This is what’s its doing here today. April 14, 2013 and it’s a blizzard outside. Gross.
But, on the bright side, all my homework is done, the house is clean, the laundry is humming along and the kids are playing.
I puttered around the house after we got home from church and as I was putting away a cookbook, I came across one my mom and dad got us for Christmas. It’s a family cookbook put together by one of my dad’s cousins. And to my surprise, not only does it have some great recipes, but it’s also got some great family history incorporated in it.
Here’s the cover:
My great-grandma is Jannet (pronounced Janette) and she was my dad’s grandma.
Here’s a picture of her a little bit older (from a page in the cookbook):
These old picture crack me up. They look so stiff and stern (and maybe they were).
Every other page has a picture or story about the family and all of the recipes are “family” recipes. Each includes the author and who they belong to. (Don’t you love going to family reunions and being asked who you belong to?)
My grandpa died when I was 7, but my dad and my mom have told me all kinds of stories about him. I wish I would’ve gotten to know him as a grown up.
One of my favorite bits I came across was about scones. (Oh, how I love scones.)
“Scone: This is an old Scottish every-day recipe meant to be made on top of the stove as contrasted to the fancier Scottish and English scones made with eggs and cream and cooked in ovens. (Stoves with ovens would have been rare among he early highland crofters.) It is usually cooked in an iron skilling and served warm with butter and honey.
It has been said that in the olden days, a good Scottish Homemaker seeing visitors coming down the road could have a fresh scone mixed up and on the stone plus water on in the time it took her husband to meet the guests at the door, take their coats and invite them in for a cup of tea.”
I’m a sentimental person and this just tugged at me.
One more picture, cause all I see is my brother in my grandpa in this one. (My grandpa is in the plaid shirt and grandma is to his right with the awesome glasses.)
This was probably taken in the mid to late 1960s. When I asked my dad why he wasn’t there, he figured he’d reached the age where he was too cool to go to family reunions. Remember being that age?
If you’ve got old recipes or cookbooks, read them, pass them on to your kids. There’s nothing better than reading through your own history. Every little tidbit helps to understand where you come from and who you belong to.
