Simply Balisha

Simply Balisha

Monday, December 8, 2014

Why Do You Try New Recipes, When Your Old Ones Are So Good?

Do you have old recipes that are special to you? Do you get them out once in a while and just touch them? I have so many old recipes in boxes, books, tablets, written on napkins from restaurants, copied as Mom listened to WRMN, recipes that she kept from her mom and her grandma and great grandma.....and now they are mine.....and I treasure them. I love to see how the handwriting of each woman has similarities. I love the old "good" ones that are spattered with the ingredients of the recipe. My grandma always wrote her recipes on a stenographer's... (spiral at the top)... pad. She never used a recipe card. I can see her today, jotting down a recipe from a friend over the phone. Her "Church ladies" were all good cooks. Grandma sang in the 1st Methodist Church Choir and the ladies were multi talented..... beautiful musicians and wonderful cooks. Mom came by her talent in the kitchen easily. Her mother could make a meal out of leftovers like no one else. Mom could too. I asked her many times...."Why do you try new recipes when your old ones are so good?" My Dad was the apple of her eye...she just wanted to please him with beautiful food. 
This time of year brings back so many memories of my Mom in the kitchen. There she would be in her apron with pockets. No music playing but WRMN might be playing on the radio. The recipe shows...as she called them. Oh, wouldn't she love the food channel on TV? There would be a counter full of flour, sugar, butter, spices, nuts, dried fruits, chocolate etc. New cookies would be tried and if they didn't suit her...they were never to be made again. For a woman who didn't like to make cookies in her early years, she made so many in her later years. Two of her favorites that come to mind are Luscious Lumps....a cookie with mini chocolate chips that has cornstarch as one of it's ingredients, and Skillet cookies...a sticky date and nut filled creation. I don't remember her making fussy cookies that required rolling out...she was more of an earthy woman in the kitchen...enjoying the ones that you could put together easily and turned out delicious. 
I miss her most at this time of year. Every time I get a holiday recipe out, I think of her. I have followed in her lead....by trying new recipes. I think of my question to her that could apply to me now, "Why do you try new recipes, when your old ones are so good?"
Balisha

3 comments:

  1. That's an excellent question! I have fabulous recipes that I know I haven't made in years! But yet I keep pinning new ones on Pinterest! Crazy? Umm... maybe! Think I will dig out some of those old "tried and true" recipes this year! I feel the same as you about memories of my Mother and Grandmother cooking in their kitchens, they were both fantastic cooks and bakers. Oh I do miss having them here especially at this time of year. We still have our wonderful memories though, don't we?! Thanks for sharing yours. Have a wonderful week!

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  2. Balisha,

    I love how you address so many great subjects and food for thought (no pun intended!). I wish my mother kept better records...she did have a small three ring binder of recipes but I think one of my sisters got that before I had a chance. Sadly, she wasn't a great cook or baker, but I just adored her anyway. I'm a self taught cook. In baking, I think there are rules you just can't break. Accurate measuring, the rules of room temperature butter and eggs, the mixing of certain ingredients separate of each other. Cooking is so much more creative to me. Anything goes. And I think it has evolved tremendously over the years. Baking, too, but I find the old tried and true cakes, pies and cookies to be outstanding!! I don't sway from those recipes often.

    Jane xxx

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  3. I treasure the old recipe cards I have, written in all different handwriting. Most of my mothers recipes are ones I know by heart, but have recently been putting them down for my daughters. The blog is great for that :-)

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