My City May 2023

MYSTORY

MOMS MAKE IT BEST

BY CHERYL DENNISON

I don’t know what it is about food your mother makes for you, especially when it’s something anyone can make – pancakes, meat loaf, tuna salad – but it carries a certain taste of memory.” – Mitch Albom

W e all know it's true ... Moms are the best cooks! Just ask multi award-winning local news anchor and journalist, David Custer. He recently self-published a cookbook entitled Moms Make It Best. And in his eyes, his own mom, Judy Custer, makes the best food. How did he come up with the idea for a cookbook when he is not a chef or even a good cook? He would often tell others that his mom made the best food. "Friends would share with me how their

mom had the best recipes – it was a recurring theme," Custer says. "My favorite experiences involve gathering in the kitchen with loved ones. Great-tasting food brings people together." Last summer, Custer started the process of collecting recipes from his own family and other moms. He thought about all of the moms he knew who had recipes that have often been handed down gener ation to generation. "There are a lot of moms in my life who I have met along the way,” he remembers,

“and I just started reaching out to them." Each recipe includes the name of the person who contribut ed it to the book and a little about its history. Custer finished compiling the cookbook in November 2022. He designed the cover art and did some of the food photography himself. Some of the moms who submitted recipes also provided photos of their featured dish. "My favorite part of this book is the stories behind their recipes," says Custer, "and why it is so important to them.”

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