An Awkward Request

 

 

As you can see from the photo, this is a very old recipe notebook. It belonged to my mom, and she started it in 1949.  She loved to cut out recipes from magazines and newspapers. She never had a lot of cookbooks, in fact, I can only think of one, which was a Pillsbury booklet that cost 25 cents. There are also recipes of my aunts and sister, some handwritten ones of Mom’s, but mostly the ones as above. There were very few of these recipes she actually made, but she loved sitting at her kitchen table on a rainy or chilly day and read over all the recipes, probably thinking she would make just about all of them at some time.

It's interesting to me how you can inherit certain traits or habits from your relatives, because I also love to spend time once in a while looking over recipes.  I have two notebooks of my own and far too many cookbooks. How the times have changed, though, because now I get my recipes from the internet.  I rarely even read a print magazine, much less a newspaper!

So here is the awkward request as mentioned in the title of this post. I grew up watching Mom use this notebook. It is now so worn out that the top cover is taped together with red duct tape, but it’s still close to completely falling apart. I don’t remember when the conversation took place, but I do remember that I wanted to ask Mom if I could have her notebook after she was gone. But how do you ask for something that you want after someone has died? “Hey Mom. Can I have your recipe notebook after you die? Of course, I would never want it now since you are still alive!” Yeah, that sure doesn’t sound delicate.

I wish I knew the exact way I did ask her, but she definitely giggled when I brought it up, since she knew I was having a hard time figuring out what to say.  She was thrilled that I wanted such an old, worn out recipe collection, and said it was perfectly okay to take it at the right time.  So it now sits on my kitchen counter, and like Mom, I sometimes gently take it to my kitchen table and look through all the recipes she collected over the years. I might even try a few of them in the New Year, especially the sweets!

I also hope to finally get started on my fifth novel, since I have not written much since I published The Last Cottage.  I do tend to go through periods where I'm simply not in the mood to write, and then there are times when I can’t seem to stop, so my plan is to get this next story out in this next year. I have a whole series about the May 10^th ladies I hope to write about, but it is quite daunting to take on a series. Who are the May 10^th ladies? They are five generations of women, all born on May 10^th.  I started out with the last of them with The Last Cottage, and the plan is to work my way all the way back to the first woman born on May 10, 1839. Now whether I actually accomplish this task remains to be seen, but if nothing else, I'll have fun giving it a try!

I hope you have a very healthy and safe New Year. As always, thanks for stopping by, for your support, and remember to keep reading and keep writing!