Scrapping the Family Cookbook

My favorite cookbook is a white three-ring binder where I keep my family recipes. The "Winters Family Favorites" tradition started several years ago as a holiday gift for my daughters and a few other relatives. Christmas was pretty "lean" that year, but the cookbooks were a huge success.

I collected recipes that my family enjoyed along with clip art and a short history of the recipe: why it was special to our family and where it came from; things like that. I printed out a pages of the recipes for each book and placed them in plastic sleeves inside the notebooks.

A few years ago, when we sold my parent's home, I found my mother's stash of recipes, written out longhand on scraps of paper from her job, stuffed in between pages of her cookbooks and in various other corners of her book case. Some were in her handwriting and others were written with a stubby pencil by my grandmother.She also had loads of antique cookbooks - the kind that came with appliances or those thin ones offered by companies to promote their products. My daughters and I love to pour over them and find hidden treasures to tempt the taste buds.

Over the next few months, I hope to try some of these recipes and include them in our family cookbook along with mom and grand mom memories for my own granddaughters. I also thought it would be fun to share some of them with all my online friends too. So every Friday, I'll post a new (old) recipe with some tall tales and perhaps a bit of mom sense...

Enjoy!

Dill Pickle Dip

This is a great recipe for your Superbowl spread! I'm not sure where it came from , but it's at least been around for 45 years. My mom loved family gatherings and often made up a batch of this dip for chips, though it works great for veggies too. She never wrote the ingredients down, so be sure you add them a little at a time to taste. It will get "dillier" as it chills.

Oh, by the way - this is great on baked potatoes too!

1 large or 3-4 small whole dill pickles minced
2 Tbsp. dill pickle juice
1 pint sour cream
1 tsp. dill salt
2 tsp. dill weed
1 small clove minced garlic or 1/8 tsp of garlic powder

Mix all ingredients together and chill for one hour before serving.