platefullofmemories

Family Get Togethers- Family Stories

2010-03-10T16:14:00Z

At a family gathering this past weekend we sat around eating. Eating and we did some more eating. And while we sat and ate we talked. We talked about family stories most often told when our family gets together and we talked about the stories more often not. We talked about how some of the families recipes evolved and some items that were left out of recipes for particular family members and some left out for family allergies.

It is amazing that there were no plans ahead of time to do any of this family recipe talking or family story telling but it happened organically. Just sitting around and talking. It makes me think that most of us need to get together and when we do make sure someone asks that questions about how some of the foods that are served are part of the family traditions and then ask for the story.

What made my weekend so great was that it was not a holiday gathering but just celebrating the birthday of my Mother who has become the matriarch of our family. And boy, did she have stories and recipes.

More Women at Work and More Men in the Kitchen: Let's get a Recipe!

2010-03-02T15:51:00Z

This morning I was listening to the radio and they were talk about how more women are still working through this recession and more men at at home. For many of these women it sounded that they were still doing all the home stuff and the men were just getting depressed. There is no better solution for depression than cooking a great meal. First, it only takes a little bit of time and when it is finished every one in the family raves and is impressed making you feel so much better. Helping out in the kitchen might be a new career or simply a recipe for a successful family.

Men have been chefs since time began. So there is no shame in being in the kitchen. Men- let me give you a big hint to being a hero in your household. YOU need to find 5 different recipes that you want to master. That would one for a dinner each night of the week. Some things I think are idiot proof.

1) A whole chicken...take out of plastic and once defrosted it can be put in oven with a little bit of seasoning. Bake an hour. Place a Idaho potato in to the oven at the same time. Turn timer to I hour. Make a salad with a salad bag and add some cut up veggies to the salad. Use bottled dressing or make you own with a cruet bottle from Good Seasoning which gives you a line for oil, water and vinegar. Set the table and you are done.

2) Chili Spaghetti- check on line for your favorite recipe. I use the paper bag in the grocery store for my chili and then use a box of spaghetti and bag of shredded cheese. Again add bag of salad for veggie.

3) Strogganoff- again check on line for your favorite recipe- I use cheapest cut up meat and cook for 30-40 in onion soup until cubes are tender. Cook egg noodles; when they are done I add sour cream and fresh cut up mushrooms to meat and cook for a minute or two. Another bag of salad and we are ready to go!

4) Baked Fish- what ever is on sale. check on line for a recipe for the fish you just bought. I love baked instead of steamed since I over cook steamed fish. You need to try either but I do not like my fish well done. My father-in-law always made fried fish and he also caught the fish he cooked. It was mostly served on Friday nights.

5) Chicken enchiladas or tacos... What I love here is either does not require breast the most expensive chicken part...thighs or legs often are on special and they shred up nicely and with a cut up lettuce, diced tomatoes, some bottled salsas and bag of shredded cheese you have another meal.

For one night order Pizza and one other take the family out!

These are everyday kind of meals and they are not hard to make. You need to figure out what your family eats and then do the grocery shopping to match the meals. And of course, children in the kitchen and children in the grocery store are just a little part of making the meal a success. When one person is not working it is a family thing and that means all in the family must work hand and hand to get everyone working as a family.

I can tell you that most men I know will take a simple recipe and make it their own. It really is amazing if you get a passion for cooking.

Uumm Good...

2010-02-23T16:58:00Z

I heard some where today that on the White House menu today is Chicken Noodle Soup. That made me wonder where did they get the recipe for that! I hope they got some old Bubbies recipe (a Jewish Grandmother) since I am sure that it would use chicken pullets to give the soup that extra medicinal quality. There has been research done and a good bowl of a Bubbies chicken soup will cure the common cold. I think if you look it up you will find research to that fact. I know that I forwarded my recipe to Leslie in Kansas and I think she recovered since I have not heard a peep out of her since then! As my old grandmother used to say, "It couldn't hurt."

