Family Cookbook, The Next Generation

It's that time again!
(Also, yes I know I still have the xmas tablecloth on the table still, I've been busy.)

December 2020 marks the 20th anniversary of when I, with the help of my family's contributions, compiled our family cookbook. I learned a lot from the experience, including that 3 months is not enough time to do it in, if you expect to do it right. I passed that learning experience on to the you, in the form of a website, then a book: Creating an Heirloom.

As I mention on that website, I did have a draft for a second edtion started not long after I finished the first book. But now families have grown, children have gotten married and have kids of their own now, and it's time to take that draft and turn it into another cookbook, with the help of those new families.

I have my spreadsheet of names and addresses (29, which I think just about doubles the number of people I queried last time), I wrote my cookbook letter, as well as a "newsy" Happy New Year catching-up letter since some of the people receiving a letter haven't heard from us in a long while, and stuffed my envelopes. I even did myself a favor and used printed mailing labels, since my handwriting is so wretched.

Want to join the fun? C'mon, we'll do it together! I'm giving my family (both sides, my side and my husband's side) a whole year to get their recipes to me, so I have 2020 for editing, formatting and printing. (My life gets very complicated around the holidays, so I'm just budgeting a ton of time, your mileage may vary.) Grab a copy of my book if you don't already have one, and we'll get started!

I'm happy to give you moral and limited tech support (I'll answer the questions I can) while you work on your family cookbook, because more than anything, I want you to succeed at preserving your family's history through the foods you eat and share.

We can do this, it'll be fun! Pay no attention to any of my tweeted complaints to the contrary... it'll all be worth it in the end.

Recipe Detective Work

Recently, my mother-in-law gifted me with a metal-bound notebook Balanced Recipes by Pillsbury, copyright 1933 that was her mother's. In it, were a handful of handwritten recipes. I immediately checked with my husband, to make sure she knew that they were in there before she gave them to me; she did, and thought I would like to have them. I feel very fortunate to be so well-understood.

Most of the recipes appear to be in the same handwriting, which if you're looking at a collection, makes it easier to guess that they're from the same hand. (This is not always the case! My mother and grandmother's handwriting is so similar as to be indistinguishable. Even Mom can barely tell her own writing from her mother's.) But one of the things that stood out from this recipe was its age: the paper (card, actually) is considerably more yellow than the other slips, and the hand is much heavier, so it's very distinct. Written on a postcard, half the postcard is a recipe, and the other half is a treasure of family clues that tells me exactly who wrote the postcard.

The writer left me a lovely trail of breadcrumbs to follow. I knew already to whom it was addressed, Mrs. Don P., and it was in the possession of that woman's daughter-in-law, Wanda.

Here's a run-down of everything I have found in this postcard:
• "Dear Mildred" is Mrs. Mildred P., Don P.'s wife.
• "Mother" is Olive P., wife of Henry P.
• "Hattie" is Hattie P., the writer's sister, and Mildred's sister-in-law.
• The card mentions "Artificial Leg Co." "F is getting a fitting hope it's a good one." "F" is Floyd W. who lost a leg from cancer (this information came to me through genealogy notes that were collected years before I met my husband).
• "Hope Wanda & Baby are OK" Wanda is Mildred's daughter-in-law, and the baby in question is Wanda's daughter, and my mother-in-law! (I know this because of the date of the stamp cancellation.)
• "Warren" is almost certainly C. Warren P., who died not long after the postcard was written. He was the nephew of the writer.
• "Lu + F" is Lucy and Floyd W., my postcard writer and her husband, the sister-in-law of addressee.

I haven't been able to puzzle out "Stacy" yet (will have to ask family about that one), and will continue to sift through my notes for who he is (the card says "he's getting better" – since Stacy is an uncommon man's name, that should help me find him).

It's a chatty little note, for all its brevity. Lots of family members are mentioned, and it's all those clues that confirm who wrote the recipe. I have her in my genealogy program as "Lucy" not "Lu" – but if she has signed the card "Lu," maybe that's what everyone called her.

I hope this inspires you to look into your family's recipe collections and look at them with new eyes. I have a 67 year old recipe sitting on my desk, and a woman who has been gone from this earth for 35 years, long before I met my husband and married into her extended family, is telling me pieces of her family history. That's kind of magical. That's one of the things that fills me with wonder. I hope it does you, too.

