Week 3...or is it 5?

It is the end of our third week of distance-learning school and, I think, the end of our fifth week in quarantine/“stay home, stay safe“ (I honestly haven't been keeping track).  Katherine now gets to enjoy one week of Spring Break (Vermont schools were instructed to honor their regularly scheduled vacation plan), but for the rest of us things are pretty "normal" (I use that term loosely); Patrick will continue his schoolwork, Jörg continues working, and things remain constant for me, although with Katherine out of school it will be more relaxed and flexible.

I am hoping that the weather is warm and springy next week so that I can spend time working in the yard and garden preparing for the summer.  I am ready for some fresh color in the gardens, birds at the bird feeders, and enjoying leisure time listening to my little fountain.

I have used my altered schedule to work on projects that have languished on my want-to-do-list for a very long time.  One such project is the digitization of my grandmother's recipe file.  For the past several years, I have gradually and sporadically entered the recipes into a recipe software from which I can print a cookbook.  It involved a lot of data entry, a little research, and scanning each recipe card to be added as the photo to accompany each recipe.

 

The recipe box is filled with recipes (mostly hand-written) dating back to the early 1940s.  Many are loaded with history and stories to tell; parties attended, friends and family enjoyed, milestones celebrated.  The ingredients of these recipes tell their own stories, from the simple and basic foundation meals of the 40s and 50s to the more experimental recipes from the test kitchens of Betty Crocker or Kraft, or shared in the pages of magazines like The Farmer's Wife, all the way to the newfangled influences in the cooking of the 80s and 90s with heretofore unknown spices and herbs and increased use of canned ingredients.

It has taken me several years (amidst parenting, working, and taking care of my family) to gradually enter all of the recipes into a recipe software, photograph/scan each of the recipe cards, and put them into a cookbook format. I finished that process this week and made the first round of edits. With that done, the rough draft is off to my editor (thanks Mom) for additional proofing and the injection of more history, stories, knowledge, and wisdom.   

 

Comparing the cards in the file to the recipes in the software in hopes that they match up - and when they don't, fixing the mistakes.  This is also the point at which I found a slightly more creative solution to Salad 1, Salad 2, and Salad 3 titles because, well...that's just boring.

That's it.  For the first time in YEARS this recipe box can be closed because I don't have to keep the different piles organized anymore.  And that small pile in the front are the oldest recipes, written in fountain pen; what a story they tell.

Katherine puts the finishing touches on her last distance-learning assignment before going into Spring Break mode.