New series: Big Grandma's Cookbook

Last year I was looking through some drawers and came across a book I had never opened.  It was kind of scraggly looking with duct tape holding the binding together.  I must have picked it up when we were cleaning out my grandmother's house years ago.  When I turned it over to check out the front cover, I burst into tears.

It's my grandma's cookbook.

Not only does it include every single thing I remember eating at her house, but it's written by hand- HER hand.  She gave it a table of contents and everything.  It's beautiful.  There are pages that have clippings she must have found in magazines or the daily newspaper along with her own personal recipes.  When I read through it the first time, I could actually smell the foods of my childhood.  

My grandmother was a very fine cook.  She was full blooded Hungarian so most of her dishes had an eastern European flair to them.  She liked to follow a recipe, but she also loved to add her own personal touches to everything she made.  Every time we would visit for dinner, it was an adventure.

Big Grandma and my daughter

I've decided to test out some of her recipes here each week in a new series called Big Grandma's Cookbook.  Funny story about how she became "Big" Grandma.  No, she was not a large woman by any means.  When my niece was very little, she knew her great grandma very well as they lived right next door to each other in my parents' two-family home.  She started calling her Big Grandma when she couldn't quite remember the word Great.  She knew her great grandma was someone important; someone BIG in her life.  So the name stuck.  I think my grandma liked it.

So please look for a new recipe every week from Big Grandma's Cookbook.  I'm looking forward to making them and I hope you will enjoy trying them yourself!