CHERISHED RECIPES
My sister recently finished going through the last of mom's possessions. Among the items she sent to me was a cookbook that mom used, but many of grandma's recipes were in. It has been fun to look through the cookbook page by page and see familiar names, or at least familiar last names.
I thought that my readers would find the recipes interesting. But mostly I am pointing out that our ancestors had real lives. In this case, both sides of my family attend this church. Going to church at Covenant, even now, means seeing cousins, aunts, uncles, and other assorted relatives.
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| Source: my personal collection |
I was hoping to share some history of the church here as well, but a five-minute search only turned up a book about the history of this church at the Lancaster History site.
I do remember various relatives on both sides of the family saying that Covenant and Bethel merged in the 1960's which allowed Covenant to tear down that building to make a parking lot for Covenant. Up to that point, the paternal side folks went to Bethel.
Before starting on the recipes, I want to share page 2 of this book simply because of the handwriting. As family historians, we are always looking for examples of our ancestors' signatures or handwriting. Here is a fun example simply because it has both my grandma's and moms' on the same page.
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| Source: my personal collection |
So on to the recipes:
The first is on page 21-22. I grew up eating this bread. I never thought about where the recipe may have come from until I saw grandma's name under it.
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| Source: personal collection |
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| Source: personal collection Notice that mom even wrote in her own note about this recipe. |
The next recipe was contributed by six different ladies so it must have been one of those popular recipes for church dinners. Anyway, Aunt Darlene (GARNER) DOWLIN was one of those ladies.
But notice there is also another person from the large and extended GROFF family too.
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| Source: personal collection |
On page 63 is an icing recipe from grandma. I vaguely remember this one as being too sweet for my taste. But we were not allowed to waste food so I could not just scrape it off the cake.
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| Source: personal collection |
Page 64 is another recipe from Aunt Darlene (GARNER) DOWLIN. I don't have any real memories of this one. Probably something we had at holiday meals and there was just so much food that we could choose our favorites.
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| Source: personal collection |
Turn the page, and there is another recipe from grandma. I personally do not like these and tried very hard to avoid eating them. Avoiding these wasn't hard since they were a specialty item that only showed up for holiday meals - thankfully.
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| Source: personal collection |
Page 103 contains the pie crust mom (Pauline) used and I still use. I can remember when mom tried different pie crust recipes and had complaints about every one of them. She resorted back to grandma's recipe by the time I hit my teens. This is an easy recipe and turns out great every time.
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| Source: personal collection |
This raisin pie is one of my favorites. Mom made it occasionally in winter and it was gone quickly. I make it a few times a year and enjoy it just as much now as many years ago.
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| Source: personal collection |
On page 207 is a recipe that only asparagus lovers will like - certainly another one of those that I tried to avoid. No way would I make it, but both grandma and mom liked asparagus and this casserole.
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| Source: personal collection |
I don't remember ever having this punch at all, but who knows! Anyway, I like mint so this might be something to try the next time I need punch for a church or family function.
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| Source: personal collection |
Enjoy the memories:
If you are lucky enough to have family cookbooks or handwritten recipes, enjoy the memories that go with them. Maybe the food produced from the recipes is not your favorite - what about the memories that go with this food?
Was it something that was only made for certain holidays, reunions, or was it something you ate regularly?
Do you make the item now, or is it something that you would enjoy making?
There are certain foods that are very "Lancaster County" and I like. Things like raisin pie, apple dumplings, cabbage slaw, and shoofly pie.
Food is for eating but it is also for memories. Pass both the food and memories on.
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| Source: Bing clip art |
All the post content writing and photos is my own unless I state otherwise.
