how past generations practiced “farm-to-table” long before it was trendy, and how you can do this too

🎧 Listen now at Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories.com — and in the kitchen with family and friends again - and, remember that every meal tells a story, and every story is a feast!.

Additional Links ❤️

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• 👇Share Your Story With Nancy & Sylvia!: Leave us a voicemail
• You can send us a DM on Facebook.
• 🎧 Subscribe now and never miss a bite or a good story.

About Your Award-Winning Hosts: Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely are the powerhouse team behind Family Tree, Food & Stories, a member of The Food Stories Media Network, which celebrates the rich traditions and connections everyone has around food, friends, and family meals. Nancy, an award-winning business leader, author, and podcaster, and Sylvia, a visionary author, lawyer, and former CEO, combine their expertise to bring captivating stories rooted in history, heritage, and food. Together, they weave stories that blend history, tradition, and the love of food, where generations connect and share intriguing mealtime stories and kitchen foibles.

"Every Meal Has a Story and Every Story is a Feast." (tm) is a trademark of Family Tree Food & Stories podcast and the hosts.

#familytreefoodstories #familyfoodstories #familytree #familytreefood #worldfoodday #sustainability #kitchenwisdom #familyfoodtraditions #foodtraditions #budgetfriendlyfood #sustainableeating #heritagerecipes #nostalgicfood #homecookingtips #homemademeals #familymeals #potluck #casserold #dinnerparties #eatingwithfriends.

Hello everybody, it's Nancy and we're back for another episode of Family

Tree Food and Stories, and my co-host here is with me as well as always.

Well, almost always we do.

We do take some breaks every now and then Sylvia, and go off

in our different directions and come back, which is part of.

absolutely.

Part of the Love of one.

Yeah, part of love and tradition.

Anyway, this episode is all about, well, we're calling it World Food Day.

However, , the concept of World Food Day really is not so much about the food that

we're saying, but it's about the tradition and the cultures and the love that we have

for one another that really comes together in the kitchen, over a place, over a meal,

or it could be even over a happy meal.

Absolutely.

You know, that's actually a day when we celebrate.

Cuisine from all over, the world , and , we're injecting into this

kind of an angle that we think is important, which is embracing

traditions and kind of reaching back.

, I'm not talking about the good old days.

I'm talking about incorporating some of that really good tradition stuff

because that's what tradition is, right?

We carry those traditions with us, we adapt them.

I would just point out how, , we now make , gluten-free food . 30 years

ago you didn't even think about that.

Now I hear particularly young people adapting recipes going forward,, so

that they fit today, but they capture those traditions that we so cherish.

Well, and a tradition , like you said, doesn't have to go back to grandma

or great grandma or generations.

Back, it could be those more habitual things that you did

as kids with your parents.

was listening to, , the story of a, of a researcher, a professor who

said that their family tradition as kids, as she remembers, was

going to McDonald's on Sunday.

Yeah.

That was part of the family tradition and it's still food related, so I guess

that's why I mentioned the Happy Meal in the beginning, because why not?

, for us as kids, the special food treat was going to Burger King where we got crowns.

Oh yeah.

I've always wanted to be a princess anyway, so.

I love that.

Hey, my childhood memory, and I think I've shared this before, was

going to my grandmother's house.

We lived in Ohio, which he lived in Kentucky on a farm, we would go

through Maysville, Kentucky, which, we've talked about Maysville before.

It's kind of a na neat little river town.

But just before you get to the Kentucky line and cross, the

Ohio River wasn't freshest.

We never ate out, but that Frisch's we would always go to Frisch's,

and I don't know if people are even familiar with Frisch's.

It's sort of those that's waning a little bit.

I've never heard of them.

You haven't heard of the Big Boy?

Oh, the

Big Boy.

No.

I love the Big Boy.

It's a big giant.

In fact, they have them left over from some of the stores that have been

closing all of Lexington's Fish's closed.

But there's hamburgers, buffets, all you can eat kind of thing,

probably technically, , not gourmet, but it's really, really good.

So, , I think what we need to do is talk about this, 'cause we're talking

about a lot of World Food Day is about, , the uncertainty that we're

facing now and how do we feed the.

Kabillion people that live in the world now.

And that's about rising prices.

That's one thing.

making your food stretch and the importance of reaching

back for those traditions.