Happy Holidays, everyone! Enjoy those fabulous food traditions, or make new ones if the old ones just won't work anymore. Traditions have to start somewhere, after all.

My Grandmothers' Collections

I am incredibly fortunate. I have in my possession the recipe collections from both my grandmothers. But while my father's mother's recipe box was stuffed so full the lid would not close, and it was damaging the contents to try to remove anything, my mother's mother's collection is much slimmer. Why?

This is a question that I happen to know the answer to, but I'll get to that. When you run across something like this as you compile your family cookbook, it's worth it to ask why. If something seems odd, it probably is. If you see a notation on a recipe card "from the kitchen of ___" and don't recognize the name, ask; the person may turn out to be your grandmother's bestie, or it might go deeper yet. If you find three different recipes for sugar cookies, all worn, and don't know why three, ask; there's probably a reason for that, too.*

My point is, don't just blindly accept the collection in front of you. Look at it like a historian – because that's what you are now. You are your family's food historian. Take in every date, every place name on every hastily-written recipe from the bank notepad or deposit slip, read the letters (if you're luck enough to find those in the collection), take it all in. Make notes, make scans, make copies and back them up. It's a ton of work, but someday, someone will thank you for it.

On the left, my maternal grandmother's small recipe binder;
on the right, my paternal grandmother's recipe box that won't close.
One represents a lifetime, one represents a collection that was started
in middle-age, when her children were already grown.

As for my mom's mom? When I was very small, they had a house fire. Whatever recipes she had from her mother were lost. The recipe collection I have from her now is no older than the early 1970s. Missing out on that older stuff stings, but knowing why it's gone helps. It's also a reminder to younger cooks to go and meet with your grandparents now, while you can. (By the time I married, only one of my grandparents was alive to see it, and she died later that year.) Or maybe you don't much cook yourself, but you have kids, or nieces and nephews, who are too young to appreciate the resource that their grandparents are – go, ask the questions, get the recipes, collect the stories. Before they're lost forever.

My book with more advice like this is available at Amazon.com. (If you buy a used copy, make sure it's the Updated Edition – the previous edition is out of date with regards to publishing.)
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*In my family there are in fact, three Very Important Sugar Cookie recipes, and all of them are The Best. All of them were from someone's grandmother, and there's someone willing to die on that sweet hill over each of them.

National Tortilla Chip Day - Feb. 24th; Chef Marvin Woods

Chef Marvin Woods
Woods (no relation to Sylvia, that I know of), is a New Jersey chef who learned to cook when he was young, introduced to cooking by his father. He's an author (The New Low-Country Cooking and Home Plate Cooking) and award-winning tv host, and is very involved with educating children and their parents about healthy cooking.

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February 24th is Tortilla Chip Day -- those crunchy bits of fried tortillas that are a vehicle for getting salsa (and more) to your mouth. If you're trying to avoid the fat, they can also be baked.

One of the things that aggravated me about the family cookbook was my brother promising to send recipes... and never doing it. I got them eventually, and will have them for the next cookbook, but it was frustrating. (And despite what my brothers believe, I don't enjoy nagging.) This is one of the reasons you need to give yourself plenty of time, but also give your family a firm deadline. "I need it by (this date) and no later, ok?" And be sure to follow up. A lot.

ANYway, I have a wonderful guacamole recipe from my sis-in-law to share:

Guacamole 
Ingredients:
2 avocados

2 green onions

2 cloves garlic

1 tomato, diced

1 serrano pepper, seeds and all

cilantro, to taste

lime juice, to taste

salt, to taste
Directions: Mince onions, garlic, cilantro and pepper together. Halve avocado, discard pits and scoop flesh into a ceramic or glass bowl. Add tomato and minced vegetables. Add lime and salt to taste. Mix.
Note: Use only plastic utensils on avocados to minimize oxidation.

Available at Amazon.

National Drink Wine Day - Feb. 18th; Chef Kevin Sbraga

Chef Kevin Sbraga
New Jersey native Kevin Sbraga may be best known to some as the season 7 Top Chef winner. He's got his own restaurants, Sbraga and Fat Ham, with "menus that focus on pairing the most flavorful ingredients available with the perfect beverages." In addition to his restaurants, he also has a consulting business to help others with theirs.

