A posting on Facebook illustrated for me how family recipes evolve over time. I painstakingly put together family cookbooks for my grown children a few years ago, but one of the most frequent comments is, "but you don't give measurements for ......; how do we know how much to use?"
As I glanced through my Facebook page last evening, one of my best friends, Marianne, and her daughters were having a conversation about the correct way to make zucchini patties (fritters, pancakes...). This recipe had been passed down by Marianne's grandmother. I remember standing side by side with Marianne in my kitchen years ago with our little ones at our feet, grating zucchini into a large bowl, stirring in raw eggs, adding flour, and sprinkling in garlic powder, salt, pepper and grated parmesan cheese. Then, we dropped them by spoonfuls into hot olive oil in a large saute pan and watched them puff up and gently brown. I have made these delicious treats several times a year since then -- always carrying the memories of our times in the kitchen together.
However, from the Facebook post, I now realize that not only have I used the wrong cheese -- it should be grated Romano -- I have also omitted a pinch of nutmeg. So it goes with family recipes; often that is why our own lovingly cooked dishes somehow do not measure up to our memory. Measurements are unclear; ingredients are mistakenly omitted over the years. Marianne's daughter said she knows how to make them, but she just can't get them to taste as good as Grandma's. Even more important than the food, though, is the memory of the loving hands that patiently held ours as they passed down their kitchen secrets to us.
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