There are times when I pull the old worn recipe box off the shelf and thumb through the various notes and recipe cards, choose what I want to bake and be on with my day.
Then there are days, like today, when it is cold, with snow covering the ground and the skys are steel grey, when nostalgia overtakes me and each recipe I pick up and read, brings back misty memories of baking and cooking at my Mother's side.
The Sugar Cookie Recipe she used all the time, simply listed the ingredients with no directions. The amounts overlapped each other on a no-line recipe card, the ink so faded out there were places on the card that could barely be read.
The first time I baked them I miss read the amounts of one ingredient and the cookies where so fragile they went "POOF" when you bit them! The look on my husband's face was priceless! The cookie simply disintegrated! I can see my Mom laughing as if she were beside me in the kitchen!
Her Pie Crust recipe and her Peanut Butter Cookie will never be substituted in my kitchen. These recipes are like a trusted friends, well received and counted on time after time.
I have kept the original scraps of paper and cards. I love the stains, creases, and scribbled notes. The handwritting is as familiar as the methods of cooking and baking. To re-write them on crisp clean cutesy recipe cards would somehow deface the integrity of her way in the kitchen. I just can't imagine her cakes would taste the same mixed and baked from anything but that time worn recipe.
