Joy in the Kitchen!

Several years ago at a family reunion auction, we bought a cookbook put together from my husbands grandmother's recipes.  Not all of them, but some she'd collected over the years.  The cousin who made this cookbook made copies of the recipe cards in grandma's own handwriting and assembled them into a cute binder.  Seeing these hand written cards brings back sweet memories of when I joined the family and grandma helped me feel so welcome!   Thank you Jeana! Grandma Evelyn would be 118 years old now if she were still here on earth, and I'm sure this recipe was from the years she was raising her children.  Definitely fits that vintage era!  I would guess the 1940's or 1950's.  There were some delicious recipes then that were very basic homemade food. I already use some of Grandma's recipes on a regular basis but I decided to try some of the others out of this cookbook.  Since we have a few apples on our tree that could be used, I decided to try ...

  Summer is winding down here and one of the best parts is that it is time to enjoy the fruits (or vegetables!) of our earlier summer labor planting a garden!  I love garden harvest season!  We are harvesting cucumbers right now.  So far I've canned several pints of Sweet Sticks and several quarts of my Mom's old recipe for Dill Pickles. The recipe I'm sharing today should really be named Linda's Fresh Dill Pickles.   I got the recipe from my Mom and her neighbor Linda gave it to her.  I have no idea why it is called a dill pickle as there is no dill in the recipe and there is sugar in it.  However, it does not have the usual turmeric, mustard seed, and cider vinegar that is often in sweet pickles.   The mystery may continue as neither Linda nor my Mom are around to ask.  If you prefer a traditional sweet pickle taste check out my mother-in-law's recipe Shirley's Sweet Refrigerator Pickles . Today I only mixed up a half batch so I c...

  I brought home an old cookbook from my Mom's stash of recipes.  I wish I'd have asked her more about it when she was alive, but now I'm just making guesses as to it's history.  This book is the Larkin Housewives Cook Book .  Copyright 1915,16,17, and 1923.   I love old books.  My Mom was born in 1929.  I would guess this is her mothers' cookbook.  Her mother passed away when Mom was 6 years old.  My grandpa cooked and had housekeepers to come watch after the house and children for several years after.  Any of them could have enjoyed using this cook book.    There are a few recipes with "good" or "very good" penciled in to the side.  A few small notes in lovely handwriting. (There are even pencil scribbles from a child on a few of the back pages - I had fun imagining my Mom or her brothers doing that while their mom's back was turned.)   One way I can tell the best recipes is in play in this book though, th...