Monday as a rule is crockpot day at our house. Usually I am busy at some point doing laundry, cleaning and helping my home recover from a busy weekend - kids, grandkids, the dog and the husband can all wreck havoc on the poor house. So having a file full of great recipes - both for my crockpot and everyday stuff is a must! Using my crockpot while I clean insures that when Mark gets home there is a dinner for us!
I was thinking as I was working on what to put in the crockpot today, I should add some of my grandmother's recipes to her file.
No, not her recipe file. Her genealogy file.
Yes, you did read that correctly. I keep recipes in my genealogy file. Most are in their own fact, created by me, "recipe". Original eh?
My grandmother's were both excellent cooks - from different regions of the country with a great amount of difference in the way they cooked. So I have recipes that are from the southern portion of Georgia and others that come from the Pennsylvania Dutch region of Ohio... a great deal of variety to be sure!
When Mark's mom passed away many years ago, she took many of her "known for" recipes with her. Things that were never written down but she made them so well. GONE. Not to be made by her again - but also not recorded ANYWHERE! Such a loss. I decided at that point that was not happening again.
So I've been taking the things my grandmother's (aunts, cousins) were known for and putting them in the "recipe" fact (you could use the general note field if it was available) that I created. Things that I know no one else makes the same, things that we would really miss if the recipe was gone. The Ligon fudge, my grandmothers potato salad, my grandmother's recipe for my dad's favorite cake... just things like that. May not mean much to anyone else but to our family - treasures.
Not all the recipes they used are there, it would be too much, but the favorites - the ones that when you think of dinner at grandma's - its a must have... those are there.
Recipes in your genealogy software... its a VERY GOOD THING!
Happy Researching!
Karen
**Today is Relatively Speaking Monday - be sure to check out Carol over at Reflections from the fence.
**Graphic Courtesy of my good friend Michael Reck.
1 comment:
One thing I've noted in my mother's recipes is the effect of World War II rationing on how she and my aunts cooked during that time. And in my grandmother's recipes there are ingredients that I'm not sure where we'd find them today! She also had "recipes" for soaps, creams, and lotions, as well as home remedies. They have some ingredients we probably cannot find these days! It is a fascinating glimpse at a bygone time, and very much part and parcel of genealogy. Very nice post!
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