Another thread had me digging out my late mother's handwritten
recipes, which I hadn't looked at in *years* I had mostly (I thought)
copied old family favorites into Mastercook software, later folded
same into Now You're Cooking! The recipe software is great stuff, but
looking through my mother's handwritten recipes was something akin to
a roll call of my family's friends and relatives (mostly *dead*
friends and relatives): "Jean Alger's Dumplings," "Erma's Devil's Food
Cake," "Ethel Lata's Pineapple Upside Down Cake," "Leona Meredith's
Chicken in Pastry Squares,"Anis' Pork Chops and Potatoes," "Clara
Hinton's Beets," "Alma's Waffles."

So, the recipes that "didn't make the cut" from the "Kitchen
Scrapbook" and her box of 3 x 5" cards to my recipe software
languished in a cupboard along with their "owners" until I just dug
'em out about a half hour ago. If I ever get a chance to actually
retire (attempt #3 didn't work either - my boss just keeps sweetening
the deal), I am going to input every last one of those recipes into my
recipe software in a separate category, and "publish" a book for my
close kith and kin.

Most of the recipes in my recipe software database have contributors
such as "Bon Appetit," "Koko@rfc," "LA Times," etc. I still have a
number that note, "Grandmother Hopkins' Biscuit Recipe," "Great
Grandmother Marken's Nut Bread," "Auntie Ree's Meatloaf," etc., but it
doesn't have the same smile-value as seeing these recipes written in
my mother's handwriting.

And things were going well, nostalgically speaking, until one recipe
in the old "Kitchen Scrapbook" leaped out at me: the childhood
scarring, instantly gag reflexive, monster-in-the-culinary-closet of
my youth: "Aunt Nina's Green Tuna Casserole." *Now* I know exactly
which forebear created this abomination of my childhood and can
retroactively remove my grandmother's twin sister from my list of
fondly remembered relatives.

--

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd

"Some weasel took the cork out of my lunch!"

-- W.C. Fields