By the way, this could be the way the White House will bring down the cost of health care. A Chicken in every pot and soup in every bowl. And for desert, an apple a day. You Go Girl, Michele and take on the health care industry with a proofen cure all- Jewish Penicillin- Chicken Noodle Soup!!!! This could be the health care overhaul bill that everyone can sign up for!

My grandmother's recipe is in a January post from last year 2009. And it really is good and easy to make.

PS...this blog will be updated on Wednesdays and Thursday since most food column are published those days too!

Naming Recipes For Your Family Memory Cookbook

2010-02-15T18:08:00Z

How you choose the names for each recipe in your cookbook is very important. Have you noticed many people just leaf through a cookbook to later take a closer look. It is in that first read quick that determines whether the cookbook is picked up again. So Grandma's Every Day Meatloaf or Kicked Upped Tuna Fish Salad are things people will look at and come back to again. Meatloaf and Tuna Salad are not that exciting to look at but they could taste great so the name is very important to determining if you cookbook sits on a shelf or gets opened and used.

Go through your cooking magazines to see the headlines and that will give you a hint of what makes people stop to read an article is the same that will make stop to look at your recipe. Names of the people who gave you their recipe are the easiest start to the name of a recipe. I harp on the stories need to added so that the cookbook gets read with so many family members not entering a kitchen to cook but heat up a meal. The title or name of a recipe can be the thing that gets one of these non-cooks to try a recipe. You just don't want to spend all this time and effort in creating a cookbook unless your family will read it and these are just the little things to make it tilt in you favor.

By the way, don't get cooking magazines, just check them out at the grocery store. You might even buy one once a recipe grabs your attention. You just never know!

An Award Winning Chicken Soup

2010-02-08T16:33:00Z

I know that my mother's chicken soup is pretty wonderful but I never have put it to the test of some competition.I have shared her recipe in this blog and have had people who tried it compliment the recipe. But now I am so proud of my old college roommate Lauren. Lauren is not old but we have been out of college for a while. She won the best chicken soup in the city of Columbus Ohio. I guess I know of what I speak when I say good chicken soup.

After being a judge for a number of years Lauren decide to put her own recipe up to the challenge. Cooking is nothing new for Lauren. She was one of my roommates that really cooked and cooked great meals. I guess I have been lucky that I have always surrounded myself with people who love to eat, love to eat great food and love to cook. Life does not get much better than that.

What I love about Lauren's award is that over the years I have eaten her chicken soup numerous times. I have always complimented her on her cooking but as is her style to slough it off that she just keeps on making great meals. I also love that Lauren uses the big European soup spoons when she serves soup. Big spoons to capture all that wonderful.

But now others have given her an award I am sure it means more and the size of the award is something too. I am wondering if she will share her recipe with us. I am wondering if I bribe Collin her son and her sous chef to get the recipe he would give it up. I DOUBT IT...

I think I will have to find a reason to get invited for a dinner and see if she will share it.

Collecting all your recipes!

2010-02-01T18:24:00Z

A family memory cookbook can be frustrating when you are still waiting on relatives to furnish you with their recipes? It can not be completed until you have all the recipes! It can be hard to get other people to do what and when you want.

Did you give the relatives a deadline?
If you have followed up with a phone?
Have you started to marshal other relatives to call to get actions?
Have you tried bribery?
When all else fails, try guilt. It works.

One way to guilt a relative into furnishing you there recipe is to tell them you will take a recipe from the web that is similar and say it is there. Their recipe will be in the cookbook even if they don't furnish you the correct one. And then the family will never know how good their recipe really was. Or something similar.You might not know their hot buttons so be ready to try several. Ask other relatives what they think will work. Sometimes letting other relatives just know that they are holding completion of your family heirloom cookbook is enough. Each family is different as is each relative.

I knew of one family that left the page blank and later filled it in with a photo and it said that Aunt Olivia never got around to furnishing her recipe for pecan rolls. Please let her know when do the cookbook in two years we all would like them included. Now that is guilt!

