The Family Cookbook (And Friends)

About ten years ago, my sister convinced me that we needed to compile a family cookbook so our family recipes were passed down...she went all out and collected recipes from everyone. She typed some up and the rest I was supposed to format in some semblance of order. I've put it off for years. We also continue receiving recipes from various members of the family and close friends.

Aunt Kathy wants to get it going again. She has drawings and recipes she'd like ot compile, too.

So I dragged out my luggage bag full of recipes written on backs of envelopes, index cards, used paper and even the occasional notepad. Sone are typed neatly, some are scrawled at the bottom of a torn cash register reciept or grocery list. Some are torn out of magazines (technically not "our" recipes, unless someone altered some of the ingredients, which is what usually happens). Then there are newspaper clippings, downloads from friends online and hastily scribbled shorthand from others. Sigh.

Mom and I spent most of the day yesterday going through them and trying to organize them into catagories. We ditched most of the professional recipes from copyrighted sources, unless we know for a fact that a family member or friend modified it to our tastes. That got rid of about 1/8 of the recipes LOL.

Today, I'm typing the recipes by catagory into the computer. Once I have them all in, we'll spend some time adding clip art (copyright free), drawings from family and friends and stories and drawings from the kids.

When I sit at the computer for hours on end working on one of my manuscripts, the time flies. Its like I don't have enough time to write all I have to say.

But sitting here, slogging through the recipes and typing them in...sigh. Time is dragging. I got delegated for the task because I type somewhere in the vicinity of 80 words a minute and I am mostly a touch typist.

However, there is one neat thing. We're finding old recipes we'd forgotten about and Mom has stashed a few of them to try out while I'm typing in the other stuff.

This morning, she made biscuits and chocolate gravy - an old, old dish my grandmother used to feed us for special treat breakfasts. Mom used to make it when we were very little and its been years since I've had it! I expect good things to eat in the coming weeks as I work on this...bon appetit!