Life - even with it's ups and downs - it is a blessing! I have also been blessed having wonderful people in my life that has made it richer and better for them just being in my life.
Remember I am not a writer - I ramble but speak from the heart. so please forgive me.
Recently we have lost three family members within 6 weeks. But as I look at this loss I am truly grateful these family members have been in my life. I think of kindness, happiness and a joy of life.
with these losses I am remembering the lives of my other family members who I had an honor to know and those I haven't known but have lived their memories in the stories I have been told.
Recently a wise woman said to me, "this is the generation that shaped our lives". How true! So today I am grateful for a family filled with integrity, determination and kindness.
In the past months I have tried to come up with recipes from my families past. I have tested, tossed out, tested again the recipes of my and my mothers childhood out of respect for my family in the past, my family now and future family members to come so they know the stories and the culinary memories the women in my family tree shared in their lives with the ones they loved. It has been harder than I imagined.
I also realized that as families grow and incorporate family of different heritages (and lucky for it), new culinary traditions are added to the mix - sometimes adding to the family culinary history and sometimes changing the recipes that have come before. In my effort to keep only the Alsatian recipes for future generations I have forgotten how my extended family has also created new traditional dishes from other countries.
My uncle Herman, a great and kind man, was one of those people. His generosity of spirit and welcoming of all will always be remembered by myself and my children. He was from Denmark and for the first time I was introduced to traditional Danish food that has also become part of my family history at least in memory. I can not begin to give justice to his traditional dishes and will leave that for his remarkable family; but they have become part of my culinary family memory. My uncle was a man of integrity and gentleness that showed through in his daily living and how lucky was I to know him.
I see the culinary family memories as part of who the families of my past were and how my family now has come to be. I thank all these people who have recently loss for their input into my life. Who they were will become part of who my family will be. How lucky!
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Regarding cooking: I have cooked but not documented my work. I have been trying chefs recipes to add to my family's experiences. Some have been successes and others... well I let them go. lol. Some I see as my own lack of skill and others because they don't fit my families palate.
Recipes I have made recently that my family loved:
Barefoot Contessa: A favorite-
we recently tried:
Roasted potato leek soup page 63 of Back to Basics.
Mushrooms stuffed with italian sausage (I will use for Christmas Eve)
and many more.
Chicken stew with biscuits: a little too much salt for my taste.. I find she tends to use more salt than I do and I have to adjust her recipes to fill my families taste. Mistake I made - trying to be quick and mixing the biscuits a bit in the food processor - which makes the biscuits tough... so my doing. Also I like adding white wine sometimes to stews to give them a deeper flavor. This time I didn't but the kids still loved it. A great way to use left over chicken
Rachel Khoo - I have so many more recipes to try but I love her dishes
Many of pioneer woman's recipes which we really really liked but one recipe we didn't (the pork tenderloin was good, the roasted winter veggies needed maybe some thyme but the fig sauce was too much for my family.. too sweet for "our" taste - again always individual.
Of Course Dorie Greenspan - many of her recipes, for me, are not for the beginning cook as a new cook may get frustrated but her recipes are delicious and you can not help but raise your culinary technique by learning her recipes.
other chefs I have been cooking from - of course Martha Stewart (my teen age daughter is cooking from her cooking school book and the recipes work so well) - for me she is the go to on how to start your cooking and continue your culinary experience, Anne Burrell (love her bolognese), nothing from Julia child or Jacque Pepin (a master) lately - which I should put on my radar again, America's test kitchen, a variety of cooking magazines, Curtis Stone and many many others. I just bought the new dessert cook book of the Beekman Boys and can't way to try it.
So many Cook books, (and family recipes), so little time!
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