National Chip & Dip Day - Mar. 23rd; Chef Suzanne Goin

Chef Suzanne Goin

Suzanne Goin is a chef and restaurateur in Los Angeles: The AOC, Lucques, Tavern, The Hungry Cat and The Larder. She’s an award-winning chef and cookbook author (Sunday Suppers at Lucques, The AOC Cookbook), and helped popularize the small-plate wine bar restaurant model. She can trace her cooking heritage to Chez Panisse where she worked with Waters, and also worked in restaurants in France before returning to LA to begin her empire.

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March 23rd is Chip & Dip Day. There's the ubiquitous onion dip (made with sour cream and an envelope of onion soup mix), there's the omnipresent salsa, and then there's Roof Rot... This is the family nickname for a simple salsa my husband's aunt makes. Her sons also have been known to call it "Dog Drool."

“Roof Rot” Dip
Ingredients:

1 can chopped green chiles

1 small can chopped black olives

1 bunch green onion, chopped (tops, too)

2 small tomatoes, diced

3 Tbsp. oil

1 Tbsp. vinegar

pinch oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Mix the ingredients and chill overnight. Let warm to room temperature to serve.

If you encounter odd names for recipes (as this one has), consider asking what the origin of the name is, and including that in your cookbook. 

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 Peach Melba Day - January 13th

January 13th is Peach Melba Day! French chef Auguste Escoffier created Pêche Melba to honor the opera singer Nellie Melba. The dish of peaches and vanilla ice cream with raspberry sauce was served in a sculpted ice swan.

There are lots of dishes that were named after their creator, or to honor someone as Peach Melba was. If your family has specialties like this, consider including a little of the history so that future generations or newcomers to the family will know and appreciate the reference. The next edition of my family's cookbook will have instructions for Fish Tacos à la Diana. (But I assure you, you don't want that recipe.)

Available at Amazon.