Grandma Helen Burton (Coon) Thomas left a cooking legacy contained in 161 pages of a cookbook she typed herself originally in 1960 and gave to her three children. By the time a few decades went by, more recipes were included, some of which were contributed by children and grandchildren who also inherited Grandma’s knack for cooking. The new edition was distributed to the cousins and is a standby in their kitchens.
Helen was an amazing person: raised in the hometown of Uncle Sam (Troy, NY), real estate agent extraordinaire in the Twin Cities, and world traveler among her many talents and pastimes. She loved to entertain, and collected cultural know-how, skills and recipes that have been blessing her progeny ever since.
Because two of my siblings were born after the second edition was distributed and other books were misplaced, I scanned the cookbook onto a CD for them. As I did so, I realized there were many recipes that I’d never tried before. Many of the recipes are reminiscent of the war years when certain foodstuffs were rationed. Others are celebrations of 50’s postwar culinary inventions. Some recipes have ingredients which are no longer available or are substantially different than they were originally created.
So friends and family, I have decided to begin a one year adventure in the spirit of the movie “Julie and Julia”. Two or three times a week I will make recipes contained in the book until they’ve all been checked off, blogging my results afterward. Many recipes will require some modernization and possibly substitution where ingredients are no longer available. I pledge to be as faithful to the originals as possible with one caveat. Where recipes contain coffee, tea or uncooked alcohol, I will be making substitutions or eliminate altogether due to my religious and personal health beliefs. I do keep a limited amount of wine for cooking, but the recipe will require heat or burning off such that the amount alcohol will be reduced to no more than vanilla extract.
The perfect event to kick off this journey begins tonight. The National Championship Bowl game will be running and friends and family will be coming to munch. A great opportunity to play with those Appetizer and Drinks recipes.
Tania, This is great!!! I can't wait to hear how it goes. I have so many good memories of Grandma Helen's cooking. I remember one evening when she was setting a particularly gooey rich desert down in front of each of us at the table and she said, "Don't worry, Honey. I picked all the calories out!"
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