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February 18th is Drink Wine Day! In 2000, when I did our first family cookbook, I was 30 years old. Certainly old enough to imbibe, but I hadn't really taken the time to develop a taste for wine. Now, even though I have, my husband has not, and I hate opening a bottle for just me. I think that probably puts our little family in the minority; a lot of Americans drink wine and enjoy it with their meals. Some of you probably have splendid suggestions for wine pairings with those meals. Why not add that do the recipe notes in your cookbook? Just one quick line, "Red Zinfandel goes really well with this Pepper Steak," would be all you needed, and it might be just the thing for someone just starting out. 

Available at Amazon.

National Gumdrop Day - Feb. 15th; Chef Tiffany Derry

Chef Tiffany Derry
She got her start working at IHOP when she was only 15 and was in management by 17. Derry is a Texas native, and has appeared on Top Chef. She works as a restaurant consultant, appearing on Hungry Investors, and is a spokesperson for the Art Institute's Culinary Arts Program; she has taught in the Dallas Culinary School.

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February 15th is Gumdrop Day! Made with gelatin or fruit pectin, they are very similar to Turkish delight (which has been around since the 1700s). Honestly, looking at recipes online (there are none in my family cookbook, or in any of the recipes I have from my grandmothers), it doesn't look all that complicated, and might be a fun thing to try with kids (adults supervision required, because of boiling liquids). I found an Instructable that uses grape juice (and fruit pectin), and Bakerella makes them, too (with gelatin)!

Adding a contemporary recipe to your cookbook probably means that it hasn't had generations of taste-testing. But if you find a recipe and make it your own, with your own experimentation, why shouldn't you include it? Every recipe was new at one time!

Available at Amazon.

Why Preservation Is Important

This well-loved, stained and torn recipe was in my paternal grandmother's recipe box. The box was crammed so full, the lid wouldn't close, and I don't think another recipe card would fit inside. I've been scanning all of the contents. Had I tried to pull out this recipe before I removed a lot of other things first, I might have damaged it even more.

Paper is fragile. Recipes get stained and wet, sometimes irreversibly damaged. By scanning old recipes, you create an important archive that can be shared with others, and make a digital copy that can be printed out and used in place of a fragile original.

See my chapter on Archiving for more information!

Available at Amazon.

National Molasses Bar Day - Feb. 8th; Chef Herb Wilson

Chef Herb Wilson
Wilson was a competitor on Top Chef: Masters, was the executive chef at Sushi Samba in Las Vegas and will be the head of Sumo Maya (opening in 2014) in Scottsdale, Arizona. Originally from New York City, he worked in prestigious French restaurants abroad before returning to his native turf, eventually opening Bambou, an upscale restaurant (now closed) that paid homage to his Jamaican heritage.

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February 8th is Molasses Bar Day. Molasses has a pretty distinct flavor, and is derived from sugar cane. In my experience, it seems to be more of a Southern thing to eat. (Molasses on fresh buttermilk biscuits... grits with butter and molassess... yum!) However, my mother recalls a cookie that her maternal grandmother (who was not Southern) made with molasses. Unfortunately, we don't have that recipe, at least not that we're sure of. Her parents had a house fire when I was young. My grandmother lost a lot of things, and may have lost recipes from her mother. (By the time I did our family cookbook, all my grandparents had passed, so there's gaps in my family history, culinary and otherwise.)

Don't be afraid to experiment with recipes you find that remind you of things your grandma (or great-grandma, or a great aunt, or..?) made. If you find one that tastes like you remember, add it to the cookbook and note that you don't know if it's the same one, but that it tastes like the one you recall. Get a second opinion if you can; does a sibling or a cousin recall it?

I did find this recipe for Molasses Drop Cookies in Grandma's file. We don't know how old the recipe is or where it came from. The card it's written on isn't very old, but it wouldn't be, since she lost a lot of her kitchen in the fire.

I know I urge this a lot, but I really do want to encourage you to talk to your older family members, get your history while you can, gather those old recipes and traditions. Please don't make the mistakes I did.

January is National Oatmeal Month

So ends one of the coldest months I've experienced in recent years! January is Oatmeal Month, because apparently we buy more oats this month than in any other. Whether you need a hot bowl of oatmeal to warm up after shoveling snow, have resolved to lower your cholesterol, or maybe you just love oatmeal cookies, this is the month for it!

