Scrapbooking Family Recipes

By using your scrapbooking techniques, you can develop an interesting recipe scrapbook or journal to use currently and to preserve cooking memories for future generations. My aunt saved recipes in a notebook, handwritten and frequently with notations of the person from whom she acquired it.

I’ve began to consider making a scrapbook or picture journal of some of the recipes, photocopying them in her handwriting, then attaching it to the page of a scrapbook. Illustrations and photos could accompany these, perhaps with journal entries about the person whose recipe it is.

Grandma Coon’s Recipes

With the recipes Auntie noted as Grandma Coon’s, I could post a photo of this lady. I have one of her with her husband and son (my grandfather) in front of their farmhouse. There’s another of Grandma posing for a photographer.

Since the scrapbook will consist for family information and pleasure, I’ll include some details about Grandma, gleaned from family research, my grandfather’s writings, and memories told by my mom.

Nanny’s Recipes

These recipes were referred to as “Ma’s Recipes” by Auntie and my mother. I always called her Nanny. So I can include my memories of food prepared and served at her home and at ours when she visited.

I have numerous pictures of this lady, both as a young woman and as the grandmother I recall. They will add interest and memories for my family.

Other Relatives’ Recipes

The list could go on, since I’ve collected, over the years, recipes from relatives on both my mother and father’s side of the family. There are cousins, aunts, and close family friends.

“And don’t forget yourself,” my daughter often reminds me when we’re collecting family memories and pictures. This would include the picture my mom took of me holding the first loaf of bread I baked….all by myself when I was eight years old.

Do You Have Family Recipes for a Scrapbook?

Almost everyone has recipes memories they could include in a scrapbook. These might trace back for several generations, or they may be recipes you’ve collected and found favorites.

Do you have recipes you accumulated in your travels? My daughter asked for a Sweet Potato Biscuit recipe where she and her husband dined on their honeymoon. This could be included on a scrapbook page along with a photo of their trip.

We have family favorite acquired on a backpacking trip into the mountains of Wyoming. The outfitter’s cook created a dish of sausage, potatoes, cabbage, and onions that tasted delicious after a day of trekking at 10,000 feet. He didn’t have ingredient amounts, so we, by trial and error, came up with a version at home that tasted almost like his.

MOTHER’S CINNAMON ROLLS – My nephew asked for my mother’s (his grandmother’s) recipe for these that he recalled her making in his childhood.

Stir up your usual white bread recipe. Instead of forming it into a loaf for the second rising, roll one or both loaves (most recipes make two loaves) into rectangles about 1-inch thick. Spread with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture (sometimes Mother used part white sugar and part brown); distribute ½ to 1 cup raisins over each.

Roll up as you would a jellyroll. Then cut in 1-inch slices. Place on greased or spray buttered cookie sheet. Let rise, as you would bread.

Then bake, about 350 degrees F., 10-15 minutes, until golden brown. When done, remove from oven and cookie sheet.

If you desire, frost with a vanilla confectioner’s sugar/butter icing. My mother never frosted hers, but some people prefer this.

©2005 Mary Emma Allen

(I write, journal, and scrapbook from my multigenerational home in Plymouth, NH. If anyone is interested, I will teach workshops in scrapbooking your family recipes and memories. E-mail me at: me.allen@juno.com )