For years, I have stuffed recipes clipped and begged and stolen into a small accordian file. In there I have The Mister's magic rolls (his family recipe), my favorite salad dressing (begged from a restaurant deep in the mountains of Vermont), and the fudge recipe (you know, the one from inside the label of the condensed milk can?). They are on index cards, or faded and creased bits of newspaper, or the backs of envelopes. Someday, I will organize them, but I know them by their form. I fear that I may not recognize the sundried tomato chicken with dijon, cream, and tarragon if it were neatly lettered onto a page somewhere. It is only familiar and therefore locatable in the jumble printed as is on the plastic bag the sundried tomatoes originally came in. What a crazy quilt of repertoire this is.
This Christmas, I hit the motherlode -- literally. My mom sent me a binder of her favorite recipes as my present, complete with some reminiscences about each one, her own improvements added for good measure, and she even included some things that I had brought to her (like the salad dressing). On New Year's Eve, I was excited to break into it for her Cheese pastries, and I had a charming time on the phone with her as she coached me once more through the proper ministration of the dough through the Food Processor. It is a generous thing that she has done, wrestling her own hodge podge treasury into legibility for me and my sister, passing a kind of legacy on to us, so that we too can make them for our friends and family as a gesture of our own connection, the way she did for us. And in the back, there are pages left blank for our own additions. I will put the Mister's roll recipe there, because they are a little ritual in this household like many of these recipes were little rituals in my mother's house, and such things belong together.
Here's the salad dressing recipe. You can halve the whole thing, because it does make rather a lot. I store it in an empty milk jug, and keep the spice mix in the cupboard between batches. I call it the Tofu Cumin Dressing, but my mother just calls it "mine" because I think the tofu scares her a little.
1.5 cups peanut oil
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup tamari soy
3 Tablespoons spice mix
6 cloves garlic
1 package soft tofu (silken is especially good but not necessary)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2/3 cup water
In a blender or food processor, blend first the garlic with the tamari, then add remaining ingredients until creamy.
Spice mix:
4T ground cumin
6T marjoram
6T paprika
1 1/2T oregano
6T chili powder
ground pepper to taste
What a wonderful, priceless gift from your mom. I know you and your fondness for things just like that, therefore I know just how much that cookbook must mean to you. Oh, and thanks for the salad dressing recipe, too. But what about the rolls? Hmmmm?
Posted by: Carole | January 04, 2008 at 06:22 PM
What a wonderful gift from your mom. These are the things that will be treasured. I have a family photo album like that -- carefully selected photos from 5 generations of family, lovingly assembled by my grandmother. I can only imagine the time that went into that.
Posted by: Danielle | January 04, 2008 at 06:43 PM
That sounds really good, I'll try it! Thanks for sharing :)
Posted by: Jenni | January 04, 2008 at 08:14 PM
My mom gave me a copy of her Tried-and-True recipe binder this year for Christmas!! It's magical; she put in everything we loved eating when we were kids, and all the recipes have her handwritten notes on them, too! I keep flipping through it to see what to make next. :) Best recipe: her favorite beef stew.
Posted by: Divine Bird Jenny | January 04, 2008 at 09:09 PM
What a wonderful gift. For my wedding my mom had family members fill out recipies and she put a book together. It is priceless.
Posted by: Tonia | January 04, 2008 at 09:38 PM
How perfect! That's what Christmas is about..love and family..which of course, always includes good food. :)
Posted by: Lynn | January 04, 2008 at 10:42 PM
What a great gift! I too have bits of paper, labels and copies off the internet in a binder. Some grouped together with a paperclip- like the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. I also have my mom's recipes that she wrote or pasted into an accountants ledger. Your salad dressing sounds great and healthy too. Thanks for sharing it.
Posted by: Manise | January 05, 2008 at 12:22 AM
My mother died a few years ago and my sister kept her recipe book - this year for Christmas she gave us all a copy! She copied and bound the entire book (and made a CD) that mom had written her favorite recipes and pasted ones cut out of the newspaper etc. My sister gave one to her siblings and to all Mom's grandchildren - it is a wonderful gift and really fun to read! It's amazing how many of the same recipes are in my own recipe box!
