Here we are! Well it’s a day early because I think she would have been annoyed if I debuted such a project on April 1st. To be honest I have happily decided to be very fluid with this next project because I don’t know where it will take me. I know that I am going to be starting to pull together and work on my book about Alzheimer’s and caregiving (surprise!) and it just feels right that as I surround myself with some incredibly painful moments of Millie’s life that I also bring forward some amazingly wonderful moments. And for me most of those moments were in the kitchen.
Millie collected recipes religiously and at one point an entire wall in her kitchen was filled with cookbooks from around the world. I have saved many of the more special books to cherish. But when I think of Millie cooking I think of her rolodex. I think of the sound it made as she turned it and I think of the care she took organizing and tending to it.
She had two rolodexes: savory and sweet. And because she often requested dessert before her meal that is how we will begin here.
I will share a recipe from her rolodex and invite you to try it, comment on it, pass it along. I might relive some of the recipes myself but I know that it is unrealistic of me to attempt to make every recipe I share.
I also invite you to track down Grandmother recipes if you can. Of the recipes I will share maybe 20% are original Millie- most are from friends and the rest are torn from newspapers or magazines. They are from an era where dinner parties happened weekly. They are special. Enjoy!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
G-d I love that picture. My heart smiled.
I’m ready. I love trying new receipes.
Awesome idea! Since I probably share my late grandmother’s love of cooking more than anyone else in the family, I inherited her four recipe boxes. They are pretty amazing. Like a newspaper clipping of “President Kennedy’s favorite split pea soup.” And pickled watermelon rind. Maybe I will join you and cook up a couple of her special recipes!
I made your pie already, so I think this is a fantastic idea.
I LOVE that you are doing this! I recently found a couple of old cookbooks from my Grandmothers collection and can’t wait to try out some of the recipes.
P.S. Great picture, you are beautiful!!
Sounds like fun and that is a fabulous picture there.
I have my Bubbe’s, z”l, in sheet protectors in a recipe notebook. I’ve always intended to write a book called: “A little bit of this, and a little bit of that: Stories and recipes from the Old Country.”
But life keeps happening…
ooh, I love this. I inherited my nana’s recipe tin, with handwritten cards just like these and her notes in the margin. she used to trade with her friends and SILs and neighbors and improve by tinkering over time. some of my earliest memories are baking in the kitchen with her. I’ve photocopied my brothers’ fave recipes and shared with them too.
after she died, it took me a LONG time to get out of the habit of picking up the phone to call her when I was cooking to ask her advice on something, or to interpret some note in the margin…
hope you’re enjoying yours too!