Sometimes the stories you might include in your cookbook don't have to be of a historic nature, but simply anecdotal. For instance, when I was young (middle school) I decided one summer day to make oatmeal cookies. I was using the recipe on the package of butterscotch chips, but discovered we didn't have quite enough oatmeal. I substituted in some envelopes of instant oatmeal to make up the difference and that worked just fine! "Necessity is the mother of invention," after all. Looking back, I'm sure that doing that added more sugar to the dough, but I don't remember them tasting weird.

You can include as much or as little of that sort of thing in your cookbook, but I urge you to gather as many of those stories as you can. Yes, it will take longer. Yes, it will make your book longer (and probably a little more expensive to get printed, however you decide to do it), but in the end, you have something very personal to share with your family. And that's the whole point.

Available at Amazon.

National Croissant Day - January 30th

Today is National Croissant Day! According to Food.com, croissants were invented by the Turks, not the French. Wikipedia says they originated in Vienna, Austria. Who's right? (Who knows!)

My mother-in-law has a recipe she uses to make crescent-shaped rolls. They aren't true croissants, because the dough isn't "laminated," but in my opinion, they're better! (Note how the "recipe comment" below gives a little bit of family history -- these are the things that will make your cookbook special!)

Dinner Rolls
Ingredients:
3 pkgs. dry yeast (not quick rising)
1/2 C. warm water

1 C. milk

3/4 C. margarine

3/4 C. sugar

5 eggs

6 3/8 C. flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

Directions: Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add warm milk, melted margarine and sugar. Then add the beaten eggs, flour and salt. Let rise once until doubled (1 1/2-2 hrs.). Shape as desired or roll out about 1/3 of the dough at a time into a 12” circle; brush the surface with melted butter. Cut in 16 pie-shaped pieces and roll (starting at the wide end). Place in greased cookie sheet. Let rise again until doubled. Bake at 350-375º about until done (watch closely). May be kept in the refrigerator after first rising for a week and used as needed.
Comments: "I started years ago trying to make rolls like Grandma G. made – these were so light. I’ve never duplicated their light texture, but I keep trying."

Available at Amazon.

 

National Corn Chip Day - January 29th

Today is National Corn Chip Day! The most common corn chips around here are Fritos®; I did a little digging to learn more, and found a very interesting story about "the birth of the Frito." Fritos are a needed ingredient in a family favorite dish, Taco Pie (which is not the same as Frito Pie). In fact, one year for his birthday, my brother requested "tacopie" for dinner. Naturally, this led to us calling it ta-CO-pee instead of TA-co PI.

Taco Pie (my version, a little different than the one I grew up with)
Ingredients:
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 envelope low sodium taco seasoning
1 tube refrigerated crescent rolls
about 4 C. Fritos®, crushed coarsely (you don't want fine crumbs), divided
1 C. prepared salsa
8 oz. sour cream
2 C. shredded Cheddar-Jack cheese

Directions: Preheat oven to 375ºF. Brown the meat and drain any fat. Add the seasoning and follow package instructions. While the meat cooks, spray a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray, and press unrolled crescent roll dough into the plate, covering the bottom and sides, pressing the seams closed. (I have tried this with the uncut sheet of crescent roll dough, and find the rolls work better, even though you have all the seams.) Spread 2 C. of the crushed chips to the bottom of the pie plate, covering evenly. Add the seasoned meat. Spread salsa over the meat, then the sour cream. Add the cheese. Top with the remaining 2 C. of crushed chips. Bake for 30 minutes, until the crust is browned and the cheese is melted.

Variations: This can also be made with ground turkey. I use the "hot" variety of taco seasoning when I do, since the turkey has such a mild flavor.

The recipe my mother give me called for American cheese slices, black olives, and no salsa. I don't ever remember her making it with the black olives (though it was on the recipe card). Include variations like that when you're compiling your family cookbook. Recipes evolve -- share those, too!

Available at Amazon.

National Blueberry Pancake Day - January 28th

Blueberries... antioxidant-rich bits of deliciousness. Celebrate them on January 28th for National Blueberry Pancake Day.

Including information on freezing tips in your cookbook can be helpful too. For instance, with blueberries, freeze them whole and unwashed on a cookie sheet. When they're frozen, they can be put in a zipper-top bag and kept in the freezer until you want them. (Wash them before you use them.) That way, when you go to pick your own blueberries this summer, you can pick as many as you can carry, freeze them, and enjoy them all year!

Available at Amazon.

