My Mother's Cookbook

My mother’s cookbook is a legacy. She would laugh if she heard me say that. She used it all the time except at Christmas and then she used a Betty Crocker Cookbook for cookies.
The cookbook is different than I have ever seen. It has lined paper in it to write the recipes, then in addition, it has envelopes to put in recipes from the paper and other recipes that she had clipped out of the newspaper and from friends and relatives.
I never tire of looking through her cookbook. When I miss her I go through it and read what she has written down. Once again, I remember that farm kitchen and the little black radio. While she was working, she would listen to cooking shows and philosophers. She would stop what she was doing, take a little note pad and write the recipes and the quotes down. After she had done that, then she read and reread the recipes. More often than not, she would throw them away. She saved some however, like chili, which my father would never have eaten. I wonder if she would have liked a bowl of chili.
I was going through the cookbook today and a sense of pride went through me like a bullet. She had saved my recipe for homemade noodles and my bread recipe. That means a lot from a woman that baked bread professionally. I also found some recipes that she had saved from my sister-in-law, Linda. We had gone to their house in Illinois to visit before mom had surgery a long time ago. Linda served us a breakfast casserole that mother loved. That recipe is tucked away in her cookbook. I have made that casserole and it is excellent. I wish Linda was here, I would have her make it for me. Linda is an excellent cook; I have several of her recipes. We don’t get to visit very often, but I think of her often when I make something that was her recipe.
My cookbook is different. It was published in 1960 by Catholic church members. The recipes for the most part are very good (that’s where I got my noodle recipe) however, I am not like my mother in hardly any aspect. Her cookbook is spotless. It doesn’t look like she even used it. Mine, is spotted, stained, stiff with flour, greasy, and has remnants of most of my recipes on it.
I decided one day to buy a cookbook holder so that my cookbook wouldn’t get so dirty. That was in 1970. I used it once. It was a nuisance, so Melanie, you get the clean and the dirty someday. They both will serve you well.