But, , rising prices and uncertainty.

Now , let's look at that from a long view.

This is not new.

We've had the same thing happened in the seventies.

And , we never learn.

And so we got like, oh my gosh, , what are we facing?

Well, what we're facing is a new kind of thing.

Social media is driving a lot of this, too much information.

And particularly, our young people, are reaching back.

It's like a moment, something that we should try to capture and

so, yes, this is a good movement,

, There's always gonna be these ebbs and flows of rising prices and uncertainty,

Well, and then there's something to be said about that because I think that , in

our society in the past, oh, say 10 or 15 years, we have gotten rather.

I'll say Glu, right?

Bigger is better when in fact maybe just cherishing or savoring a smaller.

Taste of something, whether it's visual or sensual , , I say that sensual in, in the

senses, not necessarily in a sexual way.

Well, maybe, you know, food can be very sexual too.

It can actually.

right.

but having that and appreciating it in a different way.

there's some cookbooks that I had found at a junk shop that I had mentioned

before and it was very interesting and I constantly go back to, look at how

this cookbook from the World War II era had really looked at the concept

of rationing in the cookbook and what that meant to the average family and

how they made their choices and their decisions, and if they couldn't get

something, how to do something else, or the rationing that involved in the recipe.

So we're very fortunate to be able to not have to deal with those kinds of things.

But even still, as you said, the rising prices, I just sort of got

blown away the other day by the,

the price of hamburger.

I mean, goodness gracious hamburger used to be the cheap thing that

you put , on the plate, but not anymore., Even Chuck is really crazy

Yeah, I think average $6 a pound., It's amazing.

, And that brings me to this, , one, making your food stretch because

that's kind of the resurgence of guess what, hamburger Helper.

Oh my God.

Talk about tradition, right?

don't you just love that?

Or memories, I'll call it.

Yeah.

And hamburger helper.

In a, something I was looking at said that they tried it, but it was bland.

Well, they're starting to make it in flavors.

Jalapeno, a hamburger helper, you just buy that pound of hamburger, $6 and . A

cost of an varies, I'm sure, from region to region, but say it's $2 a box.

Well, you've created a whole meal for family of four.

, Pretty

Oh, that's still kind of expensive.

$6 a pound I guess depends about how much hamburger you wanna put in or two.

And a helper either way, but also potlucks or, or just casseroles.

Being able to structure things in different ways that are

very, different and also can be helpful if done the right way.

Yeah.

And there's some controversy about that because we're being

told not to eat processed foods.

. , What is it?

If you see more than three ingredients or something, you're supposed to not get it.

Well the companies are actually responding to this, which I think is

kind of hopeful, people are saying, oh, I don't want eat that 'cause

it has red dye number, whatever.

Um, there goes the m and ms, , man, I did wanna ask you a

question while that's on my head.

I know you do dinner parties now.

I know people love dinner parties.

Bern and I do our dinner parties at Azura Restaurant and Patio.

Okay.

And

I'll come to to Kentucky and you can do a dinner party for me?

But you're, but you're kind of an authority on this.

But they said, you know, here's something you can do.

And this is about community and it's a potluck dinner party,

Oh, well, people used to do that in the days we did that as kids

in college, what would you do?

How would you bring something?

And everybody, I, I would say potluck is,, well, it's taken on a different tone

today where we have a dinner party and people always say, can I bring something?

And if they wanna bring something as, as a hostess, I'll say, I think.

Accepting that offer is fine because it makes somebody feel like they're

part of your home and welcoming them.

And if they wanna bring something special that they like, and the only

way that I'll do that is I'll say, listen, if there's something that you

absolutely love to make, then bring it.

If it's an extra effort for you and you don't want to, and you just saying

that to be nice, don't worry about it.

Come, we're inviting you because we care about you as friends.

Yeah, that's right.

and , it can even evolve and it can be, . Like your neighbors now have

all kinds of backgrounds and stuff.

Bring something, make it a theme.

, Bring something that is a reflection of your background, something

that your grandmother made or something like that, and so , those

are really wonderful times, but.

There is a real problem, and that is that food process are about

21% higher than four years ago.

So , we need to look into this and, , we need to adapt because that's gonna

be a really important thing now.

Well wait.

Wait a second.

