Sure enough, loaded with newspaper recipes, there were about 15 handwritten recipes mixed among them. My goal was to sift through the cook books and newspaper clippings and only keep the recipes written in my grandmother’s own hand. Those were surely the ones she cooked, if she took the time to write them out. But daddy said if she took the time to cut it out of the newspaper, she probably made it.

“You know all those newspaper clippings we threw in the trashcan?” I asked him on the phone later in the week. “Did you get rid of them or are they still in the house?” I asked.

“Oh, they’re still in the house.”

“They weren’t mixed in with that dead mouse were they?” I winced. They’d be gross. Ruined. I would have to wear gloves.

He laughed. “No, honey, I threw him out.”

“Well, I was thinking….maybe we could salvage those too. I’d really like to look through the newspaper clippings as well.”

There was a long pause on the phone. “Jenn, I think she would have really liked that you’ve taken an interest. And that you want to look through them all.”

The newspaper clippings were of things I’d never heard of or would never think to try. But then, the things I’m cooking now I could say the exact same thing about two years ago. I could never have seen myself making homemade muffins on a regular basis and changing the recipe just to see if something worked!  She had cut out everything from sweet potato muffins to every salad known to man. They were creative and full of vegetables. Why not try them all?

But the things I found the most interesting weren’t the recipes. They were what she jotted them on. She was all over the place. She wrote recipes on the backs of letters, envelopes, post cards, bills, alumni notifications, calendars, sheets of notebook paper, and planners. Everything is in pencil and in cursive. No dates on anything. Half of them don’t have names, just the ingredients and how to cook it. Some only have the ingredients. Two pages are safety pinned together. There is no rhyme or reason to any of the recipes. No organization at all. It’s as if she saw something in the paper and immediately cut it out and then stuffed it somewhere.

My God, I do that. Daddy does that. We have thousands of pieces of paper floating around in pockets, in our cars, on the table, in our rooms, stuck in books. Daddy does it with things he hears people say that he wants to remember or quotes. I do it with a thought that I have to get down to use in my writing before I forget it. Grandma did it with recipes.

There’s a pamphlet on The Sweet Potato Festivals Winning Recipes by The Georgia Sweet Potato Commodity Commission and Improvement Association in Valdosta. A girl with a 60′s hair flip and a sparkly crown smiles at the camera holding a sweet potato.

And two mystery pieces. I found  a cut-out of a picture of Dr. A.D. Phelphs, Jr. who dealt with aliments of the nerves.

The first newspaper article with no recipe on the back. (My grandfather suffered from Parkinson’s disease….maybe she thought he could help?)

And this one with no date:

I imagined a puffy stole draped across the shoulders of her petite frame, looking as elegant as Grace Kelly. Had she pictured that? Did she own one? Was she wearing one in any of her pictures? I can’t imagine my grandparents ever traveling as far as Atlanta for anything. Did my grandfather ever buy her a stole? Did she ever enter that store? Did she look at the clipping often? Or was it a fleeting thought stuffed in with her recipes and forgotten? Did she show it to my grandfather? That didn’t seem at all in her nature to demand something materialistic. Or show her vulnerability of wanting something nice.  For a moment, I could see her  not as the cold, disconnected, hateful woman I’d always known, but as a young, simple, country girl who longed for something pretty she couldn’t otherwise afford. My eyes brimmed with tears.

She was human, after all. And disorganized.

Just like me.

Related articles

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You can spot the bird feeder through the window on the left.

Taped boxes held old pictures, papers, and mainly junk from a former office. Dibs on good furniture or anything of worth or meaning went to other relatives living close by. Rumor had it one of the grandchildren threw most of my grandmother’s belongings in the dump when he moved in after she’d been placed in a nursing home,  Alzheimer’s slowly stealing away each memory. My last memory of her is holding a baby doll, convinced it was real, clinging to it and stroking its hair.

My grandmother was a fabulous cook; a college home-ec student, shy of one semester to graduate. But she’d met my grandfather and he owned a farm, and what was the point really in those days? She was already 29-years-old. But her love of cooking was apparent to all who knew her, and she never gave that up. She weighed maybe 90 pounds at 5 feet 2 inches. Always cold, she donned long sleeves and long pants in 80 degree weather. I rarely saw her away from the stove, and if she wasn’t in the kitchen, she was in the yard pruning camellias.

