Posts My Mother's Recipes
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My Mother's Recipes

Those who know me know how much I love to bake bread. Most do not know why though. I had originally learned to bake bread because it was one thing my mom felt she couldn’t do that well. She taught me to cook when I was little, and more so as I got older. I never did that much cooking for the family though; she had her own way to run a kitchen, and loved to do the cooking for all of us. When I left home, I decided to bake bread because it ‘seemed’ easy, and my mom loved to hear my latest success, and lament and advise for that which didn’t work.

My mom passed away last month. The months before she died were hard, as is coming to grip with the fact that she’s gone. I have the feeling that part of me still doesn’t believe it. This last weekend I spent at my Dad’s house trying to fix up the pantry for him and came across her box of recipes. Its packed with hand-written recipes that vary in complexity and styles. I asked my Dad if I could take it so I could transcribe the recipes and make them available to the family and he agreed; provided I brought the box back to him when I was done.

My goal now is to scan in each page of the recipe box, evaluate and interpret the text to fill in the gaps of what she cooked versus what she wrote down. This box easily spans 50 years if not more. I’m trying to figure out what the best way to save these recipes on the computer. Should I do it in book form? As a blog? Use available ‘recipe’ software? At this point I’m not sure what to do after I scan in the last page. Once I start converting them to text, I plan to start using them to cook for my own family. See if I can get the smells and tastes to drum up memories in me.

This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.
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