My Recipe Box ..... More Than Just Recipes!

My Recipe Box

I have not one but four recipe boxes. I keep the three smaller boxes specifically for recipes that I find in the newspaper or a magazine and think it sounds good and someday may try them. All recipes are neatly filed according to categories. Three boxes are 4 x 5 1/2" and 4" high and the fourth box which is 5 1/2" x 13 1/4 inch deep x 4" high. Also in the largest box, the recipes are all filed according to categories with category dividers. Each recipe in the large recipe box is enclosed in a plastic sleeve to protect the recipe card from spills or splatters as these are favorite recipes from over the years of marriage. This may sound a little eccentric to some who do not enjoy cooking and entertaining as we do.

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I have given thought to what a recipe box exposes. My mother died in 2003. One of her possessions that her daughters were interested in keeping was her recipe box. Mother had recipes that were given to her by her mother and her aunts and in their handwriting. Being the frugal children of German immigrant parents, these recipes were written on a calendar page, the back of an envelope, and I found some written on whatever was available that was blank. It was the generation of home remedies. Being a nurse, these recipes could have possibly been a cure but my guess is that it was unlikely. I found a recipe for a Parsley "brew" for high blood pressure. My mother's aunt wrote on the recipe that it took a quart "to do good". Then I found a recipe for a potion which contained coal oil for rheumatism. I am glad that my mother never believed in "snake oil".

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We came across a small box which belonged to mother that contained a selection of recipes clipped from magazines and the side of a product box. I don't know if she used these recipes much. She really didn't need recipes as she added and tasted as she went along in her preparation and that was how she cooked. I remember cakes that she made with a lump of shortening, coffee cups of flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, some eggs, and vanilla. Nothing was measured specifically and the results were delicious.

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My mother gave birth and raised fourteen children. She was an exceptionally good cook. She felt complimented when we requested certain dishes for dinner. To this day our memory of her feather light buttery clover-leaf dinner rolls and her lemon meringue pies make all of my brothers and sisters salivate when we recall them. As soon as mother would arrive at a family gathering, everyone knew what was ahead if they didn't wait to long to get in line. They knew these would be the first chosen of the selections. One day I asked mother what her recipe was for her lemon meringue pies. She replied, "I just use the recipe on the side of my cornstarch box". Her meringue was a mile high with the curls and always just golden. What an artist.

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My recipe box is a compilation of forty-eight years of recipes. Some recipes recall a certain treat made on the occasion of a birthday i.e. The Popcorn Cake. Some were recipes we used for picnics. Each recipe has a date and from who or how I obtained it. If I found the recipe in the paper, I have the name of the newspaper written on the recipe card. My box has special memories because I often recall many who gave me the gift of their friendship over my lifetime. It is such a nice way to recall them or their memory.