Grandma's Cookbook

Sean and I are trying to "clean the house" before my family comes on Thursday. It's not really that messy- it just needs some "elbow grease" cleaning instead of just picking up.

I am moving our cookbooks from the kitchen into the dining room. We use them a lot but we need to put a mixer where the cookbooks are. So because "elbow grease" cleaning enevitably leads to exploring I start looking at our cookbooks. During my exploration of cookbooks I was reminded that I have this small binder of recipes from my Grandma Doll. A recipe book that was copied by a cousin after she died and handed on to any family that wanted one.

My Grandma Doll had 13 children. My Dad was her eighth. She was a woman of tremendous patience, remarkable wit, and a woman of her time. She was also a dear friend. I became close with her during High School and continued letters and visits into college and after my father died. She is a matriarch, even in her death, of the healthiest sort. Inspiring her beloveds to be better people in their own ways. In writing this, my heart is both opening to tears and deeply moved by her love for me.

But about this cookbook, Every 30 recipes or so are scanned copies of family gatherings or activies around food. Every once in awhile will be a note, "Cassandra likes cauliflower with cheese sauce, Dan likes pie." Wow, she was trying to remember what each of her grandchildren favored. I am charmed by the amount of jello, cool whip, cream of sump'm sump'm soups. I am delighted by notations fora recipe of Chicken and rice from Aunt Marie. The back of the recipe says, "Marie was Don's [Grandpa Doll- grandmas spouse and partner] Aunt. She has a soft spot in my heat becasue she had her daughter Rosemary fix us up for a double date. It was the beginning of something wonderful." It just melts me. Finally, before I wrap this up, I am struck by the longevity and amount of many of the recipes they range from the 1950's to only months before her death and many of them have notations on quantity. One recipe from 1993 for a Hash Brown Potato Casserole ends with this, "Made double served 17 adults and 8 kids."

This blog, where I spout out my hopes and dreams for the future is a reminder the the brevity of life. A reminder that my grandmother was once a young woman being set up on a double date and before she knew it was raising 13 children, and a blink later saying goodbye but leaving a legacy. My I know a taste of her blessings.