I’m sitting here looking at two giant bins, filled to the brim with marked-up cookbooks, handwritten recipes, newspaper cut-outs and binders, some overflowing with scraps of paper and one with a neatly folded plastic bag inside…a plastic bag?! What on earth is in that plastic bag??

These are my grandma (Grandma Joyce) and great grandma’s (Great Grandma Mary) recipe collections, they’ve been boxed up- for years and it is my turn to figure out the best use for them. What to do?
-Toss them? No, there might be some amazing tried and true recipes hiding in there!
-Sort and keep only the handwritten ones? Keeps the character, but what about the hidden gems?
-Make a recipe book for the family? Which ones would I keep? Who would actually use the book or would it just be a memento to add to an already full bookshelf?
-Prepare the recipes, modernize them, enjoy them, post pictures and notes along the way? Hopefully find some that should be mainstream again? Maybe remind some people of that special dish their grandma always made?

That’s it! Sounds like a project in the making and an overwhelming challenge that I think I’m crazily ready to accept!

Before I open that box you need to know my rules:

1. For better or worse, I’ll make three new recipes per week.
2. This is a butter house, margarine doesn’t exist. I’ll stray from the recipe on occasion…especially if it makes it better!
3. I’ll use modern conveniences to save a minute here and there.
4. If its no good, I’ll tell ya. Might even have to send a few recipes to “The Graveyard”.
5. I’m not one for rules so these just might change.

Here are some pics of what I’m up against. Wish me luck!

This is the small, tidy bin of the two.

Check out that champagne-colored recovered book. Must have been a Great-Grandma Mary favorite.

The above-mentioned plastic bag. Haven’t peeked! I’m saving that for a rainy day.

Wish I had the confidence to name my personal cookbook, “It Melts In Your Mouth”.

Thanks to the 60s and 70s for these awesome pops of color! Love it or hate it? I say, LOVE!

1st thought: a whole section dedicate to crepes?! Yes!!

2nd thought: How many molded salads do I have to make to give that category a fair chance?

 

Here goes!

Comment and let me know where you think I should start.