After taking two weeks off and surviving last weekend’s rain, I am sitting here writing, trying to get back into the groove of this column. For the first time since I started this column, I took time off. It was not for a vacation though — my mother, Dorothy McBride, passed away Aug. 25 at the ripe young age of 90.

Being that she was my biggest fan and the Lombard Spectator’s happiest customer, I will share some thoughts about her. Even though she lived out in Woodstock, she received the paper every week and read it from beginning to end. She called me each week to talk about what is going on in Lombard and telling me how much she loved my column.

She lived on her own until her 90th birthday in June, even renewing her driver’s license. She loved to dance at the Harvard Moose every Friday, she socialized, and she wrote letters to everyone she knew to keep in touch. I am sure the post office will really miss her. Shortly after her birthday she was diagnosed with a brain disease and was in hospice by the beginning of July. Everything went so fast it was hard to keep up with it. I will be writing a column in the future about hospice. Because of their program, and the support given to us, my mom was surrounded by her family in her home when she passed away. This is how she wanted it.

So in keeping with her positive attitude and the desire to feel her around me, I searched my kitchen drawers for one of my favorite recipes handed down to me from her in her handwriting. From my Aunt Margaret’s kitchen more than 100 years ago, this chili sauce recipe is great for just around this time when you have a lot of tomatoes and you are trying to figure out how to use them up. If you don’t have tomatoes, go buy them. This is a great recipe. The smell is just incredible and really makes your house smell like home. It is a sweet and sour sauce that is good to use with a meat or as a condiment with a meal.
   
Chili Sauce   
4 quarts tomatoes — 24 to 28 medium tomatoes
2 cups chopped sweet red peppers
2 cups chopped onion
1 chili pepper chopped and seeded
2 tablespoons celery seed
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2- to 3-inch piece of cinnamon
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups of vinegar
2 tablespoon salt

Chop tomatoes and combine with the sweet pepper, onion, and chili pepper and put in large Dutch oven. Put the celery seed, mustard seed, bay leaf, cloves, ginger and cinnamon in cheese cloth and tie securely, then add to the tomatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer stirring frequently until mixture is reduced by half. This takes at least an hour. Add the sugar, vinegar and salt and boil rapidly, stirring constantly for about five minutes. Remove the spice bag. Pour the chili sauce in hot sterile jars to the top, or store in refrigerator. Makes 5 pints.

Aunt Margaret would let us all taste it and judge how sweet it was. Then she would adjust and add a little bit more brown sugar. You decide. It is delicious. If you have any questions, e-mail me at lucky-lana@comcast.net.

As for me, I will be cooking up a storm and then hitting the streets to bring you up to date on Life in Lombard.