In the world of cookbook writing you may need to do what ever it takes....

More Ways to Eat Healthy

2010-01-25T15:47:00Z

I 'm on my quest to eat healthier in 2010. And I am so glad that so many magazines and newspapers are helping me to do that by featuring articles about healthy eating. This past Thursday my local paper the Star Tribune ran an article from the Washington Post. Healthy Eating

What I love is how these articles reaffirm what I already know like add herbs, add citrus and add spices to your cooking. All things any of us know that have been on a diet know but the what I did not know is to add some sugar to my homemade dressing so it is not so harsh. Reminding me a spoonful of sugar is only 18 calories. So it may help the medicine go down and my a tart dressing be user friendly.

One other thing I learned was that it nice to add fruit salsas to my fish and chicken dishes. My sister gave me a salsas cookbook several years ago. I am going to dig among all my cookbooks to find some. I have added more fish dishes to my weekly menu as well as more chicken. I could eat fish 4 times a week but I really do not like chicken. The chicken we eat today has very little chicken taste. I sometimes refer to chicken as cardboard with seasoning and sauce. It is kind of what I think about tofu, again it tastes like what it is cooked in.

So for those of you who are doing a family cookbook theme healthier eating you may want to search the web right now for all those recipes that are less fat and more flavor. While these recipes are all over the place collect them and then compare them to your family recipes. Remember you can change them if you state that they are updated to be healthier than the original. Healthier recipes means healthier eating and isn't what you really want.

The Number One Questions I Receive Is How to Add Photos to Your Cookbook

2010-01-18T16:22:00Z

The Number One Questions I Receive Is How to Add Photos to Your Cookbook. I find this question very scary with today's technology. It is due to most of the formats or templates have not been updated to give you the most flexibility. Many years ago the cookbooks had many recipes on a page and that was it. The other part is that many want to up sell you on your cookbook information. You pay more for the number of pages of editorial which are the pages of stories. The want you pay for more recipes, more photos and anything from you want that makes your cookbook unique. Very few cookbook publishers give you the flexibility without extra charges.

I often tell you that I use microsoft's free cookbook templates for my own cookbooks. I can change art work, add pages and do what ever I wish.I have used the cookbookpeople templates that offer that kind of flexibility. It has more updates to give a plus beyond my free templates and once I spend the $39 I can use it in different times and ways. HP has a scrapbook page that can be created and then each page done as its own page printed later to create a cookbook that uses all the levels of your own creativity. Make sure before you use a company to publish your cookbook see what they will have additional charges that will cause you to add dollars to create your family recipe cookbook.

If you can cut and paste to add a photo to a document then you can add your photos to your cookbook. Most computers allow you to drag the photo from you photo file to the page. It is that easy. You just have to have a template will allow that.

What are the photo's to add to your family recipe cookbooks?

Good quality old family photos to show your relatives off.
Good new family photos showing your relatives now.
Recipes cards written in the original handwriting. (scanned as art work)
Photo of what the foods should look like (created when you taste and test the recipes)
Photos of the old homestead or house where the stories took place

The hard part is with all those topics is to choose the correct photos for your family recipe cookbook. It takes someone who can say no so that your cookbook is more a photobook than a cookbook. I still have that problem after all these years. I worry that if I do not use it they will be lost. I have to remind myself that I can do another book later. So can you!

My Recipe to Stay Warm is Create a Traditional Family Soup Cookbook

2010-01-11T19:42:00Z

With Winter Temps in the deep freezer: My Recipe for Warmth and Happiness is a Traditional Family Soup Cookbook

Personal stories are great to get people to read and use your cookbook but it is just as important to get your cookbook to be used and you can do it with themes. Since temperatures here in Minnesota where I write this blog have not been above freezing since Christmas Day an easy solution would be soups. That is a long time for the being cold! The one great dish that warms the heart and soul is a great soup dish. I last year had given my mother’s homemade chicken broth recipes (1/6/09 date of the that blog) It has been handed down in our family for several generations and leagues of people requested the recipe of my grandmother and hundreds have asked for my mother’s recipe. Not only does it cure the common cold but a great from dish for the working women to create since my mother was one. It was made most Thursday nights when my mother came home from work, served fresh each Friday night and then heated up each day with more vegetables made from left overs. Any family cookbook I would write would start with chicken soup but my mother also made lentil and split pea soup. Both were hearty soups with potato and pieces of sausages and served as a meal all by itself. It does not get any better than homemade soups. It might be a great cookbook to write for your own family.

