As a kid, I was always excited to receive some hand-me-downs. I’d quickly dig inside the paper bag, pull out a gently worn dress, t-shirts or pants, and immediately start planning my outfits.
Likewise, hand-me-down clothes have filled my kids’ closets for years. Some have been hand-me-downs from one of our children to the next, others have been given to us from friends. They have been so helpful on the pocketbook, especially as young ones grow so quickly.
While I haven’t been the recipient of hand-me-down clothes for years, I have been enjoying some delicious hand-me-down recipes from my mom and my grandmothers.
Using these recipes makes me feel close to them. They bring me back to those family gatherings when grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and parents gathered together for some laughs, food, and fun times. These hand-me-down recipes also take me back to those quiet moment in the kitchen learning from my mother, or grandmother, how to prepare a family favorite recipe. These recipes transport me to my family’s kitchen, decades ago, where we all gathered for our nightly dinner.
So many of the hand-me-down recipes I have on hand from my mom and my grandmothers are baking recipes, with a smattering of main meal recipes, too. Many of these I use with frequency – while others are reserved for special celebrations – the holiday breads, powdered-sugar-covered Czech Listy – both mainstays of my mother’s family. There is also the recipe for strawberry cake, which was included in a letter that my Great Aunt Ann (from my Dad’s side), sent to my grandmother in the month prior to my birth. In that letter, my great aunt made note of the ‘blessed event’ that was coming . . . she was referring to me. I have been known to make it when it gets close to my birthday.
Since I’m the one in the kitchen, I typically opt for the hand-me-down recipes from my side of the family, even though I have a hefty folder of recipes my mother-in-law gave to me years ago. On occasion I come across this yellow folder, filled with a collection of typed recipes for foods I didn’t necessarily grow up with – chicken fried steak, Mystery Meatballs, Tuna Spinach Ring, Sweet Potato Casserole or Baked chicken Supreme. There is also the green bean casserole – or the Darn Good Salad made with lemon Jell-o, carrots, pineapple, cream cheese, marshmallow, coconut and nuts. (oh, my!)
Each time I page through this folder I think to myself, “I should prepare something from this.” Instead, I set it aside and get back into my usual mode, making recipes I am comfortable with preparing. The hand me downs from my family, just seem to fit – they’re comfortable, and I feel good trying them ‘on’. The hand-me-downs from my mother-in-law just seem to be an odd fit. Something in that recipe makes me feel uncomfortable, or filled with ingredients that just are not my style.
These hand-me-down recipes tell stories for us – and I’ve not been letting my husband’s family tell their story. I think it is time to open up that brown paper bag (I mean yellow folder) of hand-me-downs recipes from my mother-in-law and try some of them on for size. I’m thinking, they just may be a right fit for us.
(I think I’ll hold off from preparing the Darn Good Salad 😉
