2.09.2009

It's All About the Family...

My grandmother's jar funnel

Recently we've been asked to share some of our recipes. While part of me would love nothing more than to do this, there is another side of me that recognizes that many of the recipes employed at the LRBC our family recipes, and treasured ones at that. To elaborate, please take the jar funnel pictured above. My mom just recently passed down this beloved item from my maternal grandmother who donated it to the LRBC kitchen. During her hay-day, my grandmother was an amazing cook. Hailing from Kansas, my grandmother was known to whip up some really tasty dishes. I dare you to try and find a better pie dough or a better turkey gravy (my mom's is definitely a close second), and it would be a failure on our part not to mention that the Apple Butter we use on our Messenger Sandwich (aka one of 2008's Best Breakfast Sandwiches) was adapted from from my grandmother's time-honored recipe. And have I mentioned Nan's Green Goddess dressing yet?

Basically, to spare you from any more details, there's a whole lotta history behind how we get from this:

homemade granola, an adaptation of my sister's recipe
to this:

LRBC granola, sold by the lb.

Yes, yes, fortunately between Evan and myself, there's a lot of history and talent behind our inspirational cooking arsenal, and we feel blessed and honored to share these recipes with you, our "other family." But that doesn't mean we're quite ready yet to lay it all down on the line--er--I mean blog and divulge the secrets behind the trade. For the stuff we come up by ourselves, hell, I don't have a problem openly publishing into the blogosphere, but for the stuff that we are fortunate to call "Family Recipes," well, those just might have to stay private for now, at least until we feel certain that we are able to do justice to the process, and until we ourselves fully develop the seasoned and weathered hands inherited from our pedigree. Here's a shout-out to Martha Charlesworth and Leah Durkheimer. Thank you for paving our path.

G-Ma's funnel, LRBC homemade Black Mission Fig Jam

2 comments:

Maggie said...

While I would love to get myhands on a (bunch) few of your delicious recipes, I do understand about family recipes. I'm in the process of teaching my daughters how to make my amish grandfather's jam cake, which he taught me.

It's always great if there's a story behind the recipes.

Metolius Mark * Student of...Everything said...

Nan took her G Goddess to the grave; how could we possibly reveal it now? 'Hey Nan? Give us a sign or the recipe remains a guarded family secret', just like grandma Dorothy's passover cake.