Notes from the kitchen

While the potatoes simmer, I thought I'd show you what else is going on around the Treehouse.

Work started bright and early Monday morning on the building next door. The construction guys are now working at Treehouse level, so I've been able to share my dollmaking progress. They had nothing but thumbs up for the red hat lady. I've been reluctant to share the bawdy one. I fear work might come to a halt.

Mr. Gadget, who likes to keep track of everything that is keep-trackable, was reporting the daily start times of the hard-working crew (7:05, 7:14, 7:08, etc.) until I finally told him I had no need for this information. I did note a start-time of 6:47 yesterday morning though. Just saying.

So I was looking through my cookbooks recently and saw this treasure sitting on the shelf.

I know a real treasure when I see one. It's usually something held together with rubber bands (removed for the photo op). This belonged to my mother, and it's filled with little recipe snippets--many cut from magazines and newspapers, and several handwritten by family and friends.

Sadly, most of the contributors didn't sign their submissions, so I've had to do some detective work. This one is dear ol' dad's. There's no mistaking his neat, precise printing--a quality so important in his work as an architect.

There's not much debate about this one either. Grandma Ferna I'm pretty sure. Maybe one of my dear cousins will confirm. I don't remember sampling any of these corn flake cookies though. She may have been more like me--a recipe collector, and not so much a recipe tryer-outer.

This one is trickier. It's typed, so there are no handwriting hints. And it's on an envelope with several typos. My mother was a secretary and an excellent typist, so it's probably not hers. But it is one she made often--usually at Christmas.

This is my sister's handwriting, although I'm quite surprised to see it since I can't remember her ever cooking. Maybe that collector thing runs in our family.

Thank goodness for Aunt Millie. She recognized the importance of signing her recipes for posterity. She deserves to be honored for her thoughtfulness, so maybe I'll make her pickled cucumbers. Why couldn't Aunt Millie have been thoughtful enough to sign her recipe for chocolate cake I wonder....