ST. PAUL - While a traditional memorial event couldn't be held when Ella Drobot pass away in March, her family has been working hard to create a unique keepsake in place. A cookbook filled with hundreds of Drobot's recipes will soon be available to family members, and anyone who is interested in remembering the local author.
As a senior, Drobot wrote two books - 'Behind the Kitchen Stove' and 'Even Cows Cry.' The books spoke about her time growing up in a large family, and also her time on the farm raising her own family.
Drobot had most recently been living a Sunnyside Manor in St. Paul, and was working on a couple more books when she passed away at the age 87 years old.
Her daughter, Karen Hovelkamp, says she and her immediate family members spoke over the phone a lot after Drobot's passing. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the family couldn't gather, with many family members now living in B.C. So, they thought about what their mom would have liked instead.
One day, Hovelkamp says she was going through her mom's cookbooks, and decided it would be nice to share some of the recipes with Drobot's grandchildren, nieces and nephews. The youngest of 20 siblings, Drobot had a large extended family.
When Drobot had moved from her home in the Stoney Lake area into St. Paul, she had a lot of cookbooks, says Hovelkamp. The cookbooks and recipes been culled once already, leaving only the tried and true recipes in the collection.
“My mother was a strong believer in you eat what you grow," says Hovelkamp. Recipes ranged from casseroles, to desserts, meat dishes, and more. "She grew what we ate, and we ate what she grew, so we grew up appreciating healthy foods."
Hovelkamp recalls how no one ever left her mom's home without a full meal, "it didn't matter who you were."
"She shared her garden bounties with whoever came to visit. They not only went home with bags and armfuls of fresh veggies and recently picked fruit, but also stayed for many generous . . . meals," says Hovelkamp.
As Hovelkamp sifted through the recipes, she was flooded with memories of her mother's cooking, and realized "this is her celebration of life.”
So, after showing her own daughter a collection of "copy and pasted" recipes that she had placed into a simple Word document, the project began to take on a life of its own. Hovelkamp's daughter, Nicole Sorochan, helped her grandmother with her first two books, and didn't hesitate to jump into the third. A few months later, the digital recipe book is nearly ready to be distributed.
“My mom never wanted people to fuss over her . . . and I thought, boy, I’m going to fuss over her a lot," says Hovelkamp, with a laugh, as she speaks about the project.
Just as many of the recipes has stories connected to them, the title of the cookbook "No Pie; Goodbye!" also has a story attached to it. The saying was something Hovelkamp's dad would jokingly say as he left the house to head back outside to work on the farm.
When asked if she had a favourite recipe, Hovelkamp says, "so many." And laughs as she recalls how her mom must have really liked clam chowder because she found six different recipes in the collection.
Seeing a third book complete, written in her mother's own writing, is something Hovelkamp is clearly proud of. With enough samples of Drobot's writing on hand, a special font was created for the cookbook, and each of the recipes now appears as if it was written by Drobot.
And while the cookbook is a memorial of Drobot's love of cooking, Hovelkamp hopes it also encourages the younger generation to cook from scratch, just as her mother did.
“We’re going to give everybody a piece of her.”
To get a copy of the digital book, email: karenhovelkamp@gmail.com
