31 Jan 2021 For the love of recipes

Posted at 10:08 AMh in Food & Home Entertaining by

By Don Bingham

Everyone has their favorite recipes and cookbooks – and so do we! Many of the recipes are handed down from generation to generation and are cherished memories of timeless traditions and good foods.

During my wife Nancy’s recovery from major surgery, a friend, Diane Booth, brought us an entire meal of some wonderful dishes for our encouragement. I asked her about the recipes and she recounted the story of a wedding shower given for her and her husband, Gates, before they were married. The shower was given in 1973 by Gretchen Taylor and Mary Flanagin Pharr at the Taylor home. Each guest brought a collection of recipe cards that Diane has treasured and used for 40-plus years. Fifty guests attended and some of the recipes from the shower are included with this article, notably the cornbread. One of the popular wedding showers during that time period was the “lingerie shower.” Diane’s mom, Kay Dean, was opposed to that type of shower and insisted on the recipe shower instead! Diane said, “Lingerie has come and gone, but these timeless recipes remain loved and used to this day!” What a priceless ministry this can be!

One of our daughters, Jessica Faulkner, created a binder of laminated favorite family recipes as a recent Christmas gift for each family member. Each page contains the “how-to” of dishes handed down, dishes from childhood years, and those recipes we do not wish to be lost with time. This recipe book contains over 80 of our family’s favorites.

Whether it’s a wedding shower or families wanting to perpetuate a certain culinary feast, what a great way to express love – an expression that, indeed, “keeps on giving.” We have a drawer in our kitchen that is stuffed with recipes; we have floor-to-ceiling bookshelves of hundreds of cookbooks, and Nancy and I have separate files of stacks of recipes from years of cooking. Perhaps this could be the year of further organization of all these treasures! You might consider giving that soon-to-be-married loved one a “recipe shower.” There are many ways to express our love for life through a recipe! Thanks to companies such as Shutterfly, the “technically challenged” can produce their own hardbound collection with a little time and energy.

Take a few minutes to peruse that overstuffed drawer, or file box, of magazine clippings and enjoy the delight of cooking! Thanks, Diane, for sharing some of these cherished family favorites!

Sylvia Meriwether’s Cornbread 

1 cup cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons sugar

1 cup buttermilk

Stir dry ingredients together. Beat one egg with buttermilk. Add to dry ingredients just before putting in oven as they will rise in bowl if done too far in advance. In each small muffin tin, put a little hunk of shortening (Crisco) or bacon grease. Heat pans in 450-degree oven until grease is smoking. Fill pans about / full with batter. Bake 20 minutes. Cornbread recipe may be doubled and placed in a 10-inch iron skillet and baked in 450-degree oven until done.

Spaghetti Sauce 

1 lb. Italian sausage

1 1/2 cups onion, chopped 

1 (12 ounce) can tomato paste

5 (15 ounce) cans of tomato sauce (or crushed tomatoes) 

1 cup water (or less)

4 cloves garlic, chopped small 

4 bay leaves

2 tablespoons sugar

4 teaspoons basil

2 teaspoons oregano

4 tablespoons parsley

2 teaspoons salt

Brown the meat and onion and drain. Add the rest of the ingredients to the crock pot. Simmer on low for
4 hours, or more.

Rice Casserole

1 can beef consommé

1 can water

1 stick butter 

1/2 teaspoon salt

Bring to a boil and pour over: 1 cup raw rice

3/4 teaspoon cumin

1 tablespoon onion flakes Bake, covered,

 1 hour at 350. 

by Pat Finkbeiner Thessing

Don Bingham
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