Ingredients...

Over the past few years, I have been fortunate enough to receive several cookbooks from my friends.  I’m not talking about the kind you go to the store and buy.  These are cookbooks filled with family recipes and those from friends, and then put together with love.  I can’t tell you how meaningful it is to have received these treasures.  They have become some of my favorite cookbooks, because I know they are filled with recipes that are well used and much loved.  I have also been sent recipes over the years or have been told about websites with good recipes.  Those, too, have become favorites in my home.

A dear friend sent me the latest cookbook a while back.  Not only was it a joy to read the yummy recipes, but the artwork and editorial comments were wonderful as well.  Her cookbook inspired me.  Originally, I thought I would put my recipes… all those torn from magazines and newspapers, all those emailed copies, all those written on scraps of paper or the back of ingredient boxes, as well as the ones written on those little 3 x 5 cards… into an organized collection with the idea of maybe printing out my own little cookbook to give to family and friends.  The more I thought about that, however, the less appealing it became.  I wanted to do something different. 
      
Then one day, I had a thought.  While cookbooks with individual recipes are great, I would like to compile a collection of recipes and menus… entire meals, from soup to nuts… from some of my recipes, but most especially, from my friends and family who have loved me and nurtured me with their friendship as well as their food.  They have not only included some of their favorite menus, but the stories that go with those meals… the traditions, the joys, the disasters… everything that went into making their memorable meals, memorable!

On March 10, 2008, Madonna was inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. I’m not a huge Madonna fan, but one thing she said in her remarks that evening really struck me… "Life, like art, is a collaboration. I did not get here on my own. And why would I want to?" That’s the way I feel about this project. It is a collaboration and, in a way, it is art. Anyone who has slaved over a special meal, or just a Tuesday night meatloaf dinner, takes a certain pride in what is presented to those who will enjoy the meal. Food, like art, gives sustenance to body and soul. It can lift your spirits and warm your tummy. It can make you smile, or in the case of a child being forced to each his spinach, it can make you cry!

As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, my original plans for this project have changed since I first started it 2 1/2 years ago. My hope is that it can be an ongoing project with entries from me, but also from you, my family and friends. While I would like for it to be really organized... beginning with appetizers and ending with desserts... I want to keep it easy and fun. Let's just begin and see what happens!