Monday, August 18, 2008

A Recipe Treasure

My summer is ending so I'm doing some summer cooking while I can. Tonight I was shredding zucchini, peppers and onions to make zucchini relish. I had some extra zucchini so I decided to make zucchini bread using my mom's recipe. Several years ago my mom took the time to handwrite and illustrate individual cookbooks for my siblings and I. As I searched for the zucchini bread recipe tonight this apple crisp recipe fell out of my cookbook.

This was the recipe my classmates and I made in kindergarten 31 years ago! See my signature. Since there's a jumble of letters and names, I highlighted it with an arrow. It's neat to have this recipe sheet as a reminder of my younger days and my first school experience.
I'll have to try this recipe with Nature Girl this fall. I think I'll send home a recipe sheet like this with my preschool students this year so maybe they'll look back in 10 or 20 years and remember cooking in preschool. I think my kindergarten teacher would be happy to know this recipe is still floating around and in use again!
As I post this I smell delicious zucchini bread cooling in the kitchen. It smells so yummy!!! Tomorrow the house will smell like pickles as I can the zucchini relish. It's a little stinky but worth it to have a stash of zucchini relish all year!

12 comments:

jovaliquilts said...

What treasures! Your mom must be a real sweetie to write that notebook and to save that recipe. Absolutely priceless.

I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (great book!) and just today read about her making zucchini relish (and zucchini everything else, since it's August). Hope you enjoy yours!

Anonymous said...

Sounds great!! I cant wait for summer! Spring is just around the corner now for us! I have never tried Zucchini relish before, would love the recipe!! And how cute is that childhood memory - so sweet to treasure these memories!

Unknown said...

oh, how cute!!!

I just love your new classroom - it looks great!

Pattie said...

What a keepsake, Jill! And I agree: your Mom did such a nice thing, copying down all her recipes. Recipes from our moms are always the best. I have tried many recipes for banana bread through the years, but I always come back to my mom's. To me, THAT'S true banana bread!

Mmmm - apple crisp is my favorite fall desert. Invite me over when you make it, ok? :-)

susan said...

oh you sparked a memory for me. we made elbow macaroni with butter and s & p and to this day that was the tastiest elbow macaroni i have ever had!! hehe, and still remember it, so good on you to continue with your wee ones. i also came across some sheets that my mom had written in i think 1946, and i was planning on blogging them...great minds....sweet of your mom to do that for all you, definately a treasure. and i have a zucchini recipe for you...
sliced zucchini and tomatoes layered high in a 9: square or 11x13" pan. (they will reduce while cooking.) put a nice layer of shredded parmesan cheese on top. bake at 350 until brown and bubbly (around 45-60 min. ooooo so simple and sooo good. this is one of those dishes that surprises you with how good it is, try it i promise you will love it! you may thank me now.

Anonymous said...

what a neat little goody you found!
You need to frame it or somehow keep it forever! I may have to try that recipe.........
good luck with your zucchini relish making!

Beth said...

What a great find and your printing was so clear in kindergarten!

My mom gave me a bunch of recipes my grandmother wrote or saved and some she had written too. Maybe I can scan them & turn them into a cookbook for my siblings. Something else to add to my list!

Hope your zucchini relish is yummy!

Barb said...

I've never heard of zucchini relish. I'll bet it's great!

Lauri said...

How cute! When I was in Kindergarten, our class made a recipe book for our mom's for Mother's Day. My recipe was for steak. It went something like this...
"Get two steaks and cook them at 100 degrees until they are red inside."

And people wonder why I don't cook now! lol!

Mama Said Sew said...

Both of those are definite treasures! :)
All this reading about food is making me hungry!

orange flower: sketchbook said...

You are right to use the word "treasure!" I love looking through my Mom's old handwritten recipes. There is something extra special about the ones that have stains and little notes written on them. It brings back so many memories when I see them. I even started scanning some so that they can be saved just the way they are. Some are deteriorating, so better sooner than later.

How great that you found your recipe page from kindergarten! That zucchini bread sounds delicious, btw!

Anonymous said...

Oh Jill what a treasured mix. I am a hoarder too.. I have my grandmas old cooking books. And guess what I still have my grade 1A class books.. That will give me something to blog this week.

Georgia spent a long time looking at Nature Girl on the blog and was very envious of the strawberry!

Beth www.blossomcottage.typepad.com