Mama's Recipe Box Rides Shotgun

Lyrics

The house is sold, the keys are signed
The movers took the couch
But I kept one little tin box
Worn soft from Mama's touch
Her handwriting in pencil
Butter stains on every card
I buckled it into the passenger seat
And I drove off, working hard

Mama's recipe box rides shotgun
Down every road I roam
Every card a little promise
That I'll always find my way home
Flour on the corner, sugar in the seam
Love is just a measure
Of the things you know by heart, it seems

There's a card for Sunday biscuits
Says a pinch of this and that
And a note at the bottom, slanted
Don't forget to feed the cat
There's a card for apple butter
Stained with a thumbprint of her own
I hold it to the dashboard light
And I don't feel so alone

Mama's recipe box rides shotgun
Down every road I roam
Every card a little promise
That I'll always find my way home
Flour on the corner, sugar in the seam
Love is just a measure
Of the things you know by heart, it seems

I never learned to measure right
She'd laugh and wave her spoon
Said honey, you just feel it
Like the rise of a harvest moon

In a rented kitchen somewhere
I'll light the stove tonight
Pull a card and start from scratch
Under a small kitchen light
And the smell will fill the apartment
Like her kitchen in the fall
And the walls will feel like home again
After all, after all

Mama's recipe box rides shotgun
Down every road I roam
Every card a little promise
That I'll always find my way home
Flour on the corner, sugar in the seam
Love is just a measure
Of the things you know by heart, it seems

Of the things you know by heart