She didn’t like me much. She made it clear she had two other golden grandchildren, and didn’t really need any others. They could do no wrong and in my presence she talked only of their accomplishments. But then, she never liked my mother and I was my mother’s daughter.

I didn’t like to cook so we didn’t understand one another, though my father claimed she would have wanted me to have her recipes. And in the end…that was what I ended up with. Wonderful recipes written in her own handwriting to cook and try myself, to keep in the family.

All the little scraps of paper are from the munching mice...

I find it ironic. The one thing she felt the most passionately about (cooking) is the one thing I will pass down in order that her memory may live on. By me. The person she cared so little for.

Still, finding the recipe books among all the junk was a thrilling treasure. Finally, something that hadn’t been thrown out. And in her own handwriting! I snatched it from the box and slowly turned the yellowing pages by the light of the window. I’d like to try some of them on here–if you don’t mind veering a bit from the crock pot….

Articles about grandma:

• Grand-ma the Great (foodservicewarehouse.com)
• To Grandma (hookedontaste.wordpress.com)
• Weekend Projects: Easy-Peasy DIY Natural Bird Feeders Roundup (apartmenttherapy.com)
• The Funeral Home (juwannadoright.wordpress.com)
• Humor: Grandpa and Grandma (maddmedic.wordpress.com)

Cooks 1 to 2 hours on HIGH, 1 additional hour on LOW. Serves close to 20. To make vegetarian, omit sausage. COOK BEANS IN THE CROCK POT THE NIGHT BEFORE TO SAVE TIME. RICE TOO.

( I cooked the black eye peas the night before in the crock pot. 1 pound dried black-eye peas to 6 cups of water and 1 hamhock for 8 hours on LOW. I also cooked the brown rice the night before. 1 cup uncooked brown rice in 3 and 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, allow to simmer for 50 minutes. I had left overs of both the rice and the beans because it made too much for this recipe. I added the rice and beans together with a bit of the bean juice and froze it. A week later I pulled it out, thawed it in the fridge, added 1 chopped tomato, 1/2 chopped green pepper, 1/2 chopped onion, a bit of cilantro and a splash of lemon juice and I had a whole other meal. Flavors were wonderful. I thought I was in Brazil.)

What you’ll need for the Hoppin’ John:

5 cups cooked black eye peas plus 1 cup of the water it cooked in.
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 lb beef sausage
3 large, ripe tomatoes, chopped (can use overripe for crock pot recipes.)
3 jalapeno peppers, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 to 3 cups chopped kale
1 turnip, chopped
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of BEEF Better than Bouillon dissolved in 14 oz. of hot water
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

How to cook it:
1. Chop veggies and add them to the crock pot with the pre-cooked beans and rice.
2. Add sausage and spices. Mix well.
3. Cover and cook 2 hours on HIGH, 1 hour on LOW, depending on crock pot.
4. Enjoy!

End Result:
In our  top ten list. Flavorful, and filling. The sausage made it hearty. It went so fast, I could say it “hopped” right in our stomachs. Ha!

Related articles

• Hoppin’ John and Skippin’ Jenny (spoonfeast.com)
• Jack and the Bean stalk Black-eyed pea concoction (gicrockpot.wordpress.com)
• Collards And Hoppin’ John (letlooselittell.wordpress.com)
• a hoppin’ John experiment (foodiejoanie.wordpress.com)

Do you think it’s because I gave up on the weeding?

Carrots, carrots, everywhere:

• Carrot Soup or Bust (myreciperesolution.wordpress.com)
• February 3 (filipinofestival.wordpress.com)
• Shredded carrot salad (thefakekorean.com)
• Orange, Carrot, Ginger, Honey and Bran Muffins (gastrocasa.wordpress.com)

PRE-COOKING OF BLACK BEANS REQUIRED DAY BEFORE. Chili cooks 8 hours on LOW. Serves over a dozen. Perfect for a party or winter get-together! For a veggie version, simply leave out steak.

