National Genealogy Day - Mar. 8th; Chef Nancy Oakes

Chef Nancy Oakes

Nancy Oakes received the James Beard Awards for Best Chef in California in 2010, and Outstanding Restaurant for Boulevard in 2012, a restaurant that also earned a Michelin star. She co-authored the cookbook Boulevard: The Cookbook with Pam Mazzola and Kathy King, with whom she opened a second restaurant, Prospect. She’s also a regular contributor to Bon Appetit.

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March 8th is Genealogy Day. Adding family history information to your cookbook, even just basic information, can give the next genealogist in your family a jump-start. There are loads of programs out there to help, and Ancestry has charts you can download. If you don't have time or inclination for filling out charts, put that info in your contributor's index: Full name (with maiden name, where applicable) and birth/death dates.

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February is Cherry Month; Chef Ron Duprat

Chef Ron Duprat
Duprat is a restauranteur, cookbook author and humanitarian. He was born in Haiti, and cooks with a French-Asian fusion flair. You may know him from his appearance on Top Chef. His humanitarian causes include Haiti disaster relief, ending childhood obesity and the Black Culinary Alliance. His cookbook is My Journey of Cooking.

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Celebrate February with cherries! (Because of the story of Washington chopping down a cherry tree?) However it came to be, cherries are a delicious and healthy fruit, rich in antioxidants. They probably become a bit less healthy once you put them in desserts. (But we'll pretend we don't know that.)

One of the recipes that was in my paternal grandmother's recipe box was for "Dump Cake." I've recently seen ads for a dump cake cookbook, and had to laugh at this "new" way of making cake because Mabel's recipe for it is an old one. Because this recipe has been around for such a long time, it's one of the ones you make get more than one of when you call out for recipes. One way to make sure everyone is acknowledged for their contributions is to include a contributor's index. For instance, if you have a contributor's index, and you get 3 recipes that are all the same (or maybe have slight variations), your index could read:

Dump Cake: Johnson, Nancy; Smith, Mary; Smith, John -- 32

And then with the recipe itself, if there's a variation to the ingredients, add it as a recipe note with whose variation it is.

Dump Cake

Ingredients:

1 can cherry pie filling
1 can pineapple chunks, drained

1 box yellow cake mix

1 C. melted butter or margarine

1 C. flaked coconut

1 C. chopped walnuts

Directions: Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spread pie filling evenly in the bottom of a greased 9x13" pan. Arrange the pineapple chunks over the cherries. Sprinkle with the cake mix. Pour melted butter over the cake mix, and top with coconut and nuts. Bake for 1 hour or until done.
Notes: John Smith's version of this recipe uses pecans instead of walnuts.

From my dad's mom's box. Note the use of "oleo." How many young people today would know what that is?
Be sure to include a "translation" for younger generations.

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