'Baking With Lucy' Facebook Live star lives on in daughter's new book

A chapter of Mary Ellen Raneri’s life ended when her mother, Lucy Pollock, died of covid-related complications Nov. 22 at age 98.

But now the Latrobe resident is adding another chapter by sharing memories of her mother — and father — in an upcoming book.

Facebook viewers got to know Raneri and Pollock during the pandemic through their popular “Baking With Lucy” sessions. As Raneri’s husband, Phil Raneri, handled video duties, mother and daughter shared Lucy’s vast trove of recipes.

Their audience eventually grew to hundreds of thousands of viewers around the world and landed the pair a spot on NBC’s “Today.”

Before her death, Lucy and Mary Ellen compiled 222 favorite recipes in the 2020 cookbook, “Baking With Lucy in Her Cozy Kitchen.”

The new book, which Mary Ellen hopes to have available in early November, includes more recipes paired with vignettes about growing up in Punxsutawney as the only child of Lucy and Mike Pollock.

“Homegrown Memories” is “organized around the extended metaphor of my folks being gardeners,” Mary Ellen said.

Its sections “represent the growth and needs of a plant, gardeners and gardens, care and nurturing, stormy weather, pesky bugs, and finally the harvest,” she says in the preface.

“The harvest is the end of their lives and how our relationships were at that time,” she said.

Mike Pollock died in 2012.

Singing and smoking

Many of the stories have a humorous bent.

“People think Lucy was this wonderful woman from the Depression, but she was an avid smoker. She would sing and smoke and play the organ,” Mary Ellen said. “It’s so funny — my dad tried to get her to stop, and she got really angry. Then she ended up having surgery on her thyroid, and that was the end of that.”

The recipes are “a mixed bag of main dishes and desserts, with a lot of baking,” she said. “It’s all about what they loved, and what I loved, too. They loved baloney, they loved hot dogs. I can’t believe Lucy lived to 98.

“I have a story in there called ‘A Big Bunch of Baloney.’ ”

Shirley McMarlin | Tribune-Review

One of Lucy Pollock’s handwritten recipes along with the collection compiled by her daughter, Mary Ellen Raneri of Latrobe.

Mary Ellen, a retired writing teacher, said writing was cathartic after her father’s death and even more so after her mother’s passing.

At Christmas, she was wrapping presents and came across an old birthday card from her mother.

“I don’t know where it came from, if it came out of a bag or somewhere,” she said. “I showed it to Phil, and it said, ‘You’re my daughter and I love you and you’re never gonna stop writing, because you’re gonna write a book someday.’

“And I thought, ‘You know what? I’m gonna stop this sobbing and crying.’ I was a mess. So I decided, I’m gonna stop this, and put all my efforts into this book. And now I can’t find that card. It’s gotta be here somewhere, but it dropped in from outer space and then it dropped back out,” she said.

More recipes to come

This time around, Mary Ellen is self-publishing. The manuscript was typed by friend and former co-worker Donna Bennett, and the cover was designed by Teresa Aguilo of Laurel Valley Graphics in Latrobe, which will handle the printing.

The book will be sold on bakingwithlucy.com and probably in a few local retail outlets. She and Phil decided to handle sales themselves, she said, “to make it convenient for people who don’t have a credit card. We have all these ladies my mom’s age who don’t use a credit card, so we can take their money orders.”

Mary Ellen and Phil also continue with twice-weekly “Baking With Lucy” sessions on Facebook. At 6 p.m. Wednesdays, they talk about a recipe and show a completed example of the dish. At noon Sundays, they go through the process of making it from scratch.

“We’ll probably continue it for a while. We’ve gotten really attached to these people,” she said.

Fans have even shown up at their home.

“Mary was in the garage doing some artwork, and this lady pulls up in front of driveway, a lady and her daughters,” Phil said. “She comes up and said, ‘You don’t know me, we just wanted to see where you lived.’

“They were from Uniontown. They drove an hour and a half just to see where we lived,” he said.

“We went into the casino, and these ladies were like, ‘Phil, Phil!’ ” Mary Ellen said. “Everybody loves Phil.”

There could be more books, too.

“She has enough recipes for probably 100 books,” Phil said.

“When I write, I still have my mom and my dad with me. It’s my connection,” Mary Ellen said. “My greatest hope is that everybody likes the stories. It’s just nice to share with other people who had the same feelings about my mom.”