COURTESY PHOTO
The recipe for Grandmommy’s Sweet Potato Pie, pictured, can be found below.
By ROSALIE HARRINGTON
There have been wonderful women in my life whose styles have impressed me. Evelyn Bartlett, a good customer at Rosalie’s, comes to mind. She came to the restaurant from Beverly fairly often, even when she was in her 80s.
At one point I hadn’t seen Evelyn for a while and my friend Mary Jo McConnell advised that her absence was the result of hip replacement surgery. Hearing that I missed her, Evelyn invited Mary Jo and I for lunch. We were greeted by the butler into the most beautiful home and experienced some fine French cooking.
I have kept abreast with Evelyn over the years, including her 105th birthday with Evelyn designing the favors and planning the food with her French chef. Todd and I enjoyed her company on a trip to Ft. Lauderdale where we were escorted around her beautiful “Bonnet House” villa which became a museum operated by the state of Florida after her death. The property, which we viewed on a golf cart, had the most beautiful plantings, exotic birds and monkeys.
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Another favorite woman I will always remember is my former mother-in-law, Grace. I met her when I was 15 and we remained close until the end of her life. Everyone who was Catholic in the Beachmont section of Revere knew Grace from Sunday Mass. She wore the most beautiful clothes, especially hats, back in the day when they were required at church.
She was “old world” when it came to food, and always served the same little canapes with Ritz crackers and Kraft American cheese cut into squares and topped with a sliver of stuffed olive. The men read the Sunday paper while Grace and I chatted and drank and laughed and occasionally stopped to listen to Perry Como.
She later became the bookkeeper for Rosalie’s and three times a week made her way to our house in Marblehead. We bought her a white Corvette sports car — a perfect choice because our circular driveway accommodated the fact that she never learned to back up or park.
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I met Barbara Johnson on the beach one summer on Nantucket and she became a role model for how to entertain and decorate. While I didn’t have her budget to play with — few do — I admired her eclectic style. She was married to Seward Johnson, an heir to the Johnson and Johnson fortune.
During a beach outing, Barbara brought a small portable grill which we used for hot dogs and later for s’mores. I met her once for lunch in New York and she had a friend, Mr. Mort, as a guest and he was fun. We went to Serendipity, a fun old-fashioned ice cream parlor restaurant, and at the next table was Gloria Vanderbilt.
Barbara had a tortoise that was over 100 years old that lived mostly in the laundry room. It was so large that my kids would hop on its back for a ride. Her homes on Nantucket and Princeton were my inspiration for decorating. Whenever I visit New York I feel the need to have lunch at Serendipity and reminisce about my good times with Barbara.
There is one more important woman I will always remember — my Mississippi grandmother. She taught me about the animal and food connection. We fed chickens, milked cows and gathered eggs. We made cobblers and jams and pickled everything: peaches, watermelon rind, pickles. We started every day of our summers together going to the well and fetching water. I loved her and the time we spent together was priceless. I am so lucky that I have had such variety of wonderful women in my life.
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Recipe for Grandmommy’s Sweet Potato Pie
For pastry:
In a food processor place a cup and a half of flour, half teaspoon, salt and “pulse” to mix.
Add a quarter pound of cold butter cut up into eight pieces and pulse to mix until incorporated just a little.
Add a tablespoon of cold crisco and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
With the machine running pour in 4 tablespoons ice water and turn the machine on and off a few times to pulse.
As soon as the mixture starts to form a ball shut the machine off.
Gather to form a ball and do not over-handle it. Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes while you gather the rest of the pie filling.
Roll the dough and fit into a pie plate, then prick the dough all over with a fork.
Place a piece of parchment on the dough and pour some dried beans over to prepare dough for a blind run.
Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes until the dough sets, then remove and prepare filling.
For filling:
Separate two eggs.
Boil three medium sweet potatoes until tender then allow to cool and peel.
Mash the potatoes with a half cup of heavy cream and 3 tablespoons dark Marsala wine and a scant cup of light brown sugar and two egg yolks and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Add a half teaspoon nutmeg grated and half tsp. each of salt, ginger and cinnamon.
Beat two egg whites until stiff.
Mix the filling with the beaten egg whites, folding gently.
Cool slightly and pour the filling into the pastry and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes or until the pastry is browned slightly and the filling is set.