This past month I decided to create a cookbook filled with my grandmother’s recipes, which would be a birthday gift for my mother. I started by searching for few pictures of my grandmother, one of which would become the cover photo above (my grandmother is the woman in the middle). I then began scrambling around my mother’s kitchen on an edible treasure hunt for scraps of paper with my grandmother’s recipes. After enduring a few paper cuts while paging through cookbooks for hidden recipe cards, I came across the long lost prized possession, my grandmother’s green Betty Crocker recipe box (hidden behind stacks of books). The avocado green plastic suddenly resembled a treasure chest filled with culinary treasure maps, her recipes. I quickly swiped the box, and upon returning home I carefully opened it and was overwhelmed by the scraps of notebook paper, old calendar pages, and note cards filled with delectable concoctions.
While compiling her handwritten recipes, I discovered a true sense of her passion for food and family. I can imagine her feverishly writing a recipe on a scrap of paper, and quickly placing it inside her green Betty Crocker recipe card library. Now the recipe box is filled to the brim, and upon opening it you feel as though you are unlocking a secret to happiness, to her spirit, to her love.
After typing and organizing around 60 recipes, scanning in photos of family at the table and writing a brief introduction, I was ready to press print. When the book arrived, I was delighted to hold culinary history in my hands. I felt as if I had printed and preserved a bit of her spirit that would hopefully have a better chance of being passed on for years to come.
(Quick shout out to blurb.com. I was easily able to create and print this book with the help of their fabulous application and services. I’ve already been inspired to start creating another book-more on that later)
