My Mom’s Recipes

I’m sure many of you have family cookbooks. You know the type. The contain the tried and true family favorites. Perhaps the recipes are handwritten. Maybe some are typed. If you look at the pages I’m sure you can find a stain or two from a food splatter or spill. My family has one just like this. We simply call it the “Brown Cookbook” as the binder is brown in color it is not necessarily a truly original name.

Many of the recipes in the book bring back childhood memories. I can remember the endless line of casseroles that we had for dinner when I was in elementary school. There are the mint melt-a-ways, an extremely rich chocolate dessert. There are simple recipes for the many dips and spreads we used to have at family gatherings.

Over Christmas, I started typing all of these recipes up so that we could share a copy between our whole family. I’m still working on the project. Each time I open the book I see a mixture of typed and hand written pages.

The cursive writing seems to envelope me every time I look at it. I struggle at times to decipher the swirls and curves of my mother’s penmanship. As I work my way from one recipe to another I relish the images that come to mind. The memories seem to come out from the darkness, from the far recesses of my brain. I welcome them all as most include at least a brief glimpse of my mom. I treasure these memories because as each year passes I struggle more and more to recall what my mom looked like, what her voice sounded like.....