Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Dear Ann and Kay

Here I am, joining in on the Grandma Mabel Memorial Recipe Box Show & Tell Contest, as seen on Mason-Dixon Knitting.

I actually do have one of those antique-y looking recipe boxes--umm, mine was new in 1963 when I got married, so it really is "vintage"--but I'm not sure where it is right now, and with the current state of my rib cage, excavating for it isn't a good option.
So I decided to make do with the recipe collection(s) that get the most use around here


Recipe book assembled by D4 and D5 as Christmas gifts for their siblings (and themselves) back in 2000:
Inside view of Meg's: including the copy of Cook's Illustrated with the sour cream pie crust/great apple pie recipe.
One of the recipes from the book:
we had this for breakfast on Christmas day this year. It's really a great fast easy tasty dish, for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and perfect for potlucks. Even tastes good cold for breakfast, should there be any left over. We vary the amounts--12 eggs and a quart of cottage cheese, whatever size can of green chiles the store happens to have, we're not fussy at all.
And this is where some of my recipes live:

the inside door of my Depression-green Hoosier. Yes, my kitchen is very "period" with its unremodeled 1921 kitchen, its 1980's appliances (earthquake in '87 killed the old stove), and its gen-u-wine Nappanee Kitchenette, aka Hoosier Kitchen. It has the sliding enameled tray that pulls out for more work surface, a block of wood for clamping the meat grinder onto, and a working flour sifter behind the side door. Holds 20 lbs of flour, easily, and we did use it all the time back when I was cooking for the Hungry Horde. Such a convenience to just hold the measuring cup under the sifter, turn the crank, and voila! Sifted flour!
Nowadays, the flour lives in Tupperware. Not as much fun, but infinitely less conducive to weevils and flour moths, since we don't bake or even cook as much or as often as formerly!

So--what do your recipes live in? Ann and Kay want to know!

6 comments:

knitnzu said...

Hey! Found you from Dave... Had a kitten once named Mehitabel and some visitors, I forget where from, but Arabic and conservative, laughed and laughed about her name...but wouldn't tell me what is so funny. I've asked folks that speak Arabic, and they say it's not an Arabic name but Persian, and they can't figure out either what was so funny. Love the pics of the sweetgum, the leaves are so bright. I've shared many of the recipes I use the most, so those are on the computer. Others are in a butt-ugly plastic 5x7 box on the fridge, hidden amongst all the other stuff up there... others in notebooks, 'real' cookbooks, and a cookbook I made up for a friend (kept a copy!).

Sheepish Annie said...

Awww...now I want cool kitchen storage options! Someday I'll own a Hoosier. Or a recipe box. Very cool!

For now, I'll just keep sticking the loose recipes in random cookbooks or tacking them on the wall.

Linda Mullen said...

What a neat idea. I should do it too but when you're a quilter, do you really have time for anything else (grin).

CatBookMom said...

Great post, and I'll pass the recipe on to DH, our Master Cook. Many of our recipes live in a traditional recipe box - looked for high and low and finally found at Vroman's! Others are in a folder bent around th recipe box on the shelf, destined *some day* to be tidily added to the box. Then there are those on the computer, those in books with assorted page markers, and even a few purely in CBM's Random Access Memory - no chips, runs better with coffee.

Easy on those ribs, girlfriend!!

Anonymous said...

I had something very similar to the chili-cheese souffle at holiday tea at a Dever bed and breakfast this year - very versatile! (Just sprinkle with a little fresh dill and it's a celebration!)D1 aka Foosh

mary said...

Woo hoo! You got a mention and a link on Mason-Dixon! You go girl ;)