Recipes and Cookbooks: Food, Stories, Histories

Staff food memories and thoughts - From the The Markwood Center for Learning, Innovation and Collaboration (CLIC) at the Jim Dan Hill Library

Alecia Barbour. Information Literacy Librarian

A memory I have from childhood is the smell of cinnamon and sugar. When my family baked pies, extra pie crust dough would be covered in butter and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, then baked. It smelled (and tasted) wonderful!

Emily Moran. Instructional Designer 

I have fond memories of baking Christmas cookies with my mom, especially sugar cookies and peanut butter blossoms. One of my favorite wedding gifts was a cookbook with my mom's Christmas cookie recipes, and I can't wait to bake them with my son this year!

Natasha Schumacher, Systems & Digital Services Librarian 

My grampaw (his spelling) liked to talk about how he cooked for Kennedy before he became president because he was on PT-157 that rescued him when PT-109 was destroyed. His favorite thing to cook was fried chicken with mashed potatoes and noodle gravy. My grandma collected recipes from family and friends (including that recipