Recipes

I remember so well when, for my 21st birthday, my mom gave me 21 gifts. All of them were beautifully wrapped and all were kitchen items I'd need for my own apartment - now that I was an adult! There was cutlery, dish towels and, among other things, a beautiful set of Farberware stainless steel pots and pans. But my favorite to this day was The New Pillsbury Family Cookbook!

The picture is very small so you probably didn't notice the exciting new addition splashed across the bottom right corner: a MICROWAVE COOKING CHAPTER!! Yes, I was definitely entering an exciting new time in my life. (Does anyone actually do anything in a microwave other than warm or melt things? Oh yes, popcorn.) Then my roommate 'borrowed' my new cookbook and spilled some unknown dark liquid that leaked through pages 1-47. So sad.

All that rambling to say that this summer, one of my projects has been to collect many of my favorite recipes and print them onto cards for my girls so they'll each have a recipe file that will get them started in their culinary pursuits but which they can add to as well.

It's been fun to go through all my old recipes - I'm typing them into a recipe card program so I can print them right onto the index cards. I use 4 x 6 cards because they're so much easier to read and to include more recipe info. The picture above shows the start of their boxes, with more recipes to be added soon!

I am not Julie or Julia but isn't cooking such a great way to pass down traditions in a family? We don't have any truly ethnic recipes that have been handed down our family line but we have a few family favorites that I hope my girls will enjoy making for their families and friends.

What are some of your family's favorite foods that bring back memories for you??