Recipes are a Slice of Life

Joanna Bailey, Director, Neill Public Library

A self-proclaimed foodie, I love reading about food almost as much as I enjoy eating it, and that’s saying something.  I love reading recipes and enjoy them the way many people enjoy novels.  Every recipe is a short story waiting to be discovered with a beginning, middle, and end.  Some are good, some are better.  Good writing style stirs imagination and breathes flavor into the story.  Words like sauté, marinate, and julienne are meant to be savored, rolled around on the tongue before spoken slowly.  An exciting story can have me smelling the butter browning and hearing the meat sizzling before my stove is even turned on.

A recipe is a slice of life captured in a unique way.  Like a snapshot it preserves a moment in time but it also comes with the blueprints for recreating that experience time and time again.  It involves you.  As you measure flour, swish the whisk or fold with the spatula your motions are the same motions taken by every cook ever before you.  You are reaching back into someone’s kitchen and recreating their experience.  Their slice of life, their moment in time.  The aromas you create in your kitchen are both new and ancient at the same time.

I love old recipes; better still are the ones handwritten on yellowed index cards.  My most treasured finds are recipes that have been annotated and splattered from being used many times over.  These recipes are rock stars.  Tried and true, the go-to when you need-to.  These recipes nurtured families for generations and saw them through good times and bad. 

I recently acquired several very old cookbooks from my mother-in-law’s collection with recipes spanning from 1915 – 1970.  One book was from my grandmother-in-law’s retirement community, Strawberry Fields, in Mustang, Oklahoma.  Another was from a police auxiliary in Lubbock, Texas.  The recipes are deeply southern and budget friendly with a heavy reliance on beef, vegetables, oleo, jello and canned fruit.  A snapshot of southern living from hard days lived.

As I read recipes from Strawberry Fields, I recalled my grandmother-in-law, Ollie Belle Gothard, fondly.  We did not know each other for long, as she was older by the time I came into their family.  But I vividly recall our first meeting.  I was young and nervous.  She was older and gentle and kind.  No sooner had I introduced myself then she opened her arms and enveloped me in a warm hug.  Though our conversation was short, it was long on southern welcome.  I wish I had known her longer.  Many of the recipes included in Strawberry Fields were hers.  Recreating them has been a sentimental journey. 

From her kitchen to yours, here is one of my favorite:
German Cabbage Slaw
1 large head of cabbage                               2 TB sugar
2 large onions                                                 1 TB salt
1 green pepper                                               1 TB dry mustard
1 tsp. celery seed                                           1 cup vinegar
1 cup of sugar                                                 ¾ cup oil
Shred vegetables.  Place in large bowl.  Add celery seed and 1 cup sugar.  Bring remaining ingredients to a rolling boil.  Pour over vegetables; cover immediately.  Refrigerate 24 hours.  Will keep for 2 months.

I also love recipes with unusual names and simple ingredients.  Here is a savory gem I discovered from the Lubbock Police Auxiliary courtesy of Georgianna White:
Cheese “Cookies”
2 cups grated cheese (I used cheddar)
2 sticks oleo (margarine or butter)
2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp red pepper (cayenne)
2 cups Rice Krispies
Mix and fold ingredients.  Roll into balls, flatten with fork, and bake at 375 degrees for 12 – 15 minutes.

Have I got you in a mood to cook?  Neill Public Library has over 300 cookbooks from all corners of the world.  Pick up an armful or two today!