This weekend I baked my first recipe from my Grandmother’s cookbook. And so thus begins my latest project. ;]
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this new project yet or not, so here’s the background (to skip just keep scrolling down):
Last September my Grandmother passed away. Before and after her memorial in San Diego my aunt and mom were sorting through her things. I inherited a great deal of art supplies, a kiln and kick wheel, and jewelry. But one other thing interested me –– Her well used green binder of handwritten recipes and recipe clippings. The pages were old and yellowed, with recipes scrawled out in a barely legible deep blue pen. At the time I was still trying to decide on a topic for my thesis and had been pondering the idea of a recipe/cookbook dealing with the baking heritage that has been passed through my family. My aunt took the cookbook binder, and had planned on typing up all the recipes so we could each have copies. And that was the last I’d heard about the cookbook until this past month.
My aunt was had a double knee replacement surgery (I know… she’s crazy ;] ), and my grandfather had driven up from San Diego to stay with her and help her with her recovery. On his way back home, he stopped at my parent’s house to take a couple-day break from driving. And as we always do when he’s in town, we had a group dinner. When I walked through my parent’s door, my grandpa handed me my grandmother’s cookbook and explained the history behind the book, as far as he knew. He told me that my aunt realized her idea of typing all the recipes just wasn’t going to work, and she knew I had been interested in it and so was handing it down to me.
After some detective work in the cookbook binder, I’ve determined that my great grandmother handwrote a majority of the recipes. I found a letter from ‘mom and dad’ to Lane and Jeanne (my grandparents), and the cursive scrawl perfectly matches that of the blue ink recipes. So I think that this binder was originally hers, with her recipes and clippings and then she gave it to my grandmother or my grandmother inherited it when she passed away. Either way, this recipe book has at least 4 generations of hands on it. [great grandmother, grandma, aunt, me].
After my cookbook I created for my bookarts class last year dealing with recipes and childhood baking memories with my mom and grandmother, I felt that I could do an extension of that project with this cookbook. I haven’t worked out the details yet, but I know that it will at least involve cooking/baking recipes out of the book, photographing the result, and reflecting on the heritage of baking and cooking in my family. As I start I’m sure my ideas will become more concrete.
Anyway, this weekend I tried my first recipe: Coffeecake Betty’s. I’m guessing Betty was a friend or neighbor of my great-grandmother. And Betty can bake. ;]
The recipe was simple, and the result was delicious. (I of course had this idea I’d make a fluted dish by using a normal cake pan and then a small metal bowl in the middle and aluminum foil to hold the batter in place…. And it did, but it also prevented me from removing the coffee cake in one piece. It broke apart as I attempted to peal away the aluminum foil and I ended up cutting it into pieces.
I brought it to church on Sunday and shared it with friends during our lunch fellowship, and everyone LOVED it. Like really loved it… as in each person that tried it said something along the lines of “this is so yummy” or “that’s delicious!” once, twice, or even three times.
With such great results from my first recipe, I can’t wait to try another. ;]
