Cooking Through History

While perusing Facebook after the holidays I saw this great post from my favorite local cupcakery (yeah, I made up a word, what?), Sweet!, about handwritten recipes. 

It was perfect timing for me to see this post because my Mom had just brought down all of my Grandma's recipes and some of her old cookbooks for me. 

I have to agree with Holly that there is something magical about having a handwritten recipe from someone in your family. Not only does it give you something they had written, but it's a little piece of family history. 

So many of us associate food with memories of our childhood and they are always with us. I know when my parents were here and my Mom and I were making kolacky (which I was on my second batch of dough) I told her I just wanted to get them thin enough like Grandma would make. Grandma made it look so easy when she made them and here I was cursing like a sailor and five-seconds from throwing the dough at the wall. I don't remember Grandma ever doing that. My Mom gave me the best advice in that moment, she said, "Your kolacky will never be hers, so just get that out of your mind right now and make them your own way." 

That's the art of food and cooking, you can have the same recipe passed down from generation to generation, but it will always be your own. I spent a night just digging through the bag of loose recipe cards and found myself smiling at most of them because it would remind me of baking with my Grandma in her kitchen.  

So I challenge you to follow suit and start collecting handwritten recipes from family members to pass down. I know I'm going to start asking for some and I cannot wait to see which memories I'll be cooking up next.