Recipe Box Club

17 years ago

I came into possession of my grandmother's recipe box recently. Going through all the hand-written notecards made an intimate connection between myself in 2009 and my grandmother, her mother, my mother, unknown friends of theirs and relatives, most of whom are probably dead.

It set me to thinking about what we're losing with the ability to have a printed copy of a recipe - that personal effort it takes to write something down. You have to really want to make the food, or share the food. So, I've decided to add to my grandmother's recipe box and to invite my friends to begin theirs.

To that end, I thought about starting a 'recipe box club'. The basic premise is to have a group of friends get together to eat a meal & share the recipe. If you like the recipe, you write it down & put it in your box. I'm working out the details and thought I'd post here to see if anyone had any suggestions.

I cleaned up my grandmother's recipe box yesterday. I've asked a friend to help me with the commercial stuff: the 17" long Pillsbury flour recipes from 1942, all the Bettery Crocker fold out recipes & menus as well as my mother's magazine clipouts from the 60s & 70s.

Anyways, some of the logistical problems I've thought about (without any experience at all behind them & only maybe 24 hours after the a-Ha! moment:

Should the meal have a common theme?

How many people can be seated at a table? I think this meeting will create a gathering "bigger than my breadbox" dining table (seats 6) or house. What other options are there for seating a large group of people? Church halls?

If we have to rent a church hall or something, we'll have to collect money first.

Plates, glasses, forks, knives (not so lucky there), etc. - how do we manage the table setting?

If we rent a hall, will there be a kitchen available? Do we even want to start with cooking

Clean - up

Anyways, the link below is from my blog. Pictures of the recipes in the recipe box (am scanning the hand-written work today)

Pictures from my grandmother's recipe box

I'm posting to see if anyone has any ideas about organizing something like this. I don't organize big events, so I don't have the experience. I just thought it would be fun and that this group might have the experience I could tap into.

Thanks for your consideration,

-a

Here is a link that might be useful: Some thoughts about the Recipe Box Club

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Comments (8)

Terri_PacNW
17 years ago
I have some recipes that look just like that..in an old well used recipe box too.

I love the idea you are mulling around.

I think though that if it were me (and it may~because I love the idea!) that I'd start small..just a small group of women or even men depending on your circle of friends. And encouraging maybe after the first one that each person include a friend of theirs on the next dinner.

You could also get a nucleaus of the "ladies" to take turns hosting. And once your group begins to grow beyond the standard house table..find a place to move up to.

I am a very low key hostess..so I invite enough people that can fit on my furniture and dining room chairs..and use the table for buffet.

I don't belong to a church, but our Little League uses a church meeting room with kitchen for our annual General Meeting. They have a very well stocked kitchen and I've done things from a spaghetti feed to just desserts and fruit. I leave the kitchen cleaner than I found it.

I'm not sure what the charge would be..some churches use that as part of their "ministry"..to offer their buildings. Some charge, and some only require a member to be associated with the group using it.

It sounds like alot of fun..and what a way to keep our loved ones treasures and time moving forward.
andrea345
Original Author
17 years ago
Hey, Terri!
Thanks so much for responding. I thought I would start out small as well - close friends + 1 guest, but my list is at least to 15 people now (minus guests). Now, I'm not expecting them all to be able to make a specific day. But I was surprised by the length of my first draft list.

When I read your post I had a moment. I love your idea for the buffet. That would be just the ticket b/c I do have seating rooms enough.

And yes, I spent a lovely morning with my step-mother. I showed her some of the commercial recipes from the 2nd World War. She got so excited. She's going to help me arrange a way of taking care of those plus my mother's commercial recipes (cutouts from magazines, newspapers, etc.) from the 60s/70s.

Thanks for the thoughts!
-a
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obxgina
17 years ago
WOW Andrea this brought back a flood of memories. My mom still has my grandmom's recipe box and the recipes look exactly the same. I have a very tattered letter and recipe from her that I have in a sealed bag to preserve it. I love your idea, it's sounds like a lot of fun! With the Internet, email etc, it would be a nice change to go back to a simplier more personal time!
Thank you for sharing these wonderful memories!
Gina
annie1992
17 years ago
Lucky you! Many of my Grandma's recipes were lost in a house fire, along with the family Bible, pictures, etc.