What you’ll need:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 lbs any steak (I used boneless top sirloin but whatever is on sale will do just fine–this is the crock pot we’re talking about, here.)
4 cups black beans (Cooked with 1 hamhock in 8 cups of water for 8 hours on low the night prior.)
6 tomatoes, diced
4 jalapeno peppers, diced
2 onions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 11.2 fl. oz Guinness draught
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt

How to cook it:

1. Cube steak.
2. Brown steak over med-high heat for a few minutes in olive oil.
3. Add  steak and all ingredients in crock pot.
4. Cover and cook 8 hours on LOW.

Goes great with a salad and warm cornbread! YUM!

End Result: 
Hearty, filling and perfect for a cold winter’s night curled up on the couch with a blanket over your feet.

Other yummy chili recipes!

• Hot Chili on a Cold Night (sweetlifeinsylvania.com)
• Homemade Stovetop No Bean Beef Chili (leggotunglei808.wordpress.com)
• Save a Cow. Make Turkey Chili. (taylorliptak.wordpress.com)
• Vegetarian Chili (laceysrecipebook.wordpress.com)
• Black Bean & Chocolate Veggie Chili (lifeabsorbed.com)

Makes 11-12 overstuffed rolls. Cooks 1 hour on HIGH, 4 hours on LOW. Break into two days, for less prep work.

(I did this in a two-day stint so it wouldn’t take so long. The first day I cooked 2 cups brown rice in 3 and a 1/2 cups water. I brought it to a boil and let it simmer 50 minutes. separately, I placed the head of cabbage with 1/4 cup of water in a covered  pot and let steam for 15 minutes. I pulled off 6 leaves and steamed it again for another 15 minutes, pulling off as many leaves as I could. I did all this while checking my email and stored the rice and cabbage in the fridge until the following day. It took no time at all.)

What you’ll need for the cabbage rolls:

2 cups cooked brown rice
2 cups chopped kale ( I used the remaining kale to make baked kale chips.)
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 large tomato, finely chopped
1 green pepper, finely chopped
1 cup shredded cabbage
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
Up to 12 cabbage leaves
1/4 cup organic sunflower seeds
1 jar marinara (or you can make your own using my recipe, just leave out the mushrooms)
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp organic lemon juice
salt
pepper
feta cheese (optional for topping)

How to cook it:

1. Chop veggies and add them to a large bowl with 2 cups cooked brown rice and 1 to 1 and 1/2 tbs lemon juice.
2. Mix well.
3. Lay cabbage leaves flat. They roll easier if you skim a bit of skin off the stem. I did with some, others I forgot.
4. Scoop 2 to 3 wooden spoonfuls on the leaf and fold in all four sides like I show in my last cabbage roll post.
5. Place cabbage rolls gently in crock pot, folded side down.
6. Pour marinara over all of them and sprinkle on sunflower seeds.
7. Cover and cook on LOW 4-6 hours, depending on crock pot. I cooked mine 1 hour on HIGH and 4 hours on LOW.
8. Before serving—mix a sprinkle of salt and pepper with 2 tbsp lemon juice and 2 tbsp olive oil to spoon over each roll.

End Result: It tasted healthy and the marinara gave it a sweet tang. The lemon juice/olive oil sauce added flavor.Very filling! Topped it with crumbled feta cheese and served it with a side of bright orange squash. The only time-consuming part was the chopping of the veggies. I used the Pampered Chef chopper for some of them. The Attracting Wellness site suggested using the food processor to chop. Not including the night-before prep, it took me about an hour and a half in the kitchen. The only thing that would keep me from making it again was the time involved. Next time, I’ll try chopping the veggies in the food processor, and see how that works out.

Other stuffed cabbage roll recipes!

• Two Steps Shy of a Cabbage Roll (oolongrouge.wordpress.com)
• Recipe: Stuffed cabbage rolls (thejc.com)
• Holly’s Halishkas – New Age Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (jitterycook.com)
• Hungarian Lazy Stuffed Cabbage and Noodles (bubblingonthestove.wordpress.com)

I was thinking a stew, maybe…or a stir-fry.

