BABE-A-LICIOUS

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PICTURED ABOVE: "Babe" Kanis standing in the doorway of her kitchen at the McLean Drive house, circa 1965

When she was first born, my mother Mary Frances was nick named “Babe” by her father Francis Patrick Corcoran. With that blonde hair and those blue eyes along with that Irish smile, she was indeed a babe! Even after having six children and well into her forties she was still a babe. As a kid I couldn't understand why she became irritated when it seemed to me that men were just being very nice to her. I get it now!  

Babe was an incredible wife, mother and grandmother. She was one of the hardest working people I've ever known and could make a dollar stretch further than anyone. Mom was an Irish cook and always managed to put out an incredible spread for our large family every night at dinner. And when it came to baking, mom was second to none. 

We’d often awake in the morning to the smell of cinnamon wafting up the stairs from something being baked for breakfast down in her kitchen. She packed our school lunches every day with loving care and would always include some of her phenomenal chocolate chip cookies or coffee cake. Those yummies were marketable commodities out on the playground at St. Thomas More Grade School.  

That tradition continues even today at my house. My wife Teresa is constantly baking for our family and friends. She has even earned the nick name of "Kiki" derived from our young grand kids attempting to say the word "cookie". And that smell of something baking in the oven still takes me right back to my childhood every time. Unfortunately, there never seems to be anything left for me in the cookie jar anymore. I'm just told that I'm sweet enough already.  

KANIS.US was lucky enough to find three of Babe's original handwritten recipes. We've posted theses can be downloaded by clicking the links blow. Happy baking and save some for me! 

- John Kanis III