My grandma and I were quite close. I lived with her for a time when I was in high school. She taught me how to bake. And she taught me how to cheat at cards. I taught her that girls didn't automatically have to cook and clean...although they could if they chose to. She passed away when I was 16 at the age of 87.
I inherited her cookbooks. Her handwritten personal cookbooks. There are recipes dating back to 1935....with most pages loose and falling out....some crumbling if handled too roughly. Mostly I just like looking at them and seeing her handwriting. It's funny how I feel connected to her through those pages.
The thing with all her recipes is that there really isn't much for instructions. A list of ingredients and that's it. No cooking temperatures or times. Sometimes it's not even clear what it's supposed to be....is this pudding?.....or cookies? So all of those details were just in her head. There is also a huge variety of content. Pickling recipes, jams, casseroles, "dainties" (points to whomever knows what I'm talking about 😉)....but also some home made medicinal remedies and about 4 pages of instructions on how to make cheese....for cheese she decided to get detailed apparently.
There was a cookie she used to make that was the family favorite. Oddly enough, even though it was a favorite, nobody bothered to give it a name. So I just call it "those white cookies" now. No matter the name, nobody has tasted these cookies since she passed away in 1995. Nobody knows the recipe. And although I made them with her many times, I always just followed her lead. The recipe may have even been in her head for all I remember. I have spoken with family members, trying to piece things together. Hunting down various "clues" as to what people remember about these cookies. Hints of this...or bits of that. It's been challenging since everyone seems to remember them a little bit differently.
I'd like to attempt to resurrect this recipe. I've looked through her recipe books many times, and there are several that "might" be it. Although, as mentioned earlier, without baking instructions its difficult to know what I'm actually baking. So I'm going to start working through these recipes and I am going to see if I can't find the long lost cookie. If I actually find the recipe, or even if I'm able to piece together something that resembles it....I will basically be a family hero. But my main goal is to reconnect with my Grandma and hopefully revive some of her lost knowledge so it can maybe carry on a bit longer in me and my kids.
I love what you said about connecting with your Grandmother through her handwriting. I was listening to CBC yesterday and they were talking about how writing letters has made a huge comeback during the pandemic. People are finding that they feel a closer connection with their family when they exchange handwritten letters as opposed to text or email. It's cool that you are feeling the same thing with your Grandma's handwriting in her receipt book.
ReplyDeleteClearly that was supposed to say 'recipe' book, not 'receipt' book. Darn autocorrect.
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