A Cookson Heirloom Cookbook
Regina Murphy
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Linda Cookson is well underway decorating her house for the holidays. She has about a million beautiful little trinkets to hang on the trees, garlands and wreaths!
But a particularly prized possession is Linda’s family heirloom cookbook, which she began in 1981. It’s now a place to find not just recipes, but pictures and stories about her family members, many of whom have passed on.
While there are many ways to compile this information, Linda was particularly fortunate to receive as a gift a “cookbook kit” called “The Family Heirloom Cookbook. It is a three ring binder with a durable vinyl cover containing decorated recipe pages. Each page has a decorative border with a banner at the top where you write the name of the person who submitted that recipe. Then there is a blank space where you can paste in a photo, write a memory or anecdote, and slits cut into the paper to tuck in a standard recipe card.
The front of the book has two family trees, one for the patriarch and one for the matriarch. It serves as a useful documentation of who’s whose, and also helps you get organized for sending out recipe requests. Part of the true value is to have recipes written in the hand of the person they belong to.
If you do an internet search for “family cookbook kits” you will find a wide range to choose from, or you can call on your scrap booking skills to make your own!
Linda has a recipe from her mom in her cookbook which is similar to one my mom used to make. This one is much more detailed though, and I can’t wait to try it and see the difference. It calls for a 10-inch pie crust, which many glass pie plates will be, but if you buy a crust, check the measurement because you may end up with too much filling.
MOM’S GERMAN
CHOCOLATE PIE
4 oz. Baker’s German Chocolate
1/4 cup butter
1 2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/3 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1 unbaked 10 inch pie shell
Melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat, stirring until blended. Remove from heat and gradually stir in the evaporated milk. Mix together the sugar, cornstarch and salt, then blend this into the chocolate mixture.
Beat the eggs and vanilla together, and add to filling, mixing well. Pour into pie shell and sprinkle the top with coconut and pecans.
Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until the top of the pie is puffed. Let it sit for four hours before serving.
Linda wrote that her mom always said “Eat a better breakfast, do a better job!” and there was a nice photo of her mom along with the recipe.
On another page was Linda’s Grandma Bennett. Linda wrote that she remembered her grandmother’s doughnuts every Sunday morning before church, and how friends and relations would contrive to visit the house, making sure Grandma knew in advance, because they knew she’d have doughnuts waiting for them.
Aunt Lydia Blanck has a recipe in the book. Linda wrote that her aunt would always say “Come let me see how you’ve grown,” which was a little scary, because Aunt Lydia was blind and wanted to touch her face. Linda said Aunt Lydia was remarkably well organized and competent despite her disability, and an excellent cook. She has a recipe card for these ice box cookies which she thinks her aunt typed at some time.
AUNT LYDIA’S ICE BOX COOKIES
1 cup butter
1 box brown sugar
pinch sugar
2 eggs
1 cup nuts
3 1/2 cups flour
Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, beat well. Sift dry ingredients together twice, add nuts and work into creamed mixture. Knead until stiff. Roll into two rolls and put in ice box overnight. Slice and bake.
Linda recalls that they bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Just keep an eye on them. She also said that sometimes they were filled with a wonderful fruit paste made from 1 lb. of dates, 1 small can of crushed pineapple and 1/2 cup white sugar. You would then take two unbaked cookies and sandwich about a teaspoon of filling on between, wetting the edges to seal, and bake them until done.
Cousin Fern Bickel Fankhauser is in the cookbook. Linda wrote “...to sit around her table is to know the feeling of contentment.” And Olive Austin Dobson’s caramel corn recipe is in there too. “Dobby,” as Linda knew her, introduced her as a child to the idea of the “other mother”. Although Olive had children of her own (her grandchildren today still live in the same house she lived in), she took Linda under her wing and said to just think of her as her “other mother”.
Linda did, and recalls one Mother’s Day when she walked down to the Dairy Queen at the corner of 6th and Wilson. They were offering free sundaes for mothers and Linda asked for two, explaining that she had a mother and an “other mother”. Evidently, they didn’t bat an eye, and she was able to take two treats back dow the block to share with her loved ones. Linda carries that tradition of “other mother” on today.
See what wonderful things are saved if you can find the time to write them down? Think about what you might be able to accomplish this Thanksgiving, where you’ve got quantities of related persons all in one place.
Linda wrote to her relatives in advance, asking them for handwritten recipes and a photo, or any other information they might provide for the book. It doesn’t hurt ot mention specific things if you can, to help them out. I’m going to ask my Aunt Betty for her dressing, and my Aunt Johnnie for her barbecued pecans.
“Include the men and in-laws!” Linda advised. I know my dad can smoke a turkey like nobody’s business, but I’m going to have to document it while it happens. My brother has a lovely sauce to go with salmon. Also, my male cousins have already put in their requests for extra pies, so we may have an impromptu cooking class to pass the tradition on.
Good luck to you as you gather your families culinary treasures! You don’t want to have to spend years trying to recreate a lost recipe, and perhaps never get it right. Strike while the turkey is hot and get your family working. Maybe you could have something ready for...Christmas!
Let’s Get Cooking!
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ricewp (anonymous) says...
I created a wonderful family cookbook using www.familycookbookproject.com and I could not be happier with how easy it was to get everyone in my family to contribute recipes and then have our family cookbook printed. Not only do we have a printed cookbook, but are recipes are online so it is easy to email them to friends that don’t have the cookbook available to them.
A family cookbook is something everyone can enjoy for many, many years!
December 3, 2008 at 8:40 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )