Monday, April 24, 2006

Well hello there!

Yeahhhh, so, I've been totally missing in action over the past few weeks. Life has been chaotic, and, with the loss of my grandmother on the 13th, food blogging has been the least of my worries. Her death came as a surprise, really, we thought we would have so much more time with her, but I guess we always do. She was a lovely woman who loved to cook.

The day after my grandma's funeral, I was given a book/binder that belonged to my grandma. It is filled with magazine and newspaper recipe cut-outs, as well as many, many handwritten recipes. I feel very fortunate to have roughly 75 years of recipes, some written in her own grandmother's hand, and many coming from our German heritage. We've decided to put together a cookbook, with all of the recipes typed up, as well as pictures and scans of the handwritten copies. The plan is to have them hard-bound and send them out to all of my grandma's children and grandchildren for Christmas. The hardest part is that we don't have a lot of her recipes written down - she really didn't use a recipe for her most common and most loved dishes, so now I'm in experiment mode. Luckily, over the past years, my parents were been able to get a few of the most cherished recipes out of my grandma, even though she was not big on sharing recipes, lol.

If you're wondering, yes, I'm still eating low-calorie. It has been harder because we have not been home, much, but it is very important to me, and I'm learning to make better choices when eating out - I'm down about 30 pounds, so far, which feels great. I made a big grocery store produce haul today, so the updates should be frequent and I should be getting right back on track.

I did make Kalyn's Brown and Wild Rice
with Pine Nuts and Thyme
the other day, and it was lovely. You wouldn't think that macadamia nut oil would make such a difference, but it really does!

Alrighty, I'm off to nurse the finger I sliced while making Grandma's German Potato Salad. I hope you are all well, I will have to get caught up on everyone over the next few days/weeks.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

sorry to hear sad news about your Grandma.I can understand your sorrow and good to know that grandma's recipe are going to be shared.and would be catching up with everyone.Best wishes.

Kalyn Denny said...

Very sorry to hear about your grandmother. It's wonderful that you're going to share her recipes with all your family. Nice to see you back.

Lexi said...

my condolences... we always think we have more time with people han we eventually get.
I was wondering where you were, missed your posts and it's good to see you back. I'm looking forward to seeing your grandmothers recipes up here (which I can only assume you'll post while trying to figure out those of her common ones).
My thoughts are with you!

Anonymous said...

Erin,
So sorry to hear about your grandmother. My condolences -- I know how hard it is to lose someone you love. But how wonderful to have her recipes. Every time you make something of hers, you'll have the most wonderful memories of all.