Cookbooks and Hand Written Recipes, Oh my!
My neighbor passed away about 18 months ago. Her bachelor son has moved into her home and is gradually making the place his own. He asked me on Friday if I would like to have his mom's cookbooks. Absolutely! Yesterday morning he brought over 15 books from the 30's to current regional church cookbooks, along with a huge file drawer of 4x6 hand written recipes from when she was a young bride and throughout the rest of her life, some with the name of who gave her the recipe, some with the place she got the recipe. She and her husband traveled the world over so there are recipes from France, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Holland, China, Japan, the only places I have not run across yet are Egypt and Turkey.
I am pretty amazed and overwhelmed by his generosity. I said I'd like to run across her recipe for stuffed grape leaves, He said "If you find her cheese cake recipe - that's the ticket!" I hope I can find it so I can make him one to repay him.
He gave me her sewing machine about 6 months after she passed because he knows I sew. I told him I would repair it and give it back so he would have one. He declined but said if he needed something sewn he'd bring it by. Then, about a month later I came home to find her Kitchen Aid mixer on my porch! He says he will never use these things and he knows his mom would want me to have them. She had cancer and for the last 2 months all she wanted to eat was home made bread. I baked bread every 2 days so she had fresh bread. She was a great lady, I miss her.