Nilda Rego: Holm Family Cookbook
Nilda Rego
Contra Costa Times Correspondent
Posted: 02/01/2009 12:00:00 AM PST
Nancy Calhoun Mueller wanted to save her grandmother's recipes. Nancy's mother, Tilli Holm Calhoun, wanted to preserve the family's history.
The result was the "Holm Family Cookbook," which tells the story of five generations including what they ate.
It all started in 1997 when Mueller read a magazine article about preserving family recipes. Her grandmother, Ione Teeter Holm, was 91.
"I realized we were going to lose all her recipes."
And it was not only Ione's recipes that were in danger, but those of Ida Jessen Holm, Ione's mother-in-law and Mueller's great-grandmother. Besides the recipes, there was the danger of losing the traditions of the family's Danish roots.
It wasn't as if Mueller and Calhoun didn't have experience. Mueller had put together a cookbook while working for Concannon Vineyard in Livermore. Tilli Calhoun had published and illustrated a history book, "Early Days in the Livermore-Amador Valley." Some of those drawings in that book are included in the new cookbook.
Nancy and her mother recruited her two sisters, Merry Ann Carter and Susie Calhoun; a cousin, Wendy Neely Howe; and an aunt, Patsy Holm Neely, to work on the project.
Ione had cookbooks and a recipe box. She had recipes that her mother-in-law had given her. But as many do with family recipes, the cooks didn't always measure what they put in their food.
The Holm family women took turns sitting down with Ione Holm to figure out just how much stuff went into each recipe.
"We got together and measured things," said Mueller.
It was a family tradition to go to Ione and Dick Holm's house for Sunday dinner.
"There would be from 20 to 25 people. Anybody, everybody would drop by. She never knew how many would come, but she never ran out of food."
Plenty of recipes
There are a lot of recipes in the book — 245 of them. All were tested by a group of 70 testers and tasters. Mueller says the testers were not professional, but friends from all walks of life willing to help in the project.
Not all the recipes in the book originated with Ida and Ione Holm. After Ione died in 1998, Mueller reached out to family members and neighbors letting them know she wanted to coordinate a family cookbook and asked them to send photos, stories and recipes.
The history part of the cookbook is mixed in with the recipes. The reader not only learns about the Holm family, but also about the Danes who settled in the Bay Area.
"The Danes would gather for dances, card parties, picnics and weddings. They encouraged friends from Denmark to immigrate to this land of opportunity. Carl Holm came to the United States in 1873 to visit a friend. Traveling by train through the Livermore-Amador Valley, he thought it would be a wonderful place to live and farm and decided to settle there. He met Ida Jessen, who recalled, 'He was a daring young man. He pulled me behind the kitchen door and kissed me.'"
Ida and Carl were married at the Jessen home July 11, 1880. The day after their wedding, Ida began cooking for boarders.
Holm meets Teeter
The couple had nine children. Their youngest, Warner Wilber (called Dick because he didn't like his name), married Livermore neighbor Ione Teeter. Dick and Ione would host the hundreds of Sunday dinners for their families and friends.
The book includes wonderful vignettes such as the one about the 1906 earthquake when Carl and Ida went to San Francisco to attend a Danish convention. The story includes the horrors they saw while they struggled for three days to get back to Livermore.
Then there is Muellers's story of an adventure with her grandfather, Dick Holm.
"If our mothers only knew where he drove us in that green truck of his, up and down insanely steep hills, with us screaming and yelling, hanging out the back."
After working on the cookbook for a few years, the women realized they needed help. They hired a designer and an editor and then formed the Circle H Cowgirl Press, which published the book. Circle H is the name of the Holm family farm.
The book is available online for $29.95 at www.holmfamilycookbook.com.
The Independent
Holm Family Cookbook Not Your Normal Cookbook
by Susan Mayall
susan@mayall.com
A recipe for Rattlesnake Appetizers is not something normally found in a cookbook. But as soon as I opened “The Holm Family Cookbook” I realized that this attractive volume was much more than its title. It’s the distillation of a family and an era, a compendium of anecdotes, photographs, newspaper cuttings, drawings and paintings.
I started dipping into it while I was watching TV, and became so absorbed I completely forgot about the program! I loved the book – it made me feel envious of all these brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles and friends, so rooted in a particular place and so conscious of their heritage.
When “Tilli” Holm Calhoun was a little girl the Livermore Valley looked very different from the way it does now. “Golden fields of grain grew from one end of the valley to the other and were patchworked with farmhouses and barns, vineyards, and small orchards of walnuts and almonds.” Tilli’s grandparents, Carl and Ida Holm, had settled and farmed in the Valley and built a large farmhouse, Fairview, in the area between Stanley Boulevard and Alden Lane. Tilli’s illustrations convey a feel for the landscape in those times.
Both sides of the family were of Danish stock, and they formed part of the large and gregarious Danish community in the valley. Fairview was home to three generations, and the scene of great gatherings of family and friends, when quantities of food were cooked and consumed.
