Okay, so I told you before that when I was in eighth grade, my grandmother gave me a copy of her family tree. Well a few years after that, she also sent me a whole mess of recipes. They were in a big box and also in that box was a cookie press. I wish I still had that cookie press, but we probably lost it in the Great House Migration. Remind me to chronicle that sometime! This month the weather has been particularly nice on the weekends. I guess getting 2+ feet of snow dropped on you really clears the air so to speak. We’ve taken advantage of this weather and we’re rehabbing one of our old sheds. We’ve lived in this house for at least 20 years now (since I was 5 or so!), so we’ve collected some clutter.
I was momentarily enraptured by finding all the books I read in Elementary and Middle school. The Little House books, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, and The Moon Spinners. Gosh what memories those books have for me! Then as I dug deeper into the pile of ‘Kathleen Stuff’, I found it. The old binder that I had used to house those old recipes! They were by no means organized. I meant to computerize them, but alas high school got in my way. Then they somehow ended up packed away with all my old school mementos. The first thing any of us thought of when we found these recipes should have been joy at finding something you forgot you had. Instead we all piled around the binder and immediately leafed through it trying to find Grandma’s bread recipe! It’s got to be there somewhere!
There were plenty of recipes from the backs of ingredients and from magazines. I really treasure Grandma’s handwritten recipes though! We could have tried this during Thanksgiving!
I can’t even begin to tell you of the cookie recipes. I find it incredibly fate (I don’t believe in coincidence, not one bit) oriented that as I’m getting my baking love back, I find these. I was big into baking in high school. I used to bake brownies and cookies for everyone all the time. Then after high school, college classes and working full time took up all my extra energy. So I lost it. As I’ve been having some personal issues lately, I tried to get back into baking to see if it would relax me, and boy did it! So now I can throw out all those box mixes and really get into the nitty gritty!
Is anyone else getting hungry just thinking about this entry?
How hungry are you now that you’re thinking about these Triple Peanut Butter Cookies?
Back to the original point of my post, the bread recipe! We unfortunately couldn’t find it. I found a roll recipe that I think is probably what my Mom remembers as the bread recipe. I’m going to assume that’s it anyway. Unfortunately a lot of the handwritten recipes never actually said what they were! I guess I’ll have to make them to find out!
Don’t walk away disappointed! We did find Grandma’s Famous Fudge recipe. This recipe has been a bone of contention between Mom and her sisters for many years. They all try to make it but can’t quite remember how it goes. Aunt Melinda has her recipe that we all use now, but it’s not the same. So when we came across this little note, we were ecstatic!
Only to find out Grandma’s Famous Fudge was actually straight off the back of a Hershey’s Cocoa can! I’m still going to make it though! I have to know what the fuss is about. This goes to show, never be ashamed to use a recipe that’s not your own. I mean, in 50 years no one will know you took it off the back of the box!