Wait a second.

So talk about food prices.

I went on this food foraging.

Adventure this weekend.

wonderful.

Mushrooms, remember we did mushrooms, the mushroom show a couple weeks

back, and it was quite interesting.

One, I learned how not to die by eating a mushroom per certain kind of mushrooms.

I will still be very careful and I'm not just going through the woods picking the

mushrooms and throwing 'em in my mouth.

So, no, not like bugs either.

but I met a couple who had.

Gotten back to healthful issues because of, , concerns They had been

diagnosed with RA and some other things and a mushroom farmer who

joined us, which was quite interesting.

But the couple had actually taken a half an acre of their property

and turned it into an organic farm.

So they're living off the land of half an acre.

They farmed or harvested a hundred pounds of carrots the other day.

Now, to me, a hundred pounds of carrots would probably be the whole backyard.

But they said no.

, It was fascinating.

So talk about, , stretching your food and how to do certain things.

It was really quite fascinating to hear what they were doing , and

a fairly simple platform.

So call them homesteaders, I guess you could do that.

But it was bringing things back to the land in, a different kind of tradition.

Yeah.

And gardening is coming back and we shouldn't make light of

the fact that there are some people who can't grow a garden.

Maybe they live in a very urban environment.

Maybe they don't have enough to eat.

I mean,

Patio tomatoes.

Right.

Well, I know, but I'm talking about people that probably are just trying

to get to work and raise kids , and so there are ways to help with that too.

And there's cooking classes that are springing up and community action

kinds of settings and things like that.

I know.

And my little charity that I have about feeding kids, we

would package, , rice and beans.

, If you think about it, the Native Americans kind of got it.

, They knew that you could put together beans, squash, and.

Uh, I, I'm having a blank, Nancy.

Uh, the three.

, the three sisters.

And it's a perfect protein.

So we need to learn more about our food and, , help people that necessarily can't.

But I wanted to talk about some of the things that are making a comeback.

And I know you've talked about this one.

Campbell Soup is kind of making a

Oh, well, so in Campbell Soup, I used to know the the woman who CEO retired and

her sister, who's CEO of another company.

But the interesting thing is that Campbell soup, a number of years back,

decided to get into healthy types of soups and they took out all the salt.

All right campbell's, , we all grew up, most of us grew up on

Campbell Soup, but that was the most disgusting soup I've ever tasted for

That's true.

A little salt is good.

So,

Oh, I know,

but anyway, so much for Campbell's.

Well, yeah.

, But there was cream of mushroom cream of celery

everything.

Cream of mushroom and cream of celery and cream of onion and cream of

cream.

De la creme.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Creme de la creme.

But that has also caused a surge in spices , because just what you point out, people

want food with a little bit of flavor, but they're trying to watch, their dollars.

They're increasingly, particularly as we age, we're increasingly

turning to what can we eat that's good for us, what's sustainable?

And,, that's being kind of pushed from all kinds of angles.

But, spices like sriracha are very popular.

and then, , cans of tuna, salmon and sardines, beans, boxes of mac and

cheese, all those things are kinda

Oh,

sardines.

It was

you I,

story.

yeah, you do have a sardine

story.

story, so, so Bob loves sardines and yeah,, I can eat them, but I

always know if I've been out and he is opened a can and eaten sardines

for lunch because you just open the garbage can and the dogs have their

nose in there, like within seconds.

It's , oh, you please dump the garbage sardines and okay, next,

Oh,

It doesn't smell

Bob.

Oh, well,, you're making me think.

When I was a little girl, I used to like, daddy, what are you eating?

Oh, it's pickled.

Pig's feet.

Well, in the depression era, you used every bit of that hog you

put up in the smokehouse for the winter and ate all parts of it

well, and now that's gourmet.

All the restaurants are doing the gourmet.

Pig's ears.

I mean, no.

Yeah.

, I've eaten big ears.

I can do without that.

that's dog food.

Here's the one you'll like.

How about cross purposing food?

I think I've heard you talk about some of this, , substituting

stuff and all of that.

Well, how about cornflake casserole?

Oh, that's interesting.

I haven't heard of corn fly casserole.

, Using it as a crunchy thing,

crunchy on top, right?

Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah.

Yeah.

Or oats.