National Chocolate Cake Day - January 27th

January 27th is also Holocaust Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the day the Russians liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau. Not all family history is lighthearted and fun. There are struggles and wars, and those are part of your history, too. If you're asking about sensitive matters, gauge your interviewee carefully, and don't poke into things they are unwilling to talk about.

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For Chocolate Cake Day, keep in mind that you may receive the same recipe with different names. Depression Cake*, Wacky Cake, Crazy Cake... those may all be different names for the same recipe (though not always). When you note who contributed the recipe, include everyone who gave it to you, and index the cake under every name so everyone can find it under the name they remember.

Available at Amazon.

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* So named because it was a popular Depression-era recipe because it didn't use eggs or butter, and some had no sugar -- ingredients that were scarce or too expensive to buy during the Depression.

National Peanut Brittle Day - January 26th

We had Peanut Butter Day, this is Peanut Brittle Day. If peanuts are actually legumes and not true nuts, does that make peanut brittle a vegetable* dish? Hmm...

I encourage you to include in your cookbook temperature equivalents (just what is a "hot oven," anyway?†). If you don't happen to have a good candy thermometer, making recipes like peanut brittle are difficult. When you have a handy guide that explains exactly what "hard crack" is§, even less experienced cooks will be able to use the recipe. It's a little thing, certainly not required, but why not have it handy, rather than make someone turn to another cookbook or have to Google the answer?

Available at Amazon.

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* Yes, I know legumes aren't vegetables, but close enough.
† Find oven temp info here: Kitchen Dictionary: Oven Temperature
§ Candy temp info here: Candy Temperature Chart

National Irish Coffee Day - January 25th

January 25th is Irish Coffee Day, and holy cow could I use some! It's COLD out there! We have Irishman Joe Sheridan to thank for the boozy concoction. With that, I've got three tips to share when you're writing your family's cookbook:

1. Don't forget beverages! If someone in your family makes a killer eggnog, or the absolute best sweet tea, share that. And if you don't have a recipe for it, measure things as they make it next time (or ask them if they could please do so).

2. Don't neglect your family history! If a recipe has been passed down, be sure to trace as much of its lineage as possible. Some family meal traditions die out, or the reasons behind them are forgotten. Track everything down that you can; these are the things that bring history to life in your heirloom cookbook.

3. Don't forget the men! It's usual that women are the primary cooks in a family, but that's not always the case. So don't forget to approach your dad, your grandfather, your uncle, your brother, and ask them for anything they like to make. They may also have insights into things their mother (or father) cooked when they were a child. Recipes -- and stories -- come from everyone!

Available at Amazon.

National Peanut Butter Day - January 24th

Today is National Peanut Butter Day! Peanut butter is a staple in our home, and our daughter eats it in creative ways...

• Breakfast: Eggo® mini pancakes and waffles*, with peanut butter and mini chocolate chips -- waffle-pancake sandwiches!
• Lunch: Peanut butter and cheese sandwiches. (She prefers these with the cheese melted, which ends up being a mess when the PB melts, too.)
• Dinner: Cheese tacos... with peanut butter (and mini chips), fish sticks, and turkey breast. (bleh)

I keep a container of the peanut butter and mini chips mixed up all the time now. It saves time in the mornings when I'm fixing her breakfast. And because those are things she came up with, I'll probably add them to the next cookbook, even though they sound not-so-wonderful to me. Especially the tacos.

Personally, I prefer a simple PB&J, or peanut butter cookies (or variations on that theme!). Or peanut butter popcorn. I worked briefly at Karmelkorn when I was in college, and it inspired me later to make my own version. I was messing with the recipe and decided to try it with peanut butter. It's really delicious, but not as crunchy as typical caramel popcorn.

Perfectly Peanut Buttery Popcorn
Ingredients:
1 bag microwave popcorn

1/2 stick butter or margarine

1 C. sugar

1 C. peanut butter

1/4 C. light corn syrup

Directions: Pop the popcorn and remove any unpopped kernels. Place in large bowl, much bigger than you think you'll need – I use a 5-qt. metal bowl. In a small saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter and add the sugar, syrup and peanut butter. Boil gently. Continue cooking until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour over popcorn, and toss to coat. (Watch your fingers!) Keep any leftovers in an airtight container. This popcorn won’t be as crunchy as the caramel popcorn, and doesn’t store as well.

Available at Amazon.

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* Yes, she prefers store-bought to homemade to my complete confusion and dismay.