In fact, most of my monthly cooking magazines recent additions featured several soups that sound like they may make the cut for my family recipe soup cookbook.

Food Wine Feb 2010
Spinach and Egg Drop Soup
Chicken and Noodles in Spiced Broth
White Bean and Onion Confit from Chef Jerry Traunfeld at Seattle’s Poppy
Winter Vegetable Chili

Bon Appetit January 2010
Pablano Albondigas with Ancho Chile Soup
Lentil soup with Spicy Italian Sausage
Vegetable soup with Sriracha, Lemongrass and Tofu

Midwest Living January/February 2010
Sweet Potato Corn Chowder by Chef Paul Dagenback
Hearty Vegetable Soup by Marilyn Harris
If you are interested any of these recipes go to the publications website to read them.

When use Grandma's recipe you say this is Grandma’s Recipe. When you use Food and Wine’s recipe you say it was from Food and Wine Magazine and which month issue it was taken from. Always give due to the author of the recipe. You can always borrow a recipe and make it your own but be honest of where the original recipe comes from. If you are not going to sell your cookbook and just planning on handing it out to your kids, it is a good habit to get into. You never need to worry about plagiarism or being sued. I have been told that ingredients can be copyrighted but not instructions but why push the envelope just give credit to who created the recipe.

It can be very frustrating to be creative and have someone take and use your information without permission. Most often, if you ask to use something you will get permission. I speak from my own hurt since someone is blogging using a blog name so similar to mine it would get your head to spin. Copyright and infringement on intellectual property is a very serious crime.

Old Recipes Become New Recipes for Healthier Eating

2010-01-04T17:19:00Z

In my house the quite is so loud I can hardly hear myself think! Everyone is gone and now I am left with left overs (in the freezer) and lots of ideas of what I will do different next year. But for 2010 I am going to eat healthier and start changing my old recipes to reflect a healthier diet.

Yes, you can change Grandmother's recipe. Yes, you make it more modern and make it fit your family but never discard the original so that it can be made a holidays as it has been for years. You may want to have the original recipe on the right side of your cookbook and then have the update version on the left. Label it as such too. You want these recipes to be used and if they are not updated it could mean no one in your family make make them. That would mean in one generation a bit of your family tradition will be lost too!

Updating recipes may mean changing the times for convection ovens. It might mean using your Cuisinart versus a hand grinder. It could mean using olive oil versus vegetable oil or even shortening rather than lard. If the recipe is too hard to make it will not get made. So if you know how to simply it do so or you can attempt to recreate it with your update new techniques. As long as it still taste similar to the original, why not.

A cookbook that does not get used is just a dust catcher as my mother would say. Why put all the time and effort to create a cookbook that will stay on the shelf. Take the bit of time to update those recipes and let them be cooked in a modern kitchen. And as you know if you add a story or two at least the will get read!

The Clock Is Ticking For New Years Food Traditons

2009-12-28T19:16:00Z

I did it again. Too much food was cooked for the Christmas holiday and now large parts portions have been put away into the freezer. Now another holiday is coming and more food will be cooked. New Years food are different for each of us as we celebrate the holiday differently. I spent many years going out to dinner and then going to a movie. Now I go skiing the the week before and sometimes eat out and some years have friends up and we grill steaks for New Year's Eve. But the one consistent thing has been how I celebrate New Year's Day. I watch football. I am like many of the thousands of people that start the day watching the Rose Parade and then go on to watch football. Being a Ohio State grad, I have more interest in this years game but then I was raised in Cincinnati so I will be watching that game too. Watching football means munchies and sandwiches. That is my tradition for New Year's Day. Sandwiches or hoggies are a great way to each while watching the game. You build platers of food that can be made up while watching with out loosing a single play. Some years I make potato salad and some years I buy the potato salad and cole slaw when I purchase the cold cuts for the sandwiches.

