Disaster: Lost Recipes!
Disaster hit in August of 1985–
when my husband Gary and I moved to Aberdeen, Scotland.
We were more than excited for a new beginning as he enrolled in his doctoral program at the University of Aberdeen-King’s College. We were going to spend three years living in a new place, with a culture and surroundings to explore and learn.
We moved into our one-bedroom flat (apartment) on the third floor in a granite-construction row of flats. Our door was only blocks from the main street of this beautiful, yet starkly grey city of 200,000 people, and we were beginning a new adventure!
Before flying to the U.K., we packed four suitcases and four large boxes to mail. Our family and friends stored the rest of our possessions, and we were going to “rough” it. Within a month or so, three of the four boxes arrived, as well as the top of the fourth box. Somehow after customs searched the contents, the box wasn’t properly re-sealed and everything dumped out…somewhere. (I wish now I had kept that box-top as a memory item!)
I can’t remember if I cried, but I should have.
Besides winter clothing, the box contained our wedding photo album and my recipe box. As advised, I filled in the necessary paperwork to the Lost & Found Department with the Royal Mail. Some time later we received every item I had listed on the form. We could have easily replaced the socks and “long-johns,” but were more than grateful to get back our wedding photos and the wooden recipe box given to me at my bridal shower. It was full of favorites that had been hand-written by important women in my life.
To our dismay, the little box was empty. All the cards were lost to the wind… Of course, I began deciding how I could replace them, and at the same time Gary whined that he would “never eat some of those things again!”
All these years later, I have been able to find most of the lost treasures by asking Momma to rewrite them or by searching through old cookbooks from my childhood church. It was only this last year that I found one recipe I thought could never be replaced, “Mom Gunderson’s Cinnamon Rolls.”
“Mom” Gunderson
Mrs. Gladys Gunderson was the Dean of Women at Bethany Bible College when I entered as a freshman in 1976. She not only was a “second mom” to us girls on campus, but an amazing cook and baker. She will always be famous for this, her signature dish, and freely gave the not-so-secret, “secret” recipe to all of us who asked.
Professor Colombo, whose office was only a few doors from her apartment, could smell their delightful aroma wafting down the hallway. He often declared that her cinnamon rolls would be “served at the Marriage Supper of The Lamb” in Heaven one day.
Today I am happy to say that I have the original recipe, as a relative of hers recently posted it on Facebook. “Mom” Gunderson went on to be with the Lord many years ago, but her “second daughters” can now remember her as our homes can smell like hers did on those chilly winter mornings.
Have I tempted you enough to give them a try? Go on…make a batch, and an extra to share!
GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!