Friday, December 17, 2021

Friday, Well-loved recipes


 When I was a teenager and cooking and baking, I would get out my mom's cookbooks and they were tattered, and food stained.  Pages falling out, spines cracked and torn, and I told myself I would never let my cookbooks look like hers.

 Well 50 years later I have to laugh as my cookbooks, are worse than hers ever were.  My youngest daughter asked me to send her the Swedish recipe that was my great grandmother's and here is the copy I have.  Note the artwork on it done by my eldest when she was little.  Now I could copy this again, but memories? She was chiding me for the messy pictures I sent, well we will see if she can do better.


Look at this page in my Betty crocker cookbook, which by the way has no spine cover left at all, and the pages are often stuck together.

I am a messy cook.  My grandmother was a messy cook and so was my mother.  Oh well, I can live with that.

We still have Oliver and right now he is sleeping on the bed behind me. The house is a constant mess of toys and bottles, but he is still a joy.

I was able to get three more kinds of cookie dough made yesterday, and I hope to be able to get those done, today but we will see. Hubs has an office (his old office) Christmas party tonight.  We have to drive an hour there and back and I really don't want to go, but I will if he wants to.  It is the drive in the dark, on the crappy narrow roads. I would just rather stay home and bake.

Tomorrow Lil sis comes here, and we knock out, more pretzel dipping, Krumkake which is done on and iron, then lefsa which is a potato bread done on a special skillet.  It requires a special rolling pin and turner.  Then last, we do rosettes, which on are made on irons dipped in batter and fried in hot oil.  All the while we are making spritz and other cookies in the oven.  It will be quite the day, but if we can get all this done, I will be done with my baking.  Hooray! It will be nice to have mum here to help it is an extra set of hands.

I ran out this morning to get a prescription I tried to pick up yesterday and the pharmacy was crazy busy. There were only 3 chairs for sitting and I left those to the elderly.  I also let 2 elderly people in front on me as the wait was so long, and they were standing.  Took over an hour of standing to get the meds.  Frustrating.  I also went to Wal greens and got copies of Oliver's cookie stealing picture to frame for myself and his other grandma.  I also got a copy of a picture of an ornament that Hub's mom hung on our tree of one of her great grandchildren, she has never met.  But she received a letter and the ornament from him, and it has his cute little face on it.  She writes to him regularly, so we put the ornament on the tree and took a picture of it and then I had it developed so she could send him a copy of himself on her tree. She was thrilled.  It is the simple things.

The shop has gotten busy all of a sudden, which is nice as I can use the money.  But with Oliver here sewing is out of the question, and I think I will have all three kids next week as Schmills is out of school and Nates schedule is changing.  I guess I will be sewing at night.  I can do that.

So now I am off to make peppekakkor, sucre kasse, and kranzer cookies. I hope I can get them done before we have to leave for the party, but if not, we will squeeze then in tomorrow.

Have a great and productive day staying positive while you are in the negative.

Kim


25 comments:

  1. Your truly need to make copies of the recipes, the one with the drawing and the one from the book - frame them and give them to your daughter. I would love a keepsake like that!
    You sure are a glutton for baking!!!!

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    1. Cheryl, my sister in law just lost her mom and I found a woman on etsy who transcribed a recipe in her mom's handwriting on a tea towel! I don't have a creative bone in my body but am so thankful for those that do.

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    2. I do need to find someway of preserving this for Jess.

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  2. Kim you are a busy bee. I need to get my butt in the kitchen and start baking too. Treasure those old recipes, no matter how messy they are. I wish I had gotten my grandmother's old recipes before she died.

    Is it crazy that I actually understood those Swedish cookie names, especially the kranzer ones. It's so similar to my first language (Dutch/Afrikaans). Have a great weekend Kim!

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    1. That is great, I am almost done, just have to decorate cookies and then I can finally sew.

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  3. The only way I could sew when J was that age was to put a baby gate on the sewing room door. Then, he stood and yelled, cried, begged and then threw all his toys in with me. But, I did sew. I am not suggesting you do this, just commiserating. My recipe book was a mess, but it is gone now.

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    1. I remember my youngest in a play pen screaming and I just ignored her.

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  4. I have no idea where you get your energy from my friend! My goodness! ;) I hope you enjoy that party and that the roads are good for you. Enjoy Oliver!

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    1. It was nice, but I would have rather stayed home. The weekend was so hectic and today is not much better.

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  5. Yes I am a messy cook too Kim & my recipe books look like yours. Youngest son was obsessed with drawing sharks so this is what is on many of my pages. I well remember promising myself that when my youngest son started school that I would have more time to put a nice clean tidy recipe book together. Well that son is now 37 years old & I still have the same recipes .. all tatty & stained & well loved. xx

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    1. I think I need to find some way of preserving them.

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  6. Hey, thank you! Now I have your caramel recipe. My recipe book is falling apart. It's the 1987 church cookbook, and it's a walk down memory lane. Some day I will scan each page, and out a PDF version together and share with my daughter's and anyone else that wants it. It's our wedding year and was a gift.

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    1. You know my two favorite cookbooks were also wedding presents.

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  7. My cookbooks have the same look. I always say they are well loved.

    God bless.

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    1. I know if well loved, is falling apart at the seams and rips spills and stains all over.

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  8. A question? I want to try the cookie recipe but do use margarine or butter? Thanks!

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    1. A good quality, IT SHOULD SAY GOOD FOR BAKING on the box Margarine only with this recipe,

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  9. That is so funny. I have my grandmother's recipes and there is one that I did a bit of drawing on SO many years ago that I cherish.

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    1. You know you have to keep those kids happy while you try and get something done.

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  10. My grandmother’s recipes and cookbooks were the same way! Lol

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  11. I have been compiling a cookbook for each of my 3 sons with all the familiar recipes they grew up with including a special Christmas food section. I am both handwriting and typing all of the recipes. I have several written by Mom, my MIL, and my grandmother. The only problem with the handwritten ones in they are worn and some of the ingredients are "fuzzy".

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    1. I know that is when you have to test with different ingredients and figure out which one is right, like I am sorry I am not going to use reindeer meat in my casserole.

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  12. I have my mother's Good Housekeeping cookbook, which she received as a wedding present in 1952. So many splattered/ripped pages! I especially love seeing her handwritten changes to recipes as she died in 1987.

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    1. I know such treasured memories. You are blessed to have this.

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