My parents went out for dinner and dancing New Year's Eve. But some how I remember my mother saying that herring was a German a food for the New Years. I am sure that what ever culture your family maybe, there is a food that is attached to that. You may want to include those foods in a family recipe cookbook. It is a prefect place to talk about how your family has celebrated the holiday and give some recipes.

I do want to create a cookbook for just left overs. You know I harp on having a theme for your cookbook so that it will get used and my new theme after the holiday cookie cookbook will be a cookbook for left overs.

If you want to share some left over recipes with me and my readers we would love and if you want to share some New Year's traditions that would be great too. My wish is that you have a great holiday and an amazing 2010.

No time for writing my family cookbook

2009-12-21T16:42:00Z

I just pulled cookies out of the oven and took them to the post office as I dropped and mailed the last batch of this years cd's there. Last week I asked when I was at the post office if the public could drop off food. Didn't know but the said sure. I said I would if I found the time. It is amazing what you can do when you want to. I go to the post office at least four times a week mailing cds or books.

I am like most of you with way to many things to do then write another entry into my blog. But I wanted to give you two hints....

1) if you do not have a family recipe and cooking for the holidays use Cooks Illustrated cookbook because all the recipes are really tested. I have come up too many times lately with recipes that just did not come out right And this time of the year we are all looking for perfection and more importantly not to have to redo things more than once. No time for do overs.

2) This year when the family gathers ask the family what were their favorites: foods, traditions, memories and gifts that they have given and gotten. If you are bold enough have them write them down while they are waiting for the Christmas meal. Or you can do it as if a game in the down time. sometimes a diversion is a great way to get everyone to relax and stay away from subjects best left alone during the holidays. Ask the relatives for recipes when they come or let them know that before anyone can leave, they to give you a sheet of paper with what they really want next year in a family recipe cookbook. If you get them answer all the questions you will know what recipes are needed. You will have the stories about each member of the family and the traditions that mean so much to the family.

I am off to the store to buy this weeks groceries....
Great Seasons Eatings and Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

Newsletter and this Blog

2009-12-14T17:21:00Z

I am almost done with this quarters newsletter. It is two pages without the active links that I always send with them. I am thinking about sending one newsletter out with content and one later in the week sending it out with just links.But I thought I would let you all let me know what you think. I do not do this all for my benefit but that I want to add value to your lives and understanding about what is happening in the cookbook world.

Do you mind getting two different newsletters in one week?
Do you think the active links are important?
Do you like getting the quarterly newsletters?
Do you want to get newsletters once a month?
Do you want to have an attachment rather than a open document?
Would rather come and look at the blog each week than get a newsletter?
I want more support in these articles to help me complete my cookbook?
I really have no opinion so what ever everyone else decides is okay?

Either answer these question as a comment or send me an email with your answers. memorycookbooks@gmail.com
Thanks in advance for your help and making this work hard for you!

Problems with My Recipes Turning Out Right!!

2009-12-07T18:00:00Z

Am I the only one that keeps finding recipes that are wrong? That means that they were never tested and/or tasted and that means that they were never tested and tasted from the recipe as it appears in the cookbook. I know I can't be the only one.

Last night I made a recipe for desert from my cookbook "The Joy of Cooking "which has been my bible in the kitchen for years. But now twice in the last year the cookbook has let me down. I followed the recipe for cream puffs and the puffs did not puff. And followed step by step and then I thought about the oven temps might have been to low. When I make other things that need to puff, I preheat the oven at 500 degrees and this recipe was 450. I think the recipe was wrong. So today I will search my other cookbooks and see what they say and I will make the batter once more and try it at 500.

