Uniquely Yours Craft Journal

Dear Fellow Journalers,

Collecting family recipes and making a family cookbook/journal are important ways to connect generations and get to know people you never knew. Eating habits, while shaped by climate and culture, are passed down and passed forward because eating is not a web “experience.”  And you know, it would be kind of cool to find out if someone else in your family liked to eat olives out of a jar or loved anchovies on their pizza. So here are 4 reasons why collecting family recipes really matter:

1. Collecting family recipes in a family recipe book/journal means we can reminisce about our past. We can appreciate how food was prepared over an open fire or in a fireplace. We can remember how that meatloaf recipe your Mom shared with you came about. On a personal note, I found several cookbooks in my Mother-in-law’s home after she died. What was really neat, was the hand-written notes in the margins – how she used lard and made a pie. Collecting recipes is a way to remember where we came from, whether across the country or across oceans.
2. Collecting recipes in a family recipe book means we can appreciate what our ancestors would have appreciated. When we look at the many appliances we use now – microwave ovens, refrigerators, electric mixers and blenders and instance hot water, and think of what our ancestors used ice houses, hand-mixers, washing dishes by hand – makes us think! To get an idea of the items they used, check out an antique store or the VT County Store for the utensils your ancestors used.
3. Collecting family recipes means we can communicate over the ages through a lasting memento (our family cookbook) about our time and place in the world. We can share the use of the “modern kitchen products” and our take on the recipe (our hand-written notes).
4. Family cookbooks commemorate our Mom and Grandmother and other family members. My husband recently asked me to make Swedish Meatballs. I’d never made them before and checked out my 20 cookbooks for a recipe. He reminisced about the ones made by a family friend Ruth. So I checked out my Mother-in-law’s cookbook and in the meat section there it was – written in her neat and precise handwriting. My husband was thrilled and the recipe has become part of our family recipe book.

Happy Cooking!

~Sallie

Asiago Cheese Puffs

Recipe found from All Recipes

1 cup grated Asiago cheese

• 1 teaspoon pressed garlic
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch ground black pepper
• 1 French baguette, thinly sliced

Directions:

1. Preheat the broiler.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the Asiago, garlic, mayonnaise, oregano, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper. If the mixture does not hold together well, add more mayonnaise, if desired.
3. On a baking sheet, arrange the baguette slices in a single layer. Spread the Asiago mixture on the slices. Broil for 3 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and lightly browned. Serve immediately.