Posted by: Julie | January 05, 2008 at 02:59 AM
How very sweet! That dressing sounds great--I'm going to try it. Thanks!
Posted by: Jen in CT | January 05, 2008 at 08:02 AM
What a marvelous gift! Thanks for the dressing recipe. It looks great.
Posted by: regina | January 05, 2008 at 11:58 AM
I can attest that it takes hours. One year back in the early days of home computers and printers I typed up my moms card file into a booklet. It was printed on a dot matrix printer. I have transfered the file from the 5 1/4 floppies to the 3 1/2 floppy to now just backed up on multiple computers.
Two years ago she wished for an updated one with some of her more current recipes. I still haven't finished as she keeps changing what she wants in it. (She does however have a printout of my latest effort, just not an index or the last 20 recipes she gave me.)
Posted by: Rachel | January 05, 2008 at 01:51 PM
a true gift from the heart.
Posted by: Judy | January 05, 2008 at 04:27 PM
That's really priceless to receive such a gift of recipes. I would love to have my grandmother's recipes, esp. her cakes and biscuits.
Posted by: Wanda | January 05, 2008 at 11:50 PM
Oh wonderful- I can relate to your well loved recipe collection, and the value of recipes being handed down through the family. I'll have to add your dressing to my similarly ramshackle recipe notes box (actually, I really need to add some dividers to my box too).
Wishing you all the best for the year ahead too!
Posted by: di | January 06, 2008 at 06:34 AM
That's a great gift! M-D's post reminded me that my parents when they were younger (and still married to each other) created their own cookbook in a blank book by pasting in recipes from packages and writing in other favorites. It has this look of a great scrap book. I haven't seen it in a few years and don't know who it went with when they split. I'll have to ask since I know it has a killer chili recipe in it. That book has always made me want to make one myself. Maybe this year? Not likely but you never know!
Thanks for the recipe!
Hope all is well with you and your and that you came through the holiday season with flying colors!
Posted by: Brooke | January 06, 2008 at 01:37 PM
Found you! Cece from the spinning today!
Posted by: Cece | January 06, 2008 at 04:46 PM
What an amazing heart felt gift from your mom! Just hearing about it helps to keep the after glow of the holidays alive! I grew up in a baking household too, and all the recipes were based on a pinch of this and a dash of that. Is there such a thing as scratch baking by taste? My mom began to document these family treasures and one day I sat down and copied as many as I could. Just knowing I have them is so comforting even though I rarely make anything from them! Its just so good to know they are there.
Posted by: Kathy | January 06, 2008 at 04:48 PM
I don't use an accordian folder but paste or copy recipies into a blank book, that is now so old the cover has fallen of. I tend to know the recipies by location (my grandmother's latke recipie is towards the begining, etc). I keep meaning to edit and redo it into a new book, but I too fear that I will never find anything if I do.
P.S. Loved yesterday's comment on math ineptness. Sometimes I think it takes me longer to figure the number of stiches I'll need to cast on that it does to knit the darn sweater!
Posted by: Emma | January 07, 2008 at 10:56 AM
That gift is pricesless! What a wonderful gift!
Posted by: Carolyn | January 08, 2008 at 12:00 AM
How thoughtful of your mother. Much better than some pretentious TV chefs ramblings anyday!
Posted by: Charlie | January 08, 2008 at 10:06 AM
It looks like a lovely dressing. *Sigh* someday I may be able to consume it again.
Posted by: Lucia | January 08, 2008 at 04:01 PM
Wonderful present, this piece of history. And the dressing looks delicious. Where in Vermont is it from?
Posted by: Laurie | January 10, 2008 at 02:47 PM
I have a card file but my favorite "storage" is a three ring binder with the refills for peel and stick photo pages. Then you can cut out the recipe and put them on the page with a nice clear plastic cover. While not sorted sorted by category, they are sort of sorted into several binders - the recipes I use all the time; the Holiday recipes, etc. I
Posted by: JJ | January 13, 2008 at 07:22 PM
I can't wait to talk my resident chef into making this recipe. Grocery store salad dressings are tiresome.
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