If you have had problems with recipes for cookbooks not turning out, let me know and share them with me. I can not be the only one that is having this problem. Or am I?

For anyone writing a cookbook, make sure that you test and taste all the recipes as they appear in the cookbook. You may find typos. You may find that some the ingredients that are in the instructions may not be in the list of ingredients or vice versus. It is really a great way to proof read your cookbook but also catch the problems before the cookbook goes to the printer. The best cookbook writers always tell me to make sure that all the cookbook creators should never print with out testing and tasting the recipes from the draft of the cookbook. I have not said it again!

New Recipes for Leftovers

2009-11-30T17:22:00Z

My fridge is stuffed. It is stuffed with left overs. I made Turkey Pot Pie, Turkey Tettrazenni, Turkey Enchiladas with Verde Salas and today I will be making Turkey Curry. I need more options since I have still only recipe left to use which is White Chili with Turkey. Does any one have another recipe to share?.....and I have not even tackled the sides that are still left.

Now you could say I over cooked but not really. Everyone seemed to eat a bit of this and a bit of that. No one really ate like they meant it. So now I am struggling with left overs like most of you. Would it be bad to serve the sides for Christmas if I freeze them? I am lost.

What I know is that my ancestors did not have a freezer of any size and worked very well. I can not really remember any left overs. My family ate what was ever served. I know that my mother never would have had creative recipes to use all the left overs. We did have our weekly chicken soup that had contained most left overs from during the week. Usually added were veggies that were left over.

A family recipe cookbook with all the uses for left overs might be a great way to start your holiday cookbook. Your children would love to know what to do with all these left overs. My family never really shared their recipes so this might be a good way to start. Ask your mother, aunts and other relatives what they do with all the left overs and that might start the dialog.

I know I can never throw that food away since my mother always told me, "there are starving children in China." My response to her was always. " Name one. and we will send this to them." I know I was a brat but we can not be perfect all the time.

A Stress Free Menu For Thanksgiving

2009-11-23T14:47:00Z

As we go through all the recipes one more time to see if we can make improve something for this Thanksgiving’s table we are adding more stress to our already stressed lives. We go through the family recipe box to see if there is family favorite or one recipe left a family member no longer with us this year. Family recipe cookbooks are leafed to see what more we can stuff on our table this year.

I was thinking that every wants to create that perfect table yet the stories we tell are about family gatherings are the catastrophes and calamities we have encountered. I do not remember anyone ever saying, “ remember Aunt Sally’s perfect Thanksgiving two years ago.” But more often we are saying, “ remember when Aunt Sally was pulling her turkey from the oven only to notice she forgot to turn the oven on.”

There are few foods that everyone cooks on Thanksgiving but I have never seen a rulebook that says you have to serve turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. I know these foods are traditional since it is our best guess what might have been served to the pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving. This is the menu for every cooking magazine on what will be served this coming Thursday.

Turkeys are a native bird, which is why they were chosen as the protein for this holiday, but I am not sure anyone knows for sure what was served. It could have been venison as easily as part of the first Thanksgiving. If you want to make something else do it. Be creative and celebrate your individualaltiy.

Just remember most of us eat turkey as a whole bird once a year since it is hard to cook. Most often it turns out dry so do not beat your self over trying to create that perfect turkey. For most of us, we are just happy to get everything on the table at the same time and not forget to serve one dish left on the counter in the kitchen.

So as I write this, my butterball is defrosting in the fridge, my attempt to make the perfect moist turkey last year will be the stories people will tell about me for years to come. I used Cook’s Illustrated rating to buy my turkey. It was a fresh Aaron’s glat kosher bird. It stayed in the white plastic bag until I was ready to season it to put in the oven and noticed how many feathers still remained on the bird. There was no notation on the Cook’s Illustrated article to the fact that you would be plucking the bird before cooking. I spent a few hours plucking and had to move the time we served dinner two hours later. It was then I decided the quest for perfection was a quest and was reminded it is the journey not the destination that makes life more interesting.

