while hunting for the recipe for ham balls......and a thought on my sweet Grandma Wilma
Recently, Roger and I were talking. An email from school had come, asking for grilling recipes for a cookbook they were planning to create.....a fund-raising event. I asked if he had recipes he wanted to submit since he is the family griller. His comment was that cookbooks are becoming antiques.....outdated. He always finds his recipes on the internet, not from a book. He's probably right.....for part of the time, and part of the cooking population. He's not completely right, tho.
I love to read through my cookbooks. I recently de-cluttered a closet and got rid of many of them, keeping only the ones I actually use. Most are church cookbooks because they have the recipes that my family likes to eat. If I have some free time, I often grab 2 or 3 cookbooks, fill a big glass of ice water, and go sit somewhere comfy. I usually start in the "main dishes" section, then veggies, then salad, then sometimes drinks and appetizers, and very rarely, cookies and desserts. I would much rather cook than bake! I plan meals based on the recipes, first using ingredients I know I have, and then make a shopping list for what I need. I turn over the corner of the page that has the recipe so that when I am ready to make the dish, I can find it easily. I try to cook from one book at a time. I have a system.
Just after I had this conversation with my husband, I took out a cookbook, looking for a particular recipe for ham balls. I've been craving them, had purchased the main ingredients, and needed to refer to a recipe to make sure I had it all ready to go. This particular cookbook came from my Grandma Wilma's house, after she died a few years ago. I love this cookbook, which is a centennial cookbook from the church she attended at that time. It has all of the regular dutch Reformed dishes and a few that are more rare.....and my grandma has written recipes on the blank space of many of the pages......in her beautiful script. When I see her hand-written notes and recipes, I remember years of birthday cards she wrote to me. I miss her. I miss being her grand-daughter.
On this particular occasion, as I sat down with my tall glass of ice water and this red-covered Central Reformed Church cookbook, on a late Friday afternoon... I decided to start at the back of the book. She had a few hand-written recipes in the back, and then there was a page that the cookbook company had printed of scripture......verses that help if you feel: anxious, sad, happy, worried, joyful, etc. Dozens of scriptures. Further into the book was a sweet poem.......
Eventually I found the ham ball recipe I needed and dog-eared it. As I closed the book that doesn't even have a back page anymore I smiled quietly and thought to myself. Cookbooks may not be as necessary as they once were. Internet recipes may be quicker......but nothing is more beautiful that sitting in the sun for awhile with my grandmother's cookbook......and her hand-written words.....and a volume of recipes written by wives and mothers and grandmothers......
Technology can go where it may. I'm keeping my cookbooks.
I love to read through my cookbooks. I recently de-cluttered a closet and got rid of many of them, keeping only the ones I actually use. Most are church cookbooks because they have the recipes that my family likes to eat. If I have some free time, I often grab 2 or 3 cookbooks, fill a big glass of ice water, and go sit somewhere comfy. I usually start in the "main dishes" section, then veggies, then salad, then sometimes drinks and appetizers, and very rarely, cookies and desserts. I would much rather cook than bake! I plan meals based on the recipes, first using ingredients I know I have, and then make a shopping list for what I need. I turn over the corner of the page that has the recipe so that when I am ready to make the dish, I can find it easily. I try to cook from one book at a time. I have a system.
Just after I had this conversation with my husband, I took out a cookbook, looking for a particular recipe for ham balls. I've been craving them, had purchased the main ingredients, and needed to refer to a recipe to make sure I had it all ready to go. This particular cookbook came from my Grandma Wilma's house, after she died a few years ago. I love this cookbook, which is a centennial cookbook from the church she attended at that time. It has all of the regular dutch Reformed dishes and a few that are more rare.....and my grandma has written recipes on the blank space of many of the pages......in her beautiful script. When I see her hand-written notes and recipes, I remember years of birthday cards she wrote to me. I miss her. I miss being her grand-daughter.
On this particular occasion, as I sat down with my tall glass of ice water and this red-covered Central Reformed Church cookbook, on a late Friday afternoon... I decided to start at the back of the book. She had a few hand-written recipes in the back, and then there was a page that the cookbook company had printed of scripture......verses that help if you feel: anxious, sad, happy, worried, joyful, etc. Dozens of scriptures. Further into the book was a sweet poem.......
Eventually I found the ham ball recipe I needed and dog-eared it. As I closed the book that doesn't even have a back page anymore I smiled quietly and thought to myself. Cookbooks may not be as necessary as they once were. Internet recipes may be quicker......but nothing is more beautiful that sitting in the sun for awhile with my grandmother's cookbook......and her hand-written words.....and a volume of recipes written by wives and mothers and grandmothers......
Technology can go where it may. I'm keeping my cookbooks.
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