The Handwriting on the Wall

 As I was looking through my recipe box to find my Christmas recipes, I discovered the box didn't just hold recipes.  It held treasures that I took for granted until this year when I looked closely at the contents in the little wooden box my mom gave to me.  Writing things down is one of the ways to continue remembering family long as they are gone. Phases of our own lifetime are preserved within our own handwriting.  My recipe box, not only holds magazine clippings, and faded tattered and torn recipes, but a unique type of memory....my family's handwriting! I have voice mails and text messages saved on my phone from family members who are no longer with us.  Little did I know, I would love the writing in my little memory recipe box.   Children of today's generations, will I fear no longer be able to realize the impact handwriting has on us.  Many of us use computer's now to type.  Many of us keep things in our Google Drives or in the cloud. We have digital spread sheets and docs to write things on.  Handwritten items are going to become a thing of the past, unless we preserve them as important memories.  I know when I see something my mom or dad had written, it makes me think of them.             

One of my mom's favorite things to make at Christmas was her Peanut Brittle.  Although this recipe was typed originally during my phase of trying to type her recipes with a typewriter she gave me one Christmas, her handwriting is all over this recipe, something I will now treasure.  The making of her peanut brittle every year was a family tradition, from getting the peanuts in PA to making batches and batches of it and shipping it all over the country to family far away.  Sadly the day came when I had to lie to her and tell her I could not find her any peanuts and there was a peanut shortage because we knew she was no longer able to safely cook on the stove, let alone make peanut brittle while boiling sugar on a stove.  No other peanut brittle will ever taste the same.  However, I have her recipe and thanks to laminators, it will be preserved.  Some of the recipes I am sure she rewrote onto recipe cards at one time.  I recognize her writing on them, as they remind me too of the nights she would spend baking for us.                               

One of my favorite things was her Poor Man's Cake she would make.  I know it was my dad's favorite as well.  I personally loved her Chocolate Cake recipe that she use Miracle Whip as the salad dressing ingredient. It was the cake she would make for me on every birthday. I remember telling my husband about it and he thought I was crazy.  Who would put salad dressing in a cake.  Today we often put applesauce, so I guess one day my grandkids will think we are crazy!  This recipe was also in my mom's writing....something I treasure. 

I have been trying to duplicate her Turkey Dressing recipe now for a few years.  Nothing ever tastes the way you remember it as a child but I have come pretty close recently.  I found her recipe in her handwriting that I will now be able to follow.  When I think of holidays, I think of her dressing.  She would often make it in a casserole dish and serve it as other times during the year, not only at Thanksgiving.  She would use it to stuff a turkey too, and even was known for stuffing a rabbit for my dad.....since he didn't eat turkey!  She would purchase a whole rabbit from someone who raised them for food and cook it for him for Thanksgiving! Another recipe for me to laminate to save for sure!

One of the last recipes that brought tears to my eyes this Christmas was the one I found folded up at the bottom of a pile.  It was written in my Aunt Karen's handwriting!  Though I have never made her nut breads, I certainly remember them and I will treasure her handwriting as well.  

The recipes I will preserve and try to make for my family.  However, the handwriting I believe is mine alone to remember.  My grandchildren would not recognize it, but I do.  I will laminate them and pass them down.  Who knows, maybe one of them will decide to try and cook these things at some point for me when I can no longer cook myself.  Thus passing those memories again for future generations.