Day 2 - 297 -- Kitchen Traditions

Cooking seems to fit this time of year well. This weekend I did some fall fruit crisps and one baked pork chop recipe from my childhood -- and a cookbook older than me that belonged to my Grandmother. the book is held together with an elastic band since the cover and pages are not longer stitched together at the beginning and end of the book. The cover and pages are breaking into bits each time I pull it out of the resealable plastic bag -- seems it was printed in the days before non-acid paper. I love this book as it shows its age well and is still very usable. My grandma pasted and taped onto the blank pages recipes from the newspapers and magazines that she had tried and chose to keep. There are old envelopes with recipes handwritten on the back -- she must have heard them on the radio or TV. The pages contain handwritten notes -- she used a 3-star system and in one or two cases wrote an emphatic 'NO' in capital letters as a reminder to move on next time that one caught her eye. It is a living history. She hasn't been with us for about 30 years and yet her voice is in my cooking each time I use this book. I also have used it as an example of accretion and erosion in the classroom -- erosion since it is falling apart from wear and accretion for the pages with stains that show where the most used recipes were.

Cooking is something that I've always enjoyed. There is a unique sense of satisfaction making something and then sharing it with others. Even enjoying it on my own is pleasant. A new addition to my cookbook collection is a book of recipes for one that are somewhat elevated cuisine -- The Pleasures of Cooking for One. The author is Judith Jones, the former Knopf editor who brought Mastering the Art of French Cooking to print and remained Julia Childs' editor. (Another interesting fact -- Jones brought The Diary of Anne Frank to the English-language market after other editors had chosen to ignore it. Imagine!) I often think of cooking as an art form not unlike music. Understanding the ingredients and how to put things together has allowed me to develop recipes of my own. I've said someday I'll put them down into a book -- likely after retirement <smile>. Whether new or old recipes, each carries a type of memory and sense of belonging. 

For this topic, there was one line that brought me to the selection for today. There are many versions of this song. The version shared here is from an early rock and roll duo. Enjoy! 

Memories are made of This -- The Everly Brothers