Oats is a filler, oats are really popular , and healthy and, , lots of that.

Crunchy stuff, , is good for you.

. But, you know, , using every bit of the animal is interesting to

me because restaurants are in the business of trying to cut costs,

, And it's so interesting because you'll know that the restaurant is using up stuff

because of the soups that come later.

So it's creating a soup.

or the chili.

You throw it all in Burgoo.

You throw it all in.

I spent one summer in college as a Wendy's chili girl.

Oh yeah.

I love chili

I will never, ever want to work in fast food ever again.

The only thing that I liked doing and was really good at was managing

the , cash register and saying, would you like fries with that?

Ah.

But I did learn that all those burnt hamburgers are the Wendy's chili.

But why wouldn't you work in fast food?

Um, other than the obvious reason, but

Oh.

there like.

. Don't let me pick up somebody's snotty, disgusting, dirty, napkin or leftover

food or just watching how people eat.

I'm sorry, it's not the restaurant.

I know you're a restaurateur, but I could never work in a restaurant

and clean up after people.

We are pigs.

Yeah, we are.

And particularly in a restaurant, you , expect to be, , served.

And so

I'm always respectful, like I, , make sure my napkin is nicely, like

not thrown in a pile, but , where they can quickly just dispose of

it so they don't have to touch it.

That's, I've been there, done that.

Yeah, I

I

agree.

Yeah.

Uh, no, that's good.

I was just wondering 'cause I wouldn't wanna work in fast food either,

but, , who knows what you might end up, , doing, but um, so yeah, make

us more aware in our grocery shopping and private label is trending up.

, You go into these grocery stores now and people are picking the private label and

some of them say that it tastes better

. Like the Trader Joe's or , sprouts or something else like that.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Uhhuh.

Uhhuh,, Aldi is a grocery store that's mentioned.

Do you have an Aldi near you?

We do, we have several of 'em.

We were in one the other day and they're kind of an interesting store.

, I they used to be the store that you would stretch the dollar

in, I don't think so anymore.

, Because it's, well, it's predominantly packaged foods, which I'm not a

fan of, but they do have pretty nice, decent produce down here.

So.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Better than the regular grocery store.

I think the produce at Aldi's here is better than the regular grocery store.

It seems to be fresher.

That's interesting.

Of course the rage here is the new Publix.

Y'all have Publix all

Oh, a Publix headquarters have been past it many

times.

That's where they're

People.

People love that.

I'll stick with Kroger's 'cause I know where everything is, but

people also mentioned Costco.

That's another thing.

Oh, and then the interesting thing is everybody's cutting back on

stuff, but when they do indulge in something, they buy the best.

Like chocolate.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

They'll, they'll tend to do that because it's like a splurge.

So , speaking of splurge, let's take a quick break and we'll come back

because we are kind of high-end gals.

I think talk about the best things in life, actually can taste pretty good.

So we'll be right back.

So we are back.

Splurging.

Splurging.

I love to splurge on a really good piece of

Oh yeah.

on the side.

It's usually.

Like a, a, an interesting kind of side dish or something that I

would add ingredient that might be different that I wanna add to it, , or

better yet, a nice piece of fish.

Or a dessert like cheesecake or something.

That's just really, really good.

Hey, I should mention too, another factor that's coming into all of this

in a way that I don't think it ever did, , when food became industrialized,

probably beginning in about the fifties and moving on and we all ate, , the stuff

from the big companies and all of that,

but there is.

There's a growing distrust of the industry., There's shrink flation, the

stuff's getting smaller, and the prices are getting bigger and price gouging.

so I think that's driving people too, , that you let go ahead and get.

Some of this store brand stuff or generic brand stuff and then doctor it up.

Although I still think that one of the big factors that's going to

be bigger and bigger as we age is people are looking at the labels

Oh,

definitely.

Right?

Mm-hmm.

They're, they're worried about that.

, Although I tell you what, I should probably be permanently preserved

' cause I ate RC Cola, when I was a teenager, I must have drank a

million of R Diet RC Colas, I don't even know if they make RC Cola.

I, I grew up on the pink can of tab, , we went through the cans.

I know.

What do they say?

Gut protein or gut your gut health.

Well, I probably don't have a gut, but still maybe there's hope for us after all.

Yeah.

