Mar 13, 2023·edited Mar 13, 2023Liked by Scott Hines
I recently realized that me taking notes in my cookbooks could end up being "grandma's handwritten recipe cards" 50+ years from now and got a little emotional, especially since the first and only drawer my grandpa cleaned after my grandma died was apparently her recipe drawer and his kids (my mom and her siblings) still haven't quite forgiven him decades later, even though he has since died. Recipes, dumb, delicious, and otherwise, are so important and so telling!
Wow, congrats on setting up the recipe archive. I have no idea if I'm an early subscriber or not, so I have no idea what I'm missing, but I have over time made my own personal archive by saving the friday emails in a big dumb folder so I can do a word search.
Over the past several years I've been writing a "cookbook" for my kids. Every recipe has a little note before it. Lots of stuff they they like as kids, stuff I think they'll like when they're older, the few things I still have passed down from family members. Each has a little note before the recipe talking about why it's included. Sometimes, it's in a section called "Oh shit, you're broke!" But sometimes it's just rambling about a thing we did on a day before we came home and I made everyone some food. One day I realized I was mostly doing it for myself so they'd just have this thing from me when I'm gone. And that seems fine. Maybe they'll appreciate it. Maybe they won't. Maybe they want to make that short rib recipe or to know the little things I do to get my risotto just right. Maybe they just want to read the little note about how to score some beer if they don't have an ID, both to just score some beer and so they can make a good beer batter. But it'll be there as a thing I did that documents our lives and how we shared meals.
Recipes are more than recipes. I guess that's all I'm saying -- and what you said.
Something toward the end that you mentioned struck me, because I find myself more and more making references to something that happened in my classroom and being stunned that it was fifteen years ago. There are things I am never going to remember, and things that I remember like they happened yesterday. I suppose that is just the way life is, but it's odd to live through it on one's own.
Thank you so much! Even though trying to find things in the archive enhanced my searching skills, the new setup is so much easier.
Today's was a trip down memory lane especially with some of the recipes. I am making the Dirty Rice for dinner tonight, and may work in the stuffed cabbage stew later this week (I'd vaguely remembered making this before).
Also, everyone do not sleep on "Five Decembers," the book recommendation from 2 weeks ago. Fantastic book. I read this past week and it was one that I could not put down. I've read a lot of WWII period fiction and was nicely surprised with the direction this one took. I would have liked a little more in the final act with the antagonist, I thought it was a little brief. 5/5 would read again and highly recommend.
I recently realized that me taking notes in my cookbooks could end up being "grandma's handwritten recipe cards" 50+ years from now and got a little emotional, especially since the first and only drawer my grandpa cleaned after my grandma died was apparently her recipe drawer and his kids (my mom and her siblings) still haven't quite forgiven him decades later, even though he has since died. Recipes, dumb, delicious, and otherwise, are so important and so telling!
Wow, congrats on setting up the recipe archive. I have no idea if I'm an early subscriber or not, so I have no idea what I'm missing, but I have over time made my own personal archive by saving the friday emails in a big dumb folder so I can do a word search.
Cookbook, look inside yourself: Deep frying a "football" made of Cincinnati chili was your . . . destiny.
Over the past several years I've been writing a "cookbook" for my kids. Every recipe has a little note before it. Lots of stuff they they like as kids, stuff I think they'll like when they're older, the few things I still have passed down from family members. Each has a little note before the recipe talking about why it's included. Sometimes, it's in a section called "Oh shit, you're broke!" But sometimes it's just rambling about a thing we did on a day before we came home and I made everyone some food. One day I realized I was mostly doing it for myself so they'd just have this thing from me when I'm gone. And that seems fine. Maybe they'll appreciate it. Maybe they won't. Maybe they want to make that short rib recipe or to know the little things I do to get my risotto just right. Maybe they just want to read the little note about how to score some beer if they don't have an ID, both to just score some beer and so they can make a good beer batter. But it'll be there as a thing I did that documents our lives and how we shared meals.
Recipes are more than recipes. I guess that's all I'm saying -- and what you said.
Something toward the end that you mentioned struck me, because I find myself more and more making references to something that happened in my classroom and being stunned that it was fifteen years ago. There are things I am never going to remember, and things that I remember like they happened yesterday. I suppose that is just the way life is, but it's odd to live through it on one's own.
Oh I just thought of something you should read, will have to loan it you (remind me).
Thank you so much! Even though trying to find things in the archive enhanced my searching skills, the new setup is so much easier.
Today's was a trip down memory lane especially with some of the recipes. I am making the Dirty Rice for dinner tonight, and may work in the stuffed cabbage stew later this week (I'd vaguely remembered making this before).
Also, everyone do not sleep on "Five Decembers," the book recommendation from 2 weeks ago. Fantastic book. I read this past week and it was one that I could not put down. I've read a lot of WWII period fiction and was nicely surprised with the direction this one took. I would have liked a little more in the final act with the antagonist, I thought it was a little brief. 5/5 would read again and highly recommend.