| As you’re harvesting your garden at this time of year, you might be thinking of what great things you can make with the fruits of your green thumb. Often, our minds turn to some of our favorite tried and true recipes that mom always used to make – the blueberry pie that has that special zing to it, or the creamiest potatoes au gratin you’ve ever had. Even though the cooking instructions are hand-printed on tattered recipe cards, our aging loved ones probably know these recipes by heart. But for those who haven’t been making these week after week, and year after year, the recipe might be a little more fuzzy. As you pull out that recipe card this year, you might want to take a few steps to preserve those treasured recipes, so you too can pass them down from generation to generation.
Here are a few ideas to preserve those recipes.
Make the Recipe Together and Record It
Grab mom, don your aprons, and bake together. As you bake, record her doing each step of the recipe. Often our aging relatives don’t even use exact measurements anymore. They just eye it. Make sure you get a shot of how much they’re using.
Preserve It in Plastic
Take that old recipe, and laminate it. No doubt it might have some vanilla spilled on it over the years, or some crumbs. Before something soaks it and it’s no longer legible, laminate it.
Put it Under Glass
Frame the recipe and hang it on the wall as a treasured memento. Before you frame it though, make sure you make some copies – plenty of them. The more the better. That way you will have the copies to use and pass out, as well as the recipe frame on the wall. A nice touch would be to get a snapshot of grandma making the recipe and put it in a double frame alongside the recipe.
Write Some More
Make the recipe, and as you do see if your aging relative will write out a few more copies. Serve the dish at a gathering and hand out the handwritten copies. It will be a great memento to have mom or grandma’s own writing on the recipe card. They can even be used as place cards or decorations at the Thanksgiving meal as you’re serving the beloved homemade pumpkin pie.
Take a Photo
An easy way to preserve the memory is to take a photo and save it to favorites on your phone. Any time you want to make it, just pull up the file.
Gather Together and Pass it On
To help future generations know the recipes, gather everyone around to make it together. You can bake batches of mom’s favorite raspberry Linzer bars or gingerbread cookies. While you might not remember the exact molasses mom used in her cookies, the grandkids might remember the jar and can help you pick it out at the store. |
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