And you know, it's not just food like,, depression era.

I had a woman in one of my writing classes once that wrote this beautiful essay

about how when a plate would break, they would use the pieces in the depression.

So, you know, they

oh, to to eat on

to, to eat on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, so, breaking plates.

. I believe this is a Greek tradition, if I'm correct.

, And, well, my husband's niece and well nephew was getting married

and the family was all, we were all together at a Greek restaurant and.

One of the traditions to celebrate the new couple was to take a plate and

throw it in the corner and break it.

So that was interesting.

And what do you do with the extra pieces?

Well, in some cases you can pick them up and turn them into a mosaic, which

would be a lovely way to remember the celebration of that as well.

Or just eating off of grandma's dishes that didn't break so.

Yeah.

, Another thing to do, is to keep staples and a lot of people keep

a pot of rice around, or potatoes or pasta to add to dishes too.

That's another

It's stretcher extender.

Yep.

a extender.

That's a better way to say it.

And so that's, another way, or the soup and stew ecosystem in the kitchen.

Keep your scraps as we do in the restaurant and they can go into soups.

and then the meat, of course, making most of everything.

I think pickling is one of the most interesting things.

As I mentioned with the pig's feet pickling is a big deal now.

My chef loves pickling.

In fact, we may do a a class on pickling because it's such a way to preserve and

people, I'm not as big a fan, although I like pickles and I like things like that.

But some of the stuff like he pickles, onions, and I'm like, no,

Oh, I've had pickled onions, pickled onions with , cucumbers.

As a kid.

There was like a, a salad that had that.

It was actually pretty good, but I would never call it a pickle.

One thing that was rather interesting that we had never seen from a.

The north, was pickled eggs.

I had never seen that up north before.

And pickled eggs are pretty big around here, down south.

So one day we were at a farmer's market and I said pickled eggs.

That kind of sounds like weird.

Bought them.

They were actually very good.

They weren't like pickle, , like the regular cucumber pickle

pickles, like a kosher pickle.

It was a softer flavor.

So now I'll buy them, I'll save the pickle juice and I will boil up some eggs and put

my own eggs in there and it doesn't take very long for them to pick up that flavor.

Yeah, very interesting.

It's a nice, little difference in just

Uhhuh.

One other thing that people should look to too, , immigrant.

Families they've had to make do with very little in a lot of eras of our.

And they were amazing at it.

And I read, , this morning that a cookbook is about to come out that

apparently was quite famous in Italy.

It's been translated into English, and , it's about Nona, how Nona cooked.

And if you're familiar with nona, The movie.

Grandma, , that this author of this cookbook, and it's called The Talisman of

Happiness, is That's a cool, is that cool?

So it's about to come out and it's about Italian cooking.

I mean, it reminds me of Jacques Pepin, who he and Julia Child made

French cooking more Americanized

but I have to say, French cooking always seems to sound like it's difficult

Yeah.

And they made it not difficult.

Right.

They made it not difficult, but I love the idea of the Italian, because

there's something about Italian food that makes it's comfort food.

It makes you feel at home.

And I love the idea of this food.

Was it the food that makes you happy?

Is that what the, what was the thing that they said it was

yeah.

The Talisman

Happiness,

So Talisman of Happiness.

I wanna take a little spin on that one.

We have a neighbor, , Kathy, , and her husband, who are just fabulous

people and were very welcoming to us in our new home when we first came

here, as well as some other neighbors.

So we're fortunate, but.

She has been under some stress and taking care of a mom, a dad,

and I said, listen, Kathy, if you need some break, let me know.

, I'll make dinner and I'll bring it over.

And she goes, no, no, no, no, I'm good.

My stress go to place.

The kitchen and she will cook up.

Her native food, Cuban food, so she goes crazy cooking, , Cuban food.

I think I have to call Kathy and say, when you're under a stressful moment,

can I come and learn how to cook Cuban?

But I love the fact, yeah, I love the fact that she said

this was her de-stress moment.

She just cooked up a storm.

And I think there's something about doing that that.

allows your brain to sort of chill out and not think about anything

else than what you're doing, not cutting your finger off or slicing it.

I've done that.

That may be a universal thing.

I think, ,. But here, let me tell you a definition of a Talisman an

object believed to possess magical or divine powers to bring good fortune,

ward off, evil, or cause harm.

