A Tribute to Family

I know those that read the blog probably wondered where I've been for 2 months.  Sadly, I've been absent due to some family events.  Unexpectedly, my Uncle Dale passed away the afternoon of October 30th.  That same week, I lost my Grandmother, Ruth.  The events were a true tragedy for my family as those were the only two immediate family elders on that side remaining.  With them passing, a part of me was lost as well.  I am amazed the entire clan passed in the months of September, October, or November and I will probably be forever fearful of family losses in those months.

While I haven't posted on my blog (words failed me), I was busy working on a culinary tribute to the family - a cookbook.  So many family memories centered on the food and family gatherings - what better tribute to a family legacy than a cookbook!  You may wonder whether I used a software program or other "template" to make the cookbook.  Actually, I didn't!  It's easy to format your own in Word.  Using "landscape" setting and 8.5 x 11-inch paper size, I formatted the cookbook using two columns per page and size 8 font.  Family photos were scanned and incorporated, as well as essays on family events and other recollections.  What I love is that there is no right or wrong - the recipes are those we loved and remembered as well as others that I believe were made for my father and uncle when they were children. 

The cookbook project was part of my grieving process, as well as a way to remember and honor the memory of this family.  What I will continue with is to make and document the heritage recipes of the family.  I will still write in this blog from time-to-time, but I'm creating a new blog for heritage recipes that I will make as a celebration of our loved ones now gone.  I hope you'll follow my blog www.recipesoffamilyheritage.blogspot.com and comment/contribute your own heritage recipes as well.  Help me to create a blog that becomes a living tribute to our loved ones and their treasured family recipes.

Happy New Year and keep cooking!

Tough Love on My Recipes

Be Tough! No Clip Crazy

If you've followed this blog (all 10 of you) since day 1, you know I started the blog to "tough love" my cookbook collection.  While I would love to say that's a success, honestly, it's an epic fail.  However, the reason why is that I've shifted to cooking most (but not all) of my recipes from cooking magazines. 

As I don't ever want to be featured on the tv show "Hoarders"

for holding onto cooking magazines for years, or let's face it, decades, I clip recipes from the magazine pretty soon after receipt.  That said, I do tend to let those same recipes continually accumulate and I end up throwing out probably 50% of them a couple years later after I realize I won't try them.  Oops!

For those of you that love "Extreme Couponing," a key them is organization!  Organization will keep things from spiraling out of control and consuming your life.  Ok, maybe it still becomes all consuming, but it's a more organized approach.

So, with that, here is the first in a series of cooking magazine recipe clipping rules and its implementation:

"Re-ClipR" (Recipe Clipping Rules) (c)

Re-ClipR #1:
You may only clip as many recipes as you will realistically cook meals in one month.

Fiskars Scissors - Great Clipping Option

Translating this - if you only cook breakfast on weekend mornings (Saturday or Sunday(, don't clip more recipes than weekend mornings in a month.  If  there are 4 weekends in a month, then you clip up to 8 recipes approximately.  Cook only on Sunday?  Limit down even further.  Why limit yourself?  Realistically, life gets in the way of the best-laid plans.  You may intend to get up every Sunday morning and cook breakfast.  Then, the kids are sick, or you wake up late and want lunch, or you make brunch plans, etc.  So, rather than clip 10 recipes you may never make, clip 5 you love.  You're more likely to make them, and more likely to want to make them again and again!

Lippert International Recipe Box - Eco-friendly organizer

Same for dinners or lunches.  Never cook lunch?  Then don't count that as a meal you'd clip a recipe for.  If you cook 3 meals per day x 30 days, that's up to 90 recipes a month.  Would I ever clip that many recipes?  Most likely not, but I also don't cook 3 meals per day every day.  Realistically, I cook 4 dinners per week and homemake about 2 - 3 lunches and maybe 1 - 2 breakfast recipes a week. 

Multiply that x 4 weeks per month, and I can clip 16 dinners, 12 lunches, and 8 breakfast recipes.
Still quite a few recipes, but not the overwhelming amount that I will never conceivably make.  Now, I stretch the rule a bit since I make multiple recipes in one meal (i.e. meat, starch, and vegetable at dinner, so I give myself leeway to clip 3 - 4 for one single meal (if I plan it out).  Again, adjust the totals based on YOUR cooking habits.  This is a guide, not a must, but it's a guide intended to help me "tough love" my recipes.

Starting in October, I will be keeping count of what I clip and categorize!

Future rules: special occasion meals, recipe rating systems, and storage/organization!  Stay tuned....