Carolina Living

Recipes for remembering

Yellowed treasures from times past bring memories to life

By Carole Howell|

February 2014

Digging through closets, drawers and hidey-holes in our family farmhouse, I’ve found a number of keepsakes. It makes me wonder if the person placing them knew at the time that these family pictures, embroidered hankies, and handmade quilts were being tucked away for a long sleep.

Comfort foods from the past

Granny’s Egg Custard (link)
With eggs and milk being plentiful on the farm, there’s no telling how many of these pies were baked and consumed.

Mary’s Chicken ‘n’ Dumplings (link)
If there are eggs, there are chickens. If you’re hungry, does it really matter which came first? Today you can purchase pre-made frozen dumpling strips. I use a rotisserie chicken and prepared broth, and I sometimes add chopped onion and celery and even a can of cream of chicken. This one, however is my family’s basic recipe, and the baking powder makes the dumplings fluffy and filling.

The greatest treasure, however, has been a large, dusty wooden box of cookbooks and several tin boxes of meticulously handwritten recipe cards and handy household tips cut from the newspaper and attached with yellowed tape. For me (a cook who learned at her Aunt Mary’s knee), it was like finding a treasure beyond price — a warm, comforting connection to those I miss.

The books, many of them fundraising efforts from churches and organizations, feature notes in the margins, and even an emphatic “NO” by one or two. Food stains on a particular page signal a favorite. From the looks of one book, some of the recipes were clearly used more than once.