Ah.

So there you go.

At the talisman of Happiness.

can't wait.

So talismans of happiness.

, One of our, aids that, that helped my folks, Millie and I love

Millie to, to death to this day.

And she, she would make a particular kind of stew for mom and dad, but

it always had to be in this one pot.

It was a pot that her mother had and.

One day she forgot the pot at the house and went ballistic because

she didn't have her pot at home.

, This pot was served as the particular pot for this meal.

So, it was interesting and I looked at it.

It was just a beat up whole.

Was probably an aluminum pot, which isn't very good for you, but pot

and a particular kind of spoon.

So yeah, those things go a very, very long way.

And I talisman, so I have a, I have a talisman I think too, and I didn't

realize it till a long time ago.

And it's my mom's original Cuisinart blender.

Oh, I

You remember the first wings that come, the cool things that come out?

They were incredibly expensive at the time or we, we thought they were expensive.

And they were expensive and it has a crack in it.

The base is kind of yellow.

It's, I probably couldn't get replacement bowls for it, but that

Cuisinart Chopper blender, you know, they did all the little whizzbang.

It was like the Pocket fishermen of blenders.

Mm-hmm.

But it, it works better today than anything else that I've ever had.

And, so yeah, every time I pull it out, I think of mom and

I, I'll keep it with a crack

well,

even though it's not pretty.

mama may be , looking you over and, and

I think when she gave it to me, it was like an honor.

I was like, I can't.

Yeah, of course.

Oh, that is so sweet.

So yeah, that's, sort of our way of celebrating World Food Day,

taking care of the kitchens and the cooks and the people that can

somehow we need to help find food.

I mean, food is life, right?

Food is a way of celebrating, , love, life, and joy, I would

say , in so many different ways.

And yes, world Food Day.

If there's somebody that you know that just needs a little extra help,

why not Bring a meal over one day and say, Hey, I was thinking about you

and I care, so I made this for you.

It can be cookies, it can be anything.

, Even a new neighbor who's , in the neighborhood, bring over cookies and

say, Hey, welcome to the neighborhood.

It's World Food Day,

Oh, uh, Nancy.

I have to end with a story though.

Okay.

My part of this, the other night I was at my house.

, I've got some issues going.

And so I was a little edgy and the doorbell started ringing at

9:00 PM and I just moved into this neighborhood feel safe, but I'm like,

who would be visiting me at nine

o'clock on a night?

So the doorbell would ring, it would stop.

It would ring again, and it kept ringing.

And it kept ringing.

There would be small intervals, and I'm like, what is going on?

So I called my husband who was at the restaurant as he

usually is late.

Well, no wait till you hear the rest of the story.

It's a food story.

So I called him up, I said, what should I do?

He said, well, I'm on my way home.

Just don't answer it yet.

He called me back five minutes later.

He said, it's your granddaughter, Mary.

She's at the door with her mother, who is, my former daughter-in-law.

So I go and I open the door.

Don't know why she didn't call me.

I think she thought I was in bed or something.

So I opened up the door and she had a cookie.

In a pink box from a company called Crumble that I had

never, there's two or three of

Oh, there's Crumble franchise here.

Yeah, it was the best cookie that I shouldn't have eaten.

it was so good.

It was a giant cookie with cream cheese icing on top,

and I sat there and indulged.

Anyway, I just loved it, you know.

Cookie and a good hot cup of coffee.

A cup of tea.

Yep.

gave me a big hug and she gave me a big hug, and it was

So I guess the moral of that story is Answer the door at nine o'clock a

you might get a, you.

could get a cookie with a sweet message from your granddaughter.

On that note, speaking of sharing delicious treats, share?

And like the show at Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories.com

we're here for you.

We're here about you and the stories that make your life better and everybody

else's . And , Don't forget it's holiday time or almost holiday time and there's

nothing better, well, of course, than a cookie, but a book called My Family Tree.

Food and Stories where you can share your recipes, your stories,

and the love for one another.

And you know what?

A story and a recipe doesn't have to be a real one.

It could be a memory like going to McDonald's on Sunday with mom and dad,

So stay tuned for next week's episode.

We'll be back and we'll see you soon, and we'll hear you soon.

Bon petite, as they say.

Bye-bye.