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Saturday, April 11, 2015

Weekend Cooking - What's in your recipe archive??



This post will be linked to Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads, which is open to anyone who has a food-related post to share.  Take a look.  There's always something tasty to talk about each weekend.

I have been acquiring quite a few new cookbooks recently, and I've done a weeding of the ones I had on my shelf for a long time that got little use.  And I've been considering whether to document some of my older recipes somehow before the paper they are on actually falls apart.  Age, it gets to all of us, right?  Even your old recipes.




My husband and I have been married almost 35 years.  When I had my wedding shower, all those years ago, one of my mother's friends presented me with this little beige box, filled with index cards.  On those cards, she had taken the time to write down probably close to 100 recipes that she used day in and day out for her family.  Such a kind woman and I remember her so well.  She didn't have a lot of money for a wedding gift, but she told me that she wished that someone would have given her some tried and true, tested recipes as a young bride.  I have used that little box and those suggestions ever since, stuffing it full of other recipes that I wrote out on cards or clipped from magazines.  As you can see, it is well loved.

One of the recipes that I have displayed is for Baked Beans and it is one that lovely lady shared .  I've used it for baked beans forever.  It may not be the healthiest anymore, but my family loved it and it's one that my daughter copied out for her kitchen when she got married.  The other recipe there is one that my husband, who was my boyfriend then, wrote out for me when we were teenagers, probably 5 years or so before we married.  It's for Jiffy Cobbler, his Dad's recipe, and it is still a good one.  I noticed a cobbler recipe very like it in one of the Pioneer Woman's cookbooks.  As you can see, both of those recipes have been used often and are well stained to prove it.

Do you have a few recipes such as these?  What I would call a recipe archive.  I bet you do.  Have you transferred them to a more permanent home?  I'm still on the fence as to whether to scan all of mine.  I have a feeling that looking at them on a computer or iPad screen won't be the same as pulling them out of my little recipe box.  I'm going to share the Baked Beans recipe below, just as she wrote it, and thank you Miss Beth for your kindness.  I miss you.



Baked Beans

 1 large can pork & beans
1 dash maple syrup
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 cap hot sauce
1 tsp. curry powder
1 med. onion (minced)
1/2 green pepper (minced)
1 stem celery (minced)
1 cup ketchup
2 tbsp. bacon drippings or Wesson oil


Stir together all ingredients and pour into large baking dish.  Bake at 300 degrees for 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

Kay's notes - I usually use more celery and a whole green pepper and a really big can of pork and beans or 2 or 3 regular sized cans.  No bacon drippings, but some olive oil instead.  If you don't like curry powder, it could be left out and other ingredients adjusted as well to suit your taste.

31 comments:

  1. I love recipes like this -- not only are they good and easy but they remind you of friends and family.

    I haven't decided what to with my old recipes either. I'm not sure I want to part with all those hand-written treasures.

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    1. Being reminded of fun times is definitely part of keeping these older recipes. It's like keeping old pictures, which also deteriorate. Sigh.

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  2. What a wonderful wedding gift, I love it. My husband and I will celebrTe 31 years this June so we also have some treasures from long ago. I like that box of recipes. Priceless.
    Good looking recipe for the beans too!

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    1. Thanks, Tina. It was a great wedding gift and one that even after such a long time, I remember exactly who gave it. Don't think I could say that about other gifts. ;-)

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  3. That's a lovely post, Kay! Loves getting recipes like this! So different from getting a cookbook isn't it, especially if they're handmade, including the box.

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    1. Well, that little box is just a little plastic box for filing index cards. But...it's more than that to me. :-)

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  4. What a sweet and thoughtful wedding gift! Tried and true recipes from cooks I know and trust are my favorite.

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    1. You can usually feel like they are tasty for sure. I've had fun reading over them and noticing the difference in what we include as ingredients now.

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  5. I have been meaning to create some type of cookbook/scrapbook for my brother and sister of recipes that we remember from our childhood - my mom's, and my grandmothers' go-to recipes that we ate often. I did get around to copying many of my paternal grandmother's recipes when I visited with my dad's sisters a few years ago, but that's as far as my project has gone. Reading your post makes me realize I need to make time for this. :)

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    1. What a good idea, Tina! Good luck with that. Even if they recipes are not used so much as written by your family anymore, it's a part of your history and I think that's always worth preserving.

