(Christmas Eve, Los Angeles, Ca, 1990. Strange new faces and not a pinched one in the bunch. Mona, Alan and Darin put a feed bag on the Okowita's and offered up their favorite comfort food. We're far away from familiar tables.) Years ago Mom compiled a family cook book for my eldest sister when she went off to college. What has become of the final version I don't know, needless to say its gone. However I've got Mom's notes. I'm attempting to save these recipes by posting them here. Any of Mom's special notes I'll include in parenthesis. But needless to say some of these are not complete recipes. Enjoy! *1990 was the year my family moved from Texas to California. Our new neighbors welcomed the 7 of us with open arms. Especially after they discovered Mom can COOK and is used to feeding an army. This was one of our new neighbor recipes, which we fell in love with.