recipes from the past

I've always enjoyed organizing other people's stuff. As a kid, I remember organizing the linen closet and kitchen cabinets. Not too long ago, I organized all of my mom's beads into plastic cases by color. Heck, as an librarian/archivist, I basically organize for a living! Unfortunately, this interest does not translate very well to my own home - but we're working on that one. :)

On a lazy afternoon this past week while we were hanging around my parents' new home, I sorted through my mom's recipe cards and categorized them. I loved the retro recipe card designs, recognizing the handwriting of many family members and old family friends, the evidence of use (the card for mom's favorite cranberry cake is barely legible - see below), and the quirky names (i.e., "mighty muffins"). There is a lot of family history in those cards - Grandma Diehn's German potato salad, Grandpa Croker's baked beans, and so on. In some ways, it's unfortunate that most shared recipes these days are e-mailed links, but it's still great that we share favorite foods with each other.

A selection of my favorites.

Mom has made this cranberry cake a time or two, as you can see.

This is one I wrote out as a kid.

My dad's pancake recipe.

Grandpa Croker's recipe for baked beans, written out on a piece of notebook paper.

This one is in my mom's handwriting and is written on my favorite recipe card design. Love those retro strawberries!

A recipe for rhubarb jam from my Aunt Jan.

Organizing piles.