I am extremely fortunate to be married to a very good cook. My husband excels in the culinary department and fortunately he tolerates my cooking. I cook a few things very well—cherry pie, my mother’s meatloaf, my mother’s spaghetti sauce, shrimp and grits—but he can take almost any recipe and make it even more delicious than you imagined. As I said, I am lucky.
We have a well-organized black notebook where we keep recipes. There are far too many recipes we have never attempted in the notebook. Periodically we both agree that we really need to go through the notebook and purge recipes we don’t think we will ever make. This purge has yet to happen; after all, you never know when you might want to try your Australian friend Jan’s shortbread from her granny’s recipe. Sometimes when we add a recipe to the notebook, it is fun to add a “historical” note.
You read the NYTimes and think, “Oh, that sounds delicious,” so you print out the recipe and put it in the notebook. You dine with friends and ask for their recipe for a particularly delicious dish.
We really should have an entire section devoted to curries as we both love curries and Tom makes multiple delicious versions. We enjoyed a red lentil and sweet potato dahl just yesterday. He also knows how to add something that is not in the original recipe but is always an improvement, like the chopped avocado and cherry tomatoes he added as a garnish to yesterday’s dahl. Delicious! He is also a master at leaving out onions (due to my deathly allergy) and finding a substitute, like mushrooms. We both always laugh when people give us the lecture about how you can’t possibly make soup without onions. You can. You can make quite delicious soups without onions. Just ask my husband. And me. Yum!
The notebook does contain some tried and true recipes. Our daughter’s quiche recipe is our go-to when we are pondering something quick and delicious that works for breakfast, lunch or dinner. You can see by the various spills and splashes on the recipe that it is oft-used and well-loved. I also notice that I don’t mention in the quiche recipe that you pour it into a pie crust. You don’t have to but we usually do. Some recipes are so familiar that you don’t have to include every step or ingredient.
We have multiple beef stew recipes that range from Julia Child to one from my friend Alice who is no longer on this side of the Great Beyond but her recipe lives on. I love it that she added a note that she added more wine than the recipe called for.
I have quite a few recipes from dearly loved friends that we once cherished breaking bread with but must now content ourselves to make their homemade granola or a special side dish.
There are a few handwritten recipes stuck in the pocket of the notebook. One my sister shared with me of our grandmother’s Applesauce Cake; my Vermont friend Ann’s to die for chocolate pound cake that she brought to my going away party; and the recipe from my college roommate’s mother—her brown bread was the first time I knew you could actually make your own bread.
When I look through this notebook it is a bit like visiting with old friends—there’s my friend Mary’s step-by-step instructions on how to make twice-baked potatoes (as well as her recipe for Carrot Cake); my sister-in-law’s delicious and metaphorically true to its name Death By Chocolate dessert (it not only contains chocolate but coffee liqueur—scrumptious!); my mother’s bridge partner Mary Louise’s Pineapple Casserole…yes, recipes and the food they create are indeed like visiting with old friends.
I am thankful that my husband's culinary genes seem to have been passed down to both our children and even to our grandchildren. One youngest granddaughter recently told me how she was really enjoying cooking now and reminisced how she once was “afraid of the oven.” No longer afraid. She made her mother an awesome brownie birthday cake.
Another granddaughter just celebrated one of their dog’s birthdays by baking him a special dog-delightful cake complete with peanut butter icing. I think you can tell by their older dog’s expression that she was glad she was invited to the party, too.
Cherish those who share their recipes and their dishes with you. Here’s to all the great cooks and even the not-so-great cooks! And remember…
I am lucky to have a dad that can work magic in the kitchen!
I wonder where Tom got those culinary genes.