Enjoy your journey this year and at Thanksgiving the destination is a group of family members so stuffed that they can’t move to help clean up in the kitchen!

Our Memory Cookbook CD is Almost This Free Holiday Season

2009-11-16T16:06:00Z

Five Tips for Kick Starting
Your Family Memory Cookbook!

If you are like most of us, you have little time and even with your best intentions of having a family cookbook done. Here are some helpful hints that will have your cookbook almost writing itself…

Notify every family member attending this Thanksgiving they need to bring at least one family photograph, one family story and a family recipe.
Have one person collect all the items from the relatives as they come to dinner. This person should write down what each person has contributed, make sure all the contact information is correct so if there are any more questions later they can be contacted.
Have a recorder going as one person reads the stories for everyone’s reaction. See if these stories remind people of new stories that also can be added to the cookbook later.
Have someone take photographs while people are telling their stories or just sitting around before the meal. Add these new photos to cookbook too.
Order a copy of “A Plate Full of Memories” to use the forms for figuring out the cost of your cookbook, handling family orders and the reorders since your have collected all the elements already! After this years Thanksgiving meal you then can start put it all together...
And to make the holiday even better we have lowered the price of our cd to only $10.00 plus shipping and handling so that everyone will be able to capture their families stories and recipes.

Kids Dining Out

2009-11-09T17:42:00Z

As I was reading this weeks New York Times Magazine section (the article that got this rant started

I was struck how quickly the conversation about kids diets are changing when eating out. At first it was that restaurants were only serving chicken strips and French fries but this article talked about all the restaurants that are offering child size portions for much more complicated dishes. The chefs themselves have kids so the menu is expanding. But I was surprised that there was no discussion about kids at the restaurants.

When I was little there was no children's menu any where. OK I understand that I am old but my parents took my sister and I to four star restaurants all the time. They had decided to take us at lunch time since the prices were cheaper and the other diners would be less offended if the kids caused a ruckus. Those lunches let my parents eat at restaurants that they wanted to eat at with out hiring a baby sitter too. We learned to be have nicely, how to order off the menu and manners at a restaurant.

Because I am old, I do mind having crying children in a fine dining establishment when I am spending over $100 for a meal. I also understand that just because you are young does not mean you are going to misbehave. We walk that fine line of expectations and results. Bring your kids to the restaurants that have high-chairs since they are ready for them but test drive your kids behavior with a lunch time stop at fine dining before your plan to bring them out at night.

Then you can expand their diets from what is on the menu. You will be surprised at what kids order given a chance.

Eat Local

2009-10-30T15:27:00Z

My garden has now been put to bed with new hopes for a great gardening season next year. I have dried my herbs that were saved prior to the first killing frost. My berries have been all put up to give as gifts this holiday season. So now I have to depend on my grocery store to let me know how far products they sell have been shipped. I found out some countries are not putting an index on products to see how much green house gases have been used the create the product. In the United States we are not there yet. I have discovered that Target is being sued for miss labeling some of their products as organic and they were not. Again, we are having to put our trust in the retailers and I do so with trepidation. The sad things is the neighborhood fruit and vegetable stands are now closing up too since there growing season is over. Winter is coming on quickly with great meals ahead to be cooked but they will made with store bought products.

Some Reasons to Create a Family Cookbook

2009-10-21T18:37:00Z

I found an article last week in the newspaper and it was perfectly written to explain why the recipes of the past have relevance in our lives today. By talking about the recipes the writer was able to give us a flavor why each recipe was important. It is that step by step through Grandma's recipes do find how she made her dishes and they tasted very good, Every time those recipes are made in that home those family members will remember her and take those flavors to the future. I often discuss right now that we need to look to our Grandmothers to find out how they made it out of the Great Depression and the recipe may be as close as our recipe boxes.
The Taste of Grandma's Frugality