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| Home-fried potatoes, the way my daddy made them. |
As I've worked on it, I've come to realize that these recipes are not just a list of ingredients. I've added notes about how much time a sauce needs to simmer or it will be watery, how the stew must not reach a rolling boil or the meat will become tough, and how you cannot rush bacon or home-fried potatoes. I've included tips such as always making a double batch of spaghetti sauce so you have enough to make a lasagne for later in the week.
The cookbook includes a lot of recipes that have been handed down through Steve's hand-written notebook, which he started when he visited his parents who were living in Israel at the time.
Along the way, I've been photographing the food. Food, I have discovered, is not always photogenic. Especially a lot of the good, home-cookin' type meals.
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| Our salade nicoise. Delicious, but not so pretty. I think I'll do a re-shoot. Actually, this IS the re-shoot. |
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| My favourite salad, waiting for its dressing and feta cheese. |
In the meantime, I may have to do a little research into food styling and photography. As this video shows, the food is not necessarily photographed au naturel.
My mom also made me and Laura cookbooks with our family faves and recipes passed down through generations. She gave them to us as Christmas gifts (along with some measuring cups, spoons, and spatulas). We were in high school at the time and I remember being asked by a friend (who LOVED to point out her biggest and most expensive items) what my favorite Christmas gift had been. I told her it was the cookbook and she laughed at me. It is so special to have those family recipes written down, and I use it weekly! My mom made sure to note who the recipe came from, even if it was just one she'd found that had become a family fave, but we have some from great-great grandparents, and even some with stories (an aunt who wouldn't share her sugar cookie recipe, so my mom and her sisters snuck into her kitchen and stole it). Grandpa Simpson's bread and pork dressings are in there, too! :)
ReplyDeleteI don't have the recipe for those home-fried potatoes, though, and they look fantastic! Care to share? :)
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