Handed-Down Family Recipes

Daily Gratitude Year Eleven-Day 324- Today, I am grateful for handed-down family recipes.

I am pretty sure we all have them. Recipes that came to us from our mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, aunts, sisters, and sisters-in-love. Fathers, brothers, and uncles hand them down, too. What do we love most? The food or the memories that come with that particular holiday dish or dessert? The answer has to be both.

We have Grandma Guttendorf's Pride of Iowa that makes me think of holidays with my Mama's family. They are a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie that is a little bit magical, if you ask me. Most of my extended family agrees. Grandpa would put pecans in some and swap out the chocolate chips for butterscotch. The secret ingredient... now don't be a hater... it's coconut. Even our coconut hating family members admit that they don't taste it. It does something to the texture of the cookie and it would not be the same without it.

Aunt Judy has a chocolate pudding recipe that is always a hit for young and old. My Sister-in-Love had better make banana pudding, or she will hear about it. My corn casserole has replaced the scalloped corn of days gone by. I've been making it for nearly 40 years. Grandma Elaine's Taco Salad is still a favorite, too. I'd better not show up without Turtle Brownies... or I will be sent home. Actually, I made many double batches in Jennifer's kitchen.

So many memories are wrapped up in our recipe boxes.

Someone in our "Let's Be Grateful- 709" challenge posted about a Swedish Tea Ring. I thought of my Mama. She only made it at Christmas, and maybe Easter, too. Dad loved it. I miss Mama's Pineapple Pies. Perhaps, I just miss my Mama.

Several in our family have the Paprika App for recipes. I love it. It even helps with a grocery list. But as we move into the holidays, I am reminded of the precious gift of a handwritten recipe. When a loved one leaves us, their handwriting becomes priceless.

Over the next 6 weeks there will be many shared meals along with good fellowship. It makes me think of this verse from Acts 2:46-

"They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity."

I wonder how many of those shared meals included handed-down family recipes? I am sure there were quite a few.

Today, I am grateful for handed-down family recipes.