My grandma, Carol Olsen Preece, was a wonderful cook. Not only that, but she is the one who inspired me to enjoy cooking and collecting recipes as a hobby. More on that later, but let me tell you about my project this year.
My Aunt Karen has been the keeper of my grandma's recipe box since she passed away in 2016. Last year I contacted her to ask if she could send me Grandma's recipe for Baked Apple Pudding with Lemon Sauce. I remember very vividly enjoying baked puddings when we would go visit her, and they were so warm and comforting. I made that recipe gluten free and shared it here on my blog. Well, that got my Aunt Karen thinking..... and she offered to send the entire recipe box to Virginia if I was interested in making another family cookbook. Of course, my answer was YES!
So that is what I'm doing this year! Basically, following the same pattern as the movie "Julie and Julia" about a blogger who cooked her way through Julia Childs cookbook and blogged about it. I am going to be spending 2023 cooking my way through my Grandma's recipe box, tweaking them, making any that I can gluten free, and then creating a cookbook with beautiful photos for my extended family to treasure. Many things have changed since my grandma was my age and taking care of her family. Foods are different, recipes styles have changed, and yet I'm so excited to get a look into her life as a wife, mother, and family chef as I make each of her recipes.
My blog posts will be looking a little different this year, but I'm excited to share with you these timeless recipes along with some photos, tips, and tricks I learn along the way. I hope you enjoy them too and maybe a few will be nostalgic for you. I feel like this is a labor of love that will create a great treasure for all of my relatives and bring some new gluten free recipes to YOU.
Now back to my story of how my grandma is my inspiration for my love of cooking!
When I was first married, my husband and I were visiting my grandma when I started looking through some cooking magazines she had. I decided to copy some of the recipes down that looked fun to try. She let me take the magazine, and I later got my own subscription. Well, that was the beginning of my infatuation with trying several new recipes every week of my life. I love to try new things! As I did, I built up my own favorite recipe collection, and decided that cooking and baking are things I am going to do for my family anyway, so I might as well be good at it and love it!
Thanks for coming along with me on this fun journey. Let's see what recipes this sweet lady, born in Hyrum, Utah in 1926, made and loved.