They survived the cold snap and the freeze. They’re jumping out of the ground ready to be picked and cooked up!  And if you haven’t heard my heartbreaking story of how I lost the majority of the garden a couple of weeks ago, check out my militaryzerowaste  post.

Related articles

• The turnips are ready! (gicrockpot.wordpress.com)
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Cooks 4-5 hours on LOW, depending on crock pot. Feeds 8 hungry souls. 

What you’ll need:

12 oz. cooked whole-wheat rigatoni
1 and 1/2 lb. lean ground beef
3 cups mozzarella cheese (the real thing, not low-fat)
1 package large pepperoni slices
1-2 large portabella mushrooms
1 onion
jar spaghetti sauce

How to cook it: 

1. Brown the ground beef.
2. Slice onion and mushroom.
3. Grate cheese into soft, pretty oodles.
4. Repeat layers of all ingredients in a 3 and 1/2 quart crock pot. Be generous with the cheese!
5. Cover and cook on LOW around 5 hours or until cheese is melty and sinful!
6. Thank the cook!

End Result:

Heavenly. And Italian. Need I say more? We scarfed it down. I didn’t even get a picture!

Other Rigatoni recipes:

• Good Food: Seven-Layer Rigatoni (fiveteninvintage.wordpress.com)
• Judgement Time: Olive Garden’s Stuffed Rigatoni (thesmartcookiecook.com)
• Chorizo Rigatoni (cakeflavouredlemon.wordpress.com)
• Pizza in the crock pot? (gicrockpot.wordpress.com)

Cooks 4 to 6 hours on LOW, depending on crock pot. Serves 6. For a lower fat version, use low-fat mozzarella. For a vegetarian meal, skip the pepperoni.

What you’ll need:

4 cups corkscrew whole wheat pasta, cooked al dente and drained
AND
whatever you like on your pizza!
We like it all so we used:

1 packet of pepperoni
4 tomatoes
1 onion
1 green pepper
small can of black olives
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1 cup mozzarella cheese

How to Cook it:

1. Chop tomatoes, onion, pepper, and pepperoni.
2. Mince garlic.
3. Grate cheese.
4. Combine, mix and cover.
5. Cook on LOW 4 t o 6 hours, depending on crock pot. (So, check it. When it’s melty and cheesy, it’s ready!)
Garnish however you normally garnish your pizza. Serve with any side. It’s pasta. It goes with everything!

End Result:

Superb! Just like pizza. We couldn’t believe how similar it tasted. Hope to try the Hawaiian version next time with pineapple and ham to see if that works! It’s thrilling to try making something, only to discover it’s even better than you’d hoped!

Related articles

• Mini Pizzas and Sweet and Sour Meatballs (meagenrice.wordpress.com)

Cooks 10 hours, depending on crock pot. Makes close to 3 cups.

What you’ll need: 

6 to 7 medium tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
1 Vidalia onion
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 tablespoon dried thyme flakes
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
How to cook it: 

1. Chop tomatoes and onion. Mince garlic.
2. Combine all ingredients, stir and cover.
3. Cook on Low 10 hours or until thick.

End Result:
I’ll be honest. My taste buds weren’t jumping for joy. (But keep in mind what my mom said.) I didn’t like it plain, over rice, not even over my Jack and the Beanstalk black-eye pea concoction. But I’m not crazy about spicy, and I don’t like the taste of fennel seeds. Of course, the spice lover in the house said it tasted just fine. “That’s what relish is supposed to taste like,” he said. Sure, it was” tomatoey” but all I could taste were the spices, that darn fennel. Maybe you have a better way of making relish? Let me hear it! I’m all ears. A true cook can taste it and tell you what’s lacking or overspiced, but when you’re lacking in taste buds…well…

Related articles

• Crock Pot Recipes (crockpotchickenrecipes.wordpress.com)
• 10 Days of Crock Pot Meals: Roundup (thehappyhousewife.com)
• Savor the flavor and the simmer of a crock pot (greenreview.blogspot.com)
• Economical reasons to cook in the crock pot (gicrockpot.wordpress.com)
• Jack and the Bean stalk Black-eyed pea concoction (gicrockpot.wordpress.com)
• Brown rice with pine nuts (gicrockpot.wordpress.com)