Kitchen Chat

Re: Handwritten Recipes

Lynn1018 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:38:42 GMT

I have a few in my grandmother's handwriting...mainly she just cooked by look & feel. She'd 'set' yeast dough every Saturday morning & make coffee cakes out of what ever fruit was in season. My brother wants me to recreate her apple coffee cake...I've come close but haven't gotten it right. She made wonderful dumplings...bread & plum dumplings (which I miss). I have a few from my mom but she didn't like to cook as much as grandma & mostly used an old cook book from the late 30's - a wedding present. Uses lots of lard :-(

Re: Handwritten Recipes

superglide — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:31:48 GMT

none from my grandmothers. i do have some from my mother. some i copied in my handwriting, but i know they are hers. especially from holidays dnners, like scalloped oysters, etc.

after my mother died, my oldest brother called me up, freaking out because he couldn't find my mother's recipes and cookbooks. my middle brother is the executor, he had an estate sale, and who knows where that stuff ended up. maybe he stashed them. he always had a knack for grabbing the good stuff.

anyway, when DB called, i laughed and said i have the ones i wanted. i also watched her cook over the years, so i knew how to do it her way. some of the recipes are just add this, some of that, a little of the other, etc. no real recipe, like her potato salad.

Re: Handwritten Recipes

IrisWi — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:24:10 GMT

After my mom died I went through her green metal recipe box and pulled some of her classics like Banana Cake, Chinese Cauliflower, German Potato Salad. These are all in her handwriting and so very special to me.

I am one for cute recipe cards and notecards, which I find at Hallmark or the bookstores. When everyone started sending bulk word-processor letters, I still hung on to my notecards, or sent longer letters on designer paper. One friend, a lady whom I have always admired, commented once on how she appreciated the personalization of the hand-written letters I would send her.

I like receiving the hand-written recipes over the printed ones, even if on a plain old index card!!

Re: Handwritten Recipes

luv2can — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:11:43 GMT

i have some old recipes from my grandma but i wrote them down as she told me. hate to say this but if i handwrote my recipes, no one would be able to read my writing. it has gotten so bad lately. i am working on making recipe books for all the girls for christmas, since i'm having surgery the end of this month, i'll have plenty of time to work on them.

Re: Handwritten Recipes

debjg_ny — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:50:37 GMT

I do have my mother's cook book with recipes, some are her mother's. The strange thing that happened to me was that I was googling my uncle"s name the other day, and on the result's list, was my paternal grandmother's name. I clicked on her name, and there was a picture of her with her obit. She was born on June 11, 1900, and passed on June 12, 2000. Yep she lived to be 100 plus 1 day. I have lost most of the other pictures that I have of her, so I was overjoyed th get to go back to this sight to see her.

Re: Handwritten Recipes

fryer_mi — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:42:50 GMT

I hand write my recipes, and I have both my mom's and grandmother's tin recipe boxes both full of their old recipes. I have a small area between a bay window and cupboards in my kitchen and haven't found the right picture to hang there--I think framing the handwritten recipes would be perfect. Thanks for the idea Summer!

Re: Handwritten Recipes

gr_elo — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:42:13 GMT

Yes, I do have a few my grandfather wrote around 1975-1880 into the nopte section section of the 1870 recipe book for pastry bakers and confectioners. (I still have the book) The recipies are for

Muzemandeln,

those are very small, almond shaped doughnuts about 1 1/4" to 1 1/2"" long after frying. The dough(s) has finely ground almonds, rosewater a/o wine in it. There are 3 different variations.

They were only made during Fastncht (the German Mardi Gras). It is a shame the old metal cutter was lost during a bombng, it ws shaped like a flower with many almond shaped petals and cut about 24+ at one time. Later we had a plastic cutter (two long rows) that I still have.

It's been some years since I have made them, they are sinfully good and you can't stop munching them.

Re: Handwritten Recipes

GrandmaK_54_Illinois — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:34:25 GMT

I just brought my mother's recipe box home last month. It has some of her handwritten recipes, along with some of her friend's who are long gone. It's a real treasure. I have my own handwritten recipe box too.

Re: Handwritten Recipes

Debbie_BayVillage — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:33:59 GMT

I have a metal recipe box that belonged to one of my late aunts. It's full of index cards with either hand-written recipes or a recipe cut from a newspaper or magazine oasted to a card with her handwritten notes. I have a binder of my own with a lot of handwritten stuff (by me) in it. My mom has about five binders full of recipes, a combination of printed, typed and handwritten (by her or other family members). I consider my aunt's recipes and my mom's binders to be treasures, that's for sure.

Re: Handwritten Recipes

Summer74 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:32:25 GMT

Neat stories!

I got both my parents books about where they grew up. Mom's was a cookbook & Dad's was a biography. I told them to go to town with them -- write in the margins any memories the books provoked. I'm so glad I did this!

I have a book called To Our Children's Children by Bob Greene. It's a blank book with all sorts of memory-provoking questions about your life, with space to write your answers. I've filled out most of it.

Re: Handwritten Recipes

buffetfan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:24:51 GMT

I still handwrite all the recipes that get transferred to my recipe box. They will be for my son's families. I also scrapbook my boys favorites in my handwriting with scrapbooking pens, taking pictures of us either making the recipe or them enjoying it. I do have my Mom's handwritten recipes and she has 3 journal books, all handwritten, that will be mine. I use them all the time now. I have a few of my grandma-in-laws cookbooks (4 children, 15 grandchildren and numerous greats, none of whom wanted them, can you believe it??! Lucky me!) with handwritten notes next to recipes. Tucked inside were a few of her handwritten ones. My maternal grandmother was from Italy and never wrote anything down. Bummer. I want my kids and grandkids to have this stuff.

Re: Handwritten Recipes

vammie — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:24:40 GMT

Hi Summer...

I have quite a few of my mom's handwritten recipes and several that she typed up too. Have some from several aunts, mom's sisters. None from my grandmother and not sure why as she was a terrific cook....I do have a couple of recipes but in my own handwriting from her telling me.

My mom was a professional secretary and many of her recipes are written in shorthand and few people know how to read it. I got most of them "translated" by a cousin who could do shorthand.

I love the old recipes...especially the vague-ness of them....and what a good idea to frame them with an old kitchen tool.

Have a wonderful day!

vammie

Handwritten Recipes

Summer74 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:19:08 GMT

I was thinking about this the other day, while printing out some recipes. Does anyone write recipes out by hand any more?

Do you have any of your mother's handwritten recipes? Your grandmother's? Do you enjoy seeing them?

I have very few of my mother's, and none of my grandmother's. The ones I do have are special to me. You know how it is as soon as you see someone's familiar writing, especially if that person is no longer living.

I'm trying to include some of my own handwritten recipes in my notebooks. I'm also making handwritten notes in cookbooks and on printed recipes. In some cases, I've noted things like, "Made this for dessert your first day of high school," or "Made this for your graduation party." I think that's what adds "Mom's personal touch" to a recipe.

I've seen old, yellowed, stained handwritten recipes framed & hung in kitchens, perhaps in a shadow box with an old kitchen tool or two included. I think that's a sweet touch.