Kitchen

[depglass]

I have my mother's and my great aunt's recipe boxes.  The charm in these is the aged ink and cards, the notes on changes made, and who these recipes came from.  If these were some cut and dried computer production, I wouldn't be nearly as sentimental about them.

[Sooner]

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@depglass wrote:

I have my mother's and my great aunt's recipe boxes.  The charm in these is the aged ink and cards, the notes on changes made, and who these recipes came from.  If these were some cut and dried computer production, I wouldn't be nearly as sentimental about them.

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@depglass I have closed out four houses for people who passed on. And basically never threw anything away. Sentimental things have long gone by the wayside.  

So I guess I have a far different perspective on all this.   The less sentimental stuff I have to deal with the better to me. 

[depglass]

Yes, I am one of those accumulators.  DH is also.  I told DD when the time comes just call an aucioneer and I left her with the name of a good one.  I just hope this auctioneer outlasts us. In larger cities estate liquidators are more common, I have worked for one in the past.  

[jackthebear]

also if you have a MAC looks like there is a cookbook template available 

[CherryHugs]

I have this soft cover spiral recipe book that you write your recipes in the blank pages, it is super nice. It was given to my Mom and she never wrote hers in it so now I am. 

[jackthebear]

out of curiosity how many recipes are we talking about?

I really have just one or 2

[house_cat]

@jackthebear 

I have MANY on my computer or pinned, but the ones I want to handwrite for my kids are only the tried and true family favorites - probably about two dozen or less.  

I've used so many systems over the past 40 years. Currently I have a hodgepodge of index cards and computer printouts.  Since I have time right now, I want to organize them.

I purchased a spiral recipe book and I'm looking forward to receiving it.

[DeeJoyce]

I prefer 3X5 index cards.  My recipe box was one of my wedding gifts from my Dad, among other kitchen items.  The card file lets me add and remove recipes as tastes have changed over the years.  I have two recipe boxes of my Mom's cards.  Love that they are hand written.  In the past I tried to write favorites in a journal book, but found it hard to organize, and then the spiral binding started coming apart.  I now have two boxes of my own, one for savory and one for sweets.

[shoesnbags]

@house_cat 

If you do go with handwriting the recipes, use print instead of cursive - otherwise future generations won't be able to read it!

I understand your feelings about wanting to leave behind something that is handwritten.  I treasure a letter from my mom in which she tells me how to bake my first turkey with gravy and dressing.  It was my first Thanksgiving away from home, and she went into great detail.  I keep those pages tucked into my recipe box and read them over every Thanksgiving.  Mom has been gone for 15 years, but when I read those pages, she's right there with me.

[Razzy 7]

Housecat you note, "I know I can type them and create a digital record of them, but I want something more personal, something that my kids will be likely to find and keep after I'm gone." Several thoughts come to mind. First of all, I'd create digital records for each recipe you want. I'd use as many different digital formats as possible. Why? Because 10, 15 or 20 years from now you have no idea what electronic formats will still be used or even available. Remember 8-track tapes? At one point they were all the rage - now many people have no idea what 8 track tapes were. In other words, you want your kids to be able to access your recipes. Today, if your recipes were all on CDs or DVDs. they'd be readable, but perhaps in 15-20 years, CDs and DVDs might be a thing of the past and content on them might not be able to be read because there are no more CD or DVD players. Make sure you also have printed copies of your recipes in case you've saved them in an electronic format no longer used. 

You also wrote, "I know I can type them and create a digital record of them, but I want something more personal." The key there to me was "personal" Maybe you mean, you're going to create some scrapbook with recipes and you decorate the pages. Yes, that's more personal than simply printing the recipes with no graphic elements using a laser printer. However, think about what would be meaningful to your kids after you're no longer living. In my mind, what will be meaningful is what you say about each recipe you include. It's the stories that will be meaningful to your kids. Since the recipes you'll include are likely your favorites and they're your favorites for a number of reasons - each has some kind of a story. Let me share an example of what I mean. One recipe I like is called Swedish Beans and Meatballs. Growing up, our family's tradition was to have Swedish Beans and Meatballs on Christmas Eve. I continued this tradition as an adult and to this day still make SB&M on Christmas Eve. My mother was Swedish and her parents came to this country from Sweden before she was born. She had 3 sisters, the oldest of whom was born in Sweden. Her mother was pregnant with child number two when they came over to the US on some time of ship. My mom and her next closest sister in age were born in the US. The recipe my mom used was the same recipe that her mother and her mother's mother used. So was this recipe perfect or some incredible gourmet version of Swedish Beans and Meatballs? No, not at all. One can easily find a number of recipes for Swedish Beans and Meatballs on the Internet, but what was important is not the actual recipe, but the story behind this recipe, our family's tradition in making it every Christmas Eve. I don't know your kids, but I think the story and history behind this recipe are what is personal about it. There's likely history behind the recipes you want to save for your kids. To me, that history is much more important than some fancy scrapbook type page you could design for each recipe.