Grandma’s Cookbook

One of my husband’s cousins is starting a project to make a cookbook of their grandmothers’ favorite recipes.

We’ve volunteered to help test and photograph some of the recipes.  I told Jeremy I thought we should help right from the start, because a few years ago one of my cousins did the same thing.

I love this book of recipes of my grandmother’s.  It includes the recipe for her annual Christmas Eve party egg nog, and so many other recipes that I remember having time and again in her home. These recipes are my heritage.

In In Defense of Food Michael Pollan writes about one of the problems American’s have with food is that we don’t have a food heritage the way that many other cultures do, that passes on a traditional (usually healthier than the standard American diet) diet. I love the cook book from my grandmother, and am excited to have one of Jeremy’s grandmother’s recipes so that we can pass on their heritage.

I definitely know that not all the recipes in either of the books are the real food that I usually try to feed my family.  But I also know that these cookbooks are passing on more than just recipes.  These cookbooks are passing on a love, rather than fear, of food.  And these cookbooks are passing on a rich cultural heritage of enjoying time as a family eating together.

This combats typical American’s “unhealthy obsession with healthy eating,” and their tendency to eat alone and on the go–both of which Michael Pollan cites as problems in America’s food culture.

I want to teach my children that eating is a joyful experience, that it is even more joyful with family around, and it is always better when you’ve made it yourself.  That is the food culture that Grandmothers’ Cookbooks pass on to our children.

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Do you have a copy of your Grandmother’s favorite recipes?  Which one is your favorite?