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  6. What a lovely wedding gift! The time and thought really means so much more than just getting a bought gift, however much that might be appreciated too. Don't scan them! They'll never feel the same!

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    1. Well, I could scan them and also keep the originals. And that may be what I do, just to preserve them. Like when I took family home movies to be transferred from VCR tape to DVD.

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  7. Such a thoughtful gift. Scanning them is a good way of preserving them while still keeping the originals. I guess you could also copy them out fresh onto new cards - that would be quite the project, though!

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    1. Yes, I think scanning might be easier and then keep the old ones too.

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  8. We will be celebrating our 50th this year, and I have a plastic box like yours, filled with tried and true recipes. Some have gotten so frayed that I've re-written them on new cards. Don't know that I trust computers more. Though all the recipes I find online are saved to my recipe file. That was definitely a better wedding gift than something from a store. So precious.

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    1. Yes, I agree, Claudia. And congratulations to you and your husband for 50 years this year. Quite an accomplishment. :-)

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  9. What a lovely and thoughtful wedding gift that was. I've gone almost totally digital now with my recipes - should have done it years ago! Cheers from Carole's Chatter

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    1. Thanks, Carole! Yes, I am thinking of it - going digital I mean.

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  10. What a thoughtful wedding gift, Kay! Family history are my favorite kind and I love that you've kept it as is. It's as it should be :)

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  11. I spent some time last year adding the recipes I use most often to an app on my iPad. Before that my collection was just a bunch of paper stuffed in a folder, nothing worth preserving, unlike your lovely box :)

    Have a great week,
    Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out

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    1. I bet the iPad app is convenient though. I'll have to think about preserving in some electronic way.

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  12. Yes, when my grandma passed away, I asked for her recipe box. And a homemade recipe box is my favorite shower gift for a bride. I send out cards for everyone to add a recipe. It's so fun to look through these.

    Wish we could have met up at TLA this year. Maybe next year?

    Here's my Sunday Post!

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    1. Maybe next year for sure. We'll try to plan it. I got asked to volunteer as I am a current volunteer with the Austin Public Library. Wish I could have done it!

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  13. I absolutely love your index card box. What a lovely gift and how wonderful to still have it. No, I don't think it will be the same looking at those recipes on an ipad. I think something like that is so precious. In our digital world, we create so few things that we can keep and treasure. It's beautiful.

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    1. Thanks, Rebecca. I love it, but I may still scan the recipes and at least they are preserved.

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  14. I used to keep my recipes on cards in a little file box just like yours! At some point, I started typing them up and placing them in sheet protectors in two large 3-ring binders. Even with my very unprofessional food blog, I print out all my recipes (even the ones I have in cookbooks, just so I know I've tried them and that they're winners) and keep them in those two binders (which are divided by menu items such as chicken, beef, fish, salads, desserts, etc.). It's very handy to have the recipes in the sheet protectors since I'm a messy cook!

    I think the oldest recipes I have are for my mom's shortbread cookies and my Aunt Mary's herb bread. There might be others, but I'm too lazy to go downstairs and look. At some point, many years ago, I gave copies of all of my favorite recipes to Amy & Rachel, in the same sort of notebooks. And now my granddaughter has her own notebook. It's fun to pass those tried-and-true recipes down to loved ones, isn't it? Or to have them call you up (or text!) and ask for one they remember from years ago.

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    1. What a good idea, Les! Did you ever tell me this before? I like the idea of the recipes in sheet protectors - safe but also accessible. And in a bigger font. LOL

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    2. I have no idea if I've ever mentioned it or not. We've been friends for a long time, so it's quite possible that I did, but have since forgotten! ;) Yep, bigger font is a bonus, too!

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  15. That is such a very thoughtful gift! Especially considering that she wrote all those recipes by hand. Makes it more valuable than any gift that cost even 10 times more. That recipe looks yum yum yummy! I will have to give it a try. Lately, I have been trying to find a system that works for my recipes. All my recipes are online but scattered.

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    1. It's kind of amazing to think about writing all those by hand. We don't do much of that anymore do we?

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Thanks for stopping by! I am so happy to hear your thoughts and will respond as soon as I can. Happy Reading!