CJ Jones wrote:
> One of my favorite cooking gifts came from a senior I had cared for when
> I was a teenager. She left me her recipe box in her will. I'll love it
> forever, although I have yet to translate all of the yiddish and russian
> in the recipes. She survived a concentration camp by working as a cook
> for soldiers. Her stories made days feel like minutes.
What a fine and beautiful story, CJ. I am now the eldest cook in my
family of seven generations native to Southern California, and I am
seeing to it that the all caring cooks within the two generations past
my age each have properly acredited copies of my great-grandmother's
two most often requested dishes. One is for a time consuming to make
chicken pot pie, and the other is her sour cream apple pie.

As to the original intent of this thread, my now favorite kitchen gifts
have been a 6 quart Nesco roaster and two baking sheets (similiar to
the Silpat brand). I use these two gifts quite regularly when cooking
or baking for my Marines and can't imagine being without either.

Picky