I have some written in long hand from Grandma, from Aunt Esther, from my Dad. I've framed these and made a collage for my kitchen.

I do have the old Farm Journal cookbooks Grandma gave me, she always wrote in the front of a book when she gave it as a gift, but never wrote in her own other than notes about how she liked or changed a recipe.

You've gotten a treasure, I'm glad you want to share it.

Annie
wizardnm
17 years ago
My Grandmother and my Mom were both recipe savers. I have them all and spent one whole winter getting them organized into file folders. Some are hand written and others from newspapers and cooking products. I treasure them but have no idea what will become of them when I pass on. It seems like few really appreciate their meaning.

Nancy
lindac
17 years ago
As an end goal, if you think you have enough people who may be interested, I would try to have an "event" where you would charge a fee to join and that would buy a recipe box, some cards and rent the hall...
If your group is one that believes that everything goes better with wine, make sure you rent a place that allows that. Some "halls" will allow you to rent for free if buy drinks there or buy the meal from them.
You could feature like 5 appetizers... and have the hall make them.
or you could start small, like with 10 women and have it in homes, if you don't have room at your table, rent a big folding table and cover it with plastic and nylon netting.
Don't have enough dishes? have everyone bring their own place setting....preferably old, grandmother's or mother's.
Assign 2 people to make the main course, one for salad and another for potatoes or dessert. you make the appetizers.
Then the next time at a different house, the people who didn't cook make the food and the hostess the appetizers.
Everyone who makes something has to put the recipe IN HER OWN HANDWRTTING on a 3 by 5 card.
Sounds like fun!
Linda C
dedtired
17 years ago
Yes, I have recipes that were handwritten by my Great Aunt, my mother-in-law, friends who have moved away, former co-workers. I love coming across them in my recipe box. My great aunt wrote out a recipe for buttercream chocolates dipped in chocolate and then rolled in crushed peanuts. The recipe says to use a "corsage pin" to hold the candy while dipping it. Guess when she was young the girls wore modest dresses and could pin on a corsage. Now a wrist corsage is mandatory since there is so little to a dress!
andrea345
Original Author
17 years ago
I started making my own this weekend. Except, I don't think the 3x5 is going to work for me. I'm gonna have to move to a 4x6 card. It seems as though my writing is not as "nimble" as I was when I was younger. I've also talked my Dad into making some wood ones in his shop. He's agreed - out of some left over walnut, no less. I can't wait. Right now, I had to move everything out of the original metal box b/c it was rusty & into plastic boxes. Yes, they're stable, but ick, it's ugly. I've also started telling my friends that if they send me one of their hand-written, favorite recipes, I'll send them one of mine. So, I'm just starting my own recipe exchange - electronic / printed copies just don't count.

obxgina,- I'm glad that you were able to enjoy a few memories. And yes, it's that personal connection - the handwriting which makes the connection so close.

annie Thanks & yes I have. Hopefully you're adding to the family collection. I chose only those recipes I turn to again and again. Those are the ones I want to add. It also made me think that this is a pretty convenient way to "share" a lot of different cookbooks with friends.

wizard I don't have any kids, wizard, but I have nieces & nephews. I figure whomever enjoys the cooking will get the box. But one of the "weird" little cards I put in there this weekend - I drew up a mini-family tree on one of the note cards. Put people's names down. If the box gets lost in time, separated from the family, at least there will be that little bit of "We were here" which might thrill a stranger.

Yep, Linda - I've been talking to people. I love the idea of renting a big folding table. And I love the solution of bring your own place setting. Mom insisted I take some of the odd forks - 5 silver ones with the name "Mary" engraved on them, so I could supply those. I love the idea that we'd have 2 main courses, etc. Thanks so much!

dedtired - what a really neat card to run across. It is just that kind of surprise which makes it such a thrill.

Recipe Box Club

Comments (8)

Terri_PacNW

andrea345
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Recipe Box Club

Comments (8)

Terri_PacNW

andrea345Original Author

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obxgina

annie1992

wizardnm

lindac

dedtired

andrea345Original Author

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