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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Vintage Family History

My grandparents built their last home in 1970. My grandfather was a carpenter and he built a 4 bedroom home on 80 acres of land my grandma inherited when her dad passed away. It was "the home" on the stretch of road they lived on. Obviously this was a few years before I was even born. For as long as I can remember, there was a picture hanging in the garage (along with my great-grandfather's old tools, etc)that was of my great-grandfather when he was on a baseball team in the local village (pre-marriage). It was a picture I was always kind of fascinated with (which probably led to my interest in genealogy) and when my grandmother passed away in February, I made sure I grabbed it. It was something I *HAD* to have.

For the first time ever, I took the back off the frame and it was a WONDERFUL surprise to see the names of everyone in the picture written on the back in my grandmother's handwriting<3 Not parting with this picture for anything.

Monday, December 12, 2011

The Sweetness of the Past

Yep. OK. I seriously can be put into "bad blogger" mode now. No excuses, really...other than I I've been sick three times since September (thanks, kids, for bringing home the germs). As we speak, I am dealing with congested lungs and woke up this morning unable to talk (just whisper). How do I yell at my kids??????? Well, anyway. My parents went to visit my uncle yesterday. He still lives in my grandmother's house, which is a whole other ball of wax for another time. She retrieved my grandmother's recipe box for me. The one thing I remember and always cherished was my grandmother's cooking. RARELY was anything from a box. RARELY. Most things were from scratch. Yea, truly a concept in today's society, but those cream cheese christmas cookies were to DIE for. That potato salad? TO DIE FOR. And although I was never a pork fan, those PORK CHOPS were AMAZING...and nobody has been able to duplicate them for me no matter how "to the T" they followed my grandma's instructions. I am not sure if anything can be duplicated the same way she made things, but I, at least, can give it a shot now. Not sure if I should be stoked about this or curl up in a ball and sob. Either way, I would not EVER be without many of these things that were hers. It was all so much a part of ME, as well.

I really think the recipe box dates to the 50s....EASILY. The box is powder-pink, but my kitchen is a cranberry red so it's hard to get accurate pictures with the reflection:/



If you look CLOSELY at the above picture, you can see the word "LARD" written out. LARD!!!! Does ANYONE use lard, anymore?? Man, I LOVE having this in my possession. REAL food:) Going through it, I found those cream cheese cookies recipe. I found the pumpkin cookies that were terribly SINFULLLLLLL. I found a recipe for homemade (like SCRATCH) biscuits. Date Nut Bread. Peanut Brittle. Easter Salad Surprise. Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Frosting (SCRATCH!). Dill Pickles. Chili Sauce. I mean...name it..and it's in there. She had clippings from seriously old newspapers (before I was even born!), magazines, food boxes. How to make jams, and RASPBERRY GLAZE??? And GOD BLESS this lady.....many of the recipes have dates on them and who she got them from (some even from HER mother!)


I don't think I will be able to reproduce my grandmother's cooking, by any means, but, as she always told me when I always said there was no way I could cook like she was able to, "Have you ever TRIED?". I love you, Grandma!!!!