Family Recipe Project

Eunice Hunt Grann is my maternal great-grandmother.  My middle name is Eunice after her and I bear a great resemblance to her.  Seriously...when I found this photo and shared it with my family my brother thought it was me in one of those old-timey photos.

From 1978 - 1980 my maternal uncle, Bruce gathered and compiled a lot of the family recipes and had them typed up and gave them to members of the family.  My mom has always had a copy of the recipe book and I found my grandmother's copy when she passed away in 2015.  My grandmother, Betty is technically my step-grandmother since she was my grandfather's second wife, they were married in December 1979, but she is the only grandmother I knew on that side.  But, to keep us genealogists on our toes, both my biological and step grandmothers were named Betty.

Since I inherited my grandmother's copy, I also found this letter from Bruce to Betty in the cookbook:

"Christmas 1980

Dear Betty,
This project was started over three years ago and includes recipes from my mother's and grandmother's cookbooks, as well as sorted selections from other people.  Dorislee did the typing for a year and a half, and it's taken me another year plus to get the books put together.
Since this doesn't include the recipe for the one thing Dad can make - scalloped potatoes - I guess you'll have to execute any of the recipes if they are going to get done.  Since it's a loose-leaf book, I assume everyone will add their own favorites.  However, as I was folding all the pages and punching all the holes, I realized you'll have to annotate your contributions with Betty "B" Barber to make the distinction.
Welcome to the family!
Love, Bruce"

I do have to admit reading this that I am so grateful for modern technologies that make creating a recipe book for the family much less labor intensive (at least as far as typing on a typewriter and manually punching holes goes).

This recipe book has many recipes that have very basic (or no) instructions - mostly the ones from my great-grandmother.  Probably because most cookie and cake recipes tend to have similar assembly instructions so they just didn't bother writing down.

But, from a modern cooks perspective, these recipes can be very difficult to follow if you aren't familiar with some of those basics.  I know my mom has mentioned not making a lot of these recipes because she just wasn't sure what to do.

So, one of my projects is to create an updated family cookbook.  I want to update the recipes with some more detailed instructions as well as add some additional family recipes and like my uncle before me, distribute the cookbook to family members.  But, since it is 2017 - I can also detail my experiences online as well!  Again, reference above thought on modern technology!

So, for your first taste of my family recipes here is the recipe I have made several times for Spritz.  It's attributed to both Eunice and her daughter, Betty.

Since I've made this before, I did actually blog (on a different blog) this modern recipe equivalent so here is the link: https://recipebuster.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/swedish-christmas-cookies/

My mom remembers these cookies at Christmas-time and that is when I tend to make them as well.  They are a lovely soft, almond flavored cookie that uses a cookie press.

So, if you like vintage recipes, keep an eye on this spot for more.  I am actually cooking up a couple new recipes today that I haven't tried before so there will be another blog post soon on Danish Tarts!