ABOUT ME AND THE PROJECT

My great grandma was a sucker for contests and competitions. She entered contests as early as her late teens/early 20s during a low-stakes community beauty pageant in the 1930s. (She didn't win, but who cares?) She taught me how to submit entries for contests and I won a 3rd place prize in the McDonald's "Richie Rich" national contest in 1994. (I won a too-small t-shirt and $15 in McDonalds gift certificates...you couldn't tell me anything!)

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She was a "Jackie-of-all-trades." Smart as a whip, creative, and a wonderful cook. She sewed Raggedy Ann's when they became the rage of the country chic 80's and 90's. She made me an innumerable amount of Barbie clothes that I kept in a suitcase until they got passed down to another family member. She sewed quilts, made clothes and did embroidery. She submitted one of her quilts to a contest, but I never found out if she won or not. I treasure that quilt.

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She was a wonderful cook and we would go over to her house to eat at least weekly. We all lived in the same neighborhood and I could just walk over to her house. She was just a remarkable woman. Even if she wasn't famous or in the spotlight, she is deeply engrained in my heart. I was beyond lucky to have her until I was 25 years old. Making and giving was her love language. One of my greatest sadnesses is that I didn't put her recipes down on paper. She didn't really have recipes anyway; they were in her head. Regardless, they have gone to the ages as she has.

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This got me thinking about those old spiral bound cookbooks that were popular back in the day...compiled by all the "Jackie-of-all-trades" in our lives. So many of them were unsung heroes, who had talents, skills, hobbies and personalities that are now long gone from this world. I started this blog to seek out those amazing cookbooks, cook some recipes out of the books and honor the name attached to those recipes, if only for a brief while.

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So, what is the project? Scouring through my cookbooks, I'll be researching the names behind them in FindaGrave.com. Find a Grave is a remarkable database of posthumous memorials, including their headstones (if applicable). On each memorial, there is the ability to add photos. My plan is to photograph the recipes and place them on their pages, so that anyone researching family/friend genealogy can have a personal recipe for that person.

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Whenever I see one of those cookbooks, two things come to mind. First, by submitting the recipe, the person wished to share it with the world. And second, they were willing to put this recipe into the world and have their name tied to it, so they're usually pretty excellent. Over the course of this blog, we're going to find out!

 

As I go through recipes, I'll also be making them -- unless they serve 50 people or the ingredients are hard to find. As a person with a full time job where I go out of town often, attending college full time and the renter of an apartment with a tiny kitchen, I'm going to do my very best! I'm not a chef. I'm not a #bossbabe or a #supermommy. I'm a normal human adult that can follow a recipe. There are going to be gaffes and goofs. That's what makes life fun!

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Welcome to the Recipe Legacy Project. I'm so glad you're here!

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