After Dick and Ione Holm, Tilli’s parents, moved to Mines Road and built a house on the Circle H Ranch in the sixties the traditions continued. There were deer barbecues and Christmas feasts, parties for all occasions, hunting and berry picking. Dick Holm kept a huge vegetable garden, and Ione fed anyone who turned up on her doorstep. Links with the Danish community and with new friends and family members continued. The gatherings expanded. And there were always grandchildren at the ranch, watching Ione cook, weeding the garden, riding the horses, setting out with their grandpa ‘Papa’ to round up the cattle. The kitchen smelt of strong coffee and baking, and ‘Granny’ Ione was always there, in her apron, presiding over her empire.
With a background like this, it’s not surprising that Tilli and her daughters wanted to preserve some memories of this family in print. And what better way to do it than to produce a cookbook full of familiar recipes, dishes made by Ione or introduced by friends and descendants.
Now for the recipes – the rationale for the book. They in themselves reflect the area and the changing tastes of each era. Some of them resemble those in my 1950s Fannie Farmer Cookbook, being heavily dependent on packaged mixes or canned goods. Doesn’t mean they won’t taste good, though! Gradually we see the change to an emphasis on all fresh ingredients, though it’s always obvious that the produce of ranch and garden were available to Ione and the other cooks. Some are more unusual than others – ‘Rattlesnake a la Mines Road (Number of servings depends on the size of the snake)’ for instance. And we’re cautioned that it’s only available in summer!
Another obvious example is ’Mountain Oysters’. Here the advice is “First you need a rancher to provide the required ingredients (Calf testicles). After any roundup you find yourself with a bucketful, and they are too good to waste’. That makes one realize how unadventurous our eating has become, despite all the ‘nouvelle’ ideas!
Don’t get me wrong – there are some terrific recipes here with more general appeal, particularly if you have a large gang to feed. Like ‘Granny’s Cowboy Beans’ from Ione. And I’m intrigued by ‘Vivian’s Meringue Shell’ contributed by Becky Calhoun Foster, which contains vinegar and crushed saltine crackers as well as the usual ingredients. Susie’s ‘Poached salmon with Sour Cream Dill Sauce’ is one that I’ve tried, and it’s delicious.
The book is beautifully produced on heavy stock paper, pleasing to the eye as well as the spirit and intellect. It’s good to know that the family links and traditions fostered by the hospitality at Fairview and the Circle H Ranch continue on. Sometimes one feels that strong extended families are disappearing. The Holm Family Cookbook gives evidence that this isn’t so.
It also shows what an important part food and hard work have to play in maintaining the necessary links. This would make an excellent gift for anybody who loves food, history, and nostalgia. It should have a place on any Valley bookshelf.
‘The Holm Family Cookbook. A Culinary Tale of Danish Tradition and Western Lore in the Golden State of California’
Authors:Tilli Calhoun, Nancy Mueller, Susie Calhoun, Wendy Howe, Patsy Neely, Merry Calhoun
Published by the Circle H Cowgirl Press, $29.95
Available at Alden Lane Nursery, Baughman’s, Christensen’s, Firehouse Bistro & Books, Livermore Heritage Guild Gift Shop, Livermore Downtown Inc., Piazza for Hair, Retzlaff Winery, Towne Center Books, Wente Vineyards, or online at www. Wentevineyards.com
1/23/09
The Independent
Holm Family Cookbook Brings Together Fond
Memories of Food and More
By Patricia Koning
When Nancy Calhoun Mueller set out to collect her family’s recipes about ten years ago, she planned on making a small booklet that she might have copied at Kinko’s. That modest project evolved into The Holm Family Cookbook, a 240-page book that is a collection of local history, memories, photographs dating back to the early 20th century, her mother Merilyn Holm “Tilli” Calhoun’s art, and of course, family recipes.
“I read a Family Circle article about rescuing family recipes and heritage cookbooks and thought that was something we needed to do,” explains Nancy. “My grandmother Ione was in her 90’s. I realized we were on the verge of losing many of our family recipes. She is an amazing cook who made everything from memory.”
The book is a tribute to the two matriarchs of the Holm family: Ida Jessen Holm, Nancy’s great-grandmother, and her daughter-in-law Ione Teeter Holm, as well as the family’s Danish heritage that placed food front and center in any family gathering. The cover of the book says it all—“some eat to live, we live to eat!”
Four generations of the Holm family, beginning with Carl and Ida Holm, lived at Fair View, the Holm farm, on Livermore-Pleasanton Road (now Stanley Boulevard). It was there that many memories of food and family gatherings were made.
“When I was a little girl, our family lived on the Holm farm in the big house with my grandparents Carl and Ida Holm. I spent so much time with Grandma, family members called me ‘Grandma’s shadow.’ She told me many stories about the years when she was a little girl, a young wife, and mother,” Tilli writes in the book.
