Tasting Tomorrow

When I moved out on my own, I asked my Grandma to send me some of her favourite recipes. I still have the cards, with ingredients and instructions in blue ink, in her identifiable scrawl, detailing things that, sadly, I will never make. Spiced tomato relish. Sweet pickles. Dishes I identify with her but don’t particularly enjoy. But I’ll never throw out those cards. I couldn’t have known that we would lose her so soon after I left home. 

I don’t suppose that I’m alone in collecting hundreds of recipes that I’ve never made. Until I married Derek, I didn’t have a willing – no, eager – customer for my cooking! His enthusiasm has made me want to try new things, experiment, and actually enjoy the process of cooking. There’s nothing like a grateful recipient to fuel the desire to please.

My former colleague Avery has started a food blog that links the past to the present. She also gathered recipes from her Grandma and she’s sharing them with the world.  When she and her husband Jason were over for dinner recently, Avery brought her Grandma’s apple crisp for dessert and it was delicious! Here’s a blurb from her blog to give you an idea of what she’s up to:

I’m not 100% sure how my grandmother lived to 94. All it takes is a quick sort through her cherished recipe cards to understand that her main ingredients of choice were butter, heavy cream and salt. My mother would tell you it’s because she cooked and baked like a pro, but never ate any of it. My grandfather on the other hand? It was his cholesterol and blood pressure that took the succulent hit.

In 2012, my grandmother died after spending months in the hospital with a broken spine. The last time she cooked, was in 2009.

I was there.

The blog opens with a post about crab cakes. You can read it HERE. I love the way Avery, our woman of today, is honouring her Grandma through nourishment. It’s as much about cherishing someone who was important to her and keeping her alive through her food, as it is about sharing ideas. Expect this blog to grow and develop. I think maybe I’ll look through my Grandma’s recipe cards again, just in case I missed something I might be ready to try.