National Pie Day - January 23rd

January 23rd is National Pie Day, and I would like to encourage you to seek out and share stories and memories in your cookbook. Why? Because it's fun, it adds another layer of personalization to your cookbook, it can make people who are no longer with us live on in stories and laughter, and it gives people a chance to learn things about the family they might not otherwise have known. (There are more tips for getting stories in my book, Creating an Heirloom: Writing Your Family's Cookbook.)
In honor of Pie Day, I'll share with you some of the stories from our cookbook, pie-related "disasters"...

• My uncle loves lemon pie, and my grandmother made one for him for his birthday. Unfortunately, she left out a very important ingredient: sugar. She was "mortified," according to Mom.
• My mother baked a cherry pie for a neighbor; it was his favorite. Unfortunately she inadvertently bought cherries that hadn't been pitted. The neighbor told her it was the best pie he'd ever had (while spitting out pits).
• One Thanksgiving I made a sweet potato pie. I'd never made one before, and the recipe I found called for bourbon. I had an little airplane bottle of whiskey, and substituted that. It baked forever before I finally just assumed that was what it was supposed to look like. No -- it was awful, and the alcohol never cooked out of it.

With three generations of pie mishaps, I have to wonder if it runs in the family... (I still don't like to bake pies.)

Available at Amazon.

International Hot & Spicy Food Day - January 16th

January 16th is Hot and Spicy Food Day! Spicy foods can be very good for you. Not only will they warm you up from the inside out and clear your sinuses, but many of the things that add kick to your dish are also antimicrobial. However, not everyone can tolerate the burn. My mom can't take it hot at all, but my dad loves it (or did, he's lost some of his tolerance for it).

When you're including recipes of dishes that are quite spicy, it might be wise to note This is spicy as a warning for people who've never made it before. Even better, suggest ways to cook it to make it less spicy, like indicating where reductions can be made in the ingredients or even eliminated, or substituted (like jalapeños for habaneros).

Available at Amazon.

Cookbooks, Collecting and Displaying

I love cookbooks. I probably have 200 or more (I'm honestly not sure). The older the better, but I also love to buy cookbooks of local cuisine on vacation. I bought a Turkish cooking magazine (in Turkish!) when I visited Istanbul several years ago; I still haven't translated it. It's tough to keep everything organized, to know where everything is and keep track of which one has that awesome recipe for _____.

Some of my older cookbooks are displayed in the dining room, with a small collection of vintage anodized aluminum pieces. The majority of the rest are on a baker's rack that's starting to show some signs of strain under all the weight.

This is an older photo; I've added to them.

A couple of years ago, I bought a battered piece of furniture for $25 -- a sturdy oak (?) bookcase with a couple of small doors. It had been used to house electronics at some point, and had doors that are gone now, but I saw it's potential. It's been sitting on the sunporch waiting for me to finish stripping off the old paint, sand it, and repaint. I love the design of my grandmother's recipe box, I want to use it as the inspiration for this bookcase.

Potential...

I am going to paint it warm white, and in the insets on the sides and on the drawers, use designs that look like this:

This is actually not Mamaw's box,
the condition of hers isn't this good.

Since my kitchen is yellow with accents of red and blue, that will be perfect!

Once it's all finished, I'll have another place for cookbooks and magazines, and can organize them better. That is high on my project list for 2014. Then I can start organizing all the loose recipes I have stashed all over the place, and start the process for another family cookbook. It's been 13 years since the last one; I think it's time.

Available at Amazon.

National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day - January 14th

I confess, I have never eaten pastrami. I probably won't have any today, either, even though it's Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day. Pastrami is preserved meat, originally created before modern refrigeration was available. This is another import to thank Jewish immigrants for; Romanian Jews brought this with them to the US.

Sandwiches are kind of an odd thing to have a recipe for, in a way. Everyone has their own spin on them; even Elvis had his Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich (sometimes with bacon, other times not). In 1936, comics saw the giant sandwiches made my Dagwood Bumstead that came to be known as Dagwood Sandwiches. Just as with named dishes like Peach Melba, be sure to include sandwiches peculiar to your family! This can be a fun way to include the kids, since they often have inventive combinations between two slices of bread, even if they're too small to cook yet. My daughter still eats peanut butter and cheese sandwiches on occasion. I used to push Doritos into the gooey cheese in my grilled cheese sandwiches.

Available at Amazon.