The book celebrates the Holm’s family’s Danish roots. Ida’s parents immigrated to the United States from Denmark. She was born in San Lorenzo, which was known as “Little Copenhagen” because of the strong Danish community.
The book contains a number of Danish recipes, such as aebleskivers (Danish Ball Pancakes), asier (Danish Cucumber Pickles), agurkesalat (Danish Sliced Cucumbers in Vinegar), and Brunede Kartofler (Sugar-Browned Potatoes). Many of the later recipes reflect a western influence— Mountain Oysters, Rattlesnake ala Mines Road, and Cowboy Caviar.
Dr. P. Christiaan Klieger, Senior Curator, Oakland Museum of California, gave the book a glowing review. “The Holm Family Cookbook revels in the equanimity of shared experience through the universal appeal of food—wonderful home recipes presented by real grandmothers and aunties,” he writes. “It blasts the stereotypes of ethereal ‘California cuisine,’ by providing examples of how immigrant Danish food culture has been layered with Mexican, California, Yankee, and other culinary expressions at one California ranch community. The results are surprising and wholly honest. The Holm Family Cookbook is California.”
Nancy, her sisters Susie Calhoun and Merry Calhoun Carter, Tilli and her sister Patsy Holm Neely, and Wendy Neely Howe (Patsy’s daughter) all worked together to create the Holm Family Cookbook. After collecting the recipes, they gathered stories, letters, diary entries, and photographs. In writing the history, Tilli drew on her knowledge of the Livermore Valley; in 1998 she wrote a book called Early Days in the Amador Livermore Valley for the Livermore Heritage Guild.
Assembling the cookbook turned out to be a trip down memory lane that yielded some new discoveries for the Holm family members. “When I used to make rolled cookies, the roll always seemed smaller after I put the dough into the refrigerator to firm up. I learned from my daughter Susie’s recollections that she was pinching off pieces of the dough behind my back,” says Tilli.
Family members gathered on weekends to sort through all the material and match stories and photos with recipes. This proved joyful and emotional. Tilli and Patsy say they were brought to tears many times looking at old photographs and reading old letters and their grandmother’s journal. For Tilli, the thought of Grandma Ida still brings up mixed emotions. “I was grandma’s shadow, but she died when I was a child,” she says.
Merry says that reviewing her grandmother Ione’s old albums for the book showed a different side of her grandmother. “I saw her as a young women and newlywed, before she was ‘grandma’,” she explains.
The recipes cover a wide swath of cooking styles, from simple to complex, everyday to special occasions. There’s the cheesecake recipe that family members claim only Patsy (the “Martha Stewart” of the family) can make properly along with simple dishes like “Tater Tot Casserole.”
You don’t even have to be a chef to get something out of the book. As Tom Concannon puts it in his review: “And if you don’t cook, then this book will tell you how to mix a mean cocktail too.”
Every recipe was tested multiple times by friends and family members. About 75 people ultimately contributed to a process that was both arduous and fun. One of Nancy’s favorite recipes that she tested was her uncle’s turkey, which marinates in wine for four days before you cook it. Other testers found some surprises—like a recipe that incorrectly called for a cup, rather than a teaspoon, of curry.
The Holm Family Cookbook will be available by Dec. 1 at Firehouse Bistro and Books, Towne Center Books, Wente Vineyards Estate Winery, the Retzlaff Estate Winery tasting rooms, the Heritage Guild History Museum in the Carnegie Building, and at Livermore Downtown, Inc. Members of the Holm family will be at Towne Center Books (555 Main Street in Pleasanton) at 2 pm on Dec. 13 for a book signing. For more information, visit www.holmfamilycookbook.com.
Tilli Holm Calhoun and family will present a history talk on Wed., Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. with the theme, “The Holm Family Cookbook” the story of a Danish pioneer family in the Livermore Valley told through remembrances and recipes. The talk is sponsored by the Livermore Heritage Guild. It will be held at the Livermore Civic Center Library, 1188 So. Livermore Ave. 10/30/08
Valley Times and Tri-Valley Herald
Around Livermore Column
By Mark Tarte
LIVERMORE HISTORY and cookbook — The Livermore Heritage Guild will host its monthly history talk on Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the main branch of the Livermore Library, 1188 South Livermore Ave.
The featured speakers will be Tillie Calhoun and her daughter, Nancy Calhoun Mueller. Descendants of the Holm family, they will be presenting a talk about their family history as well as unveiling "The Holm Family Cookbook, The Story of a Danish Pioneer Family in the Livermore Valley Told through Remembrances and Recipes."
The talk and book are a compendium of a pioneer family's history with recipes, family stories and pictures. The Holm family had its start in 1880 with the marriage of Ida Jessen to Carl Holm, an immigrant from Denmark. Together, they raised nine children in Livermore and their descendants continue today in the valley, including Tillie and Nancy. The book is a family project and incorporates not only the recipes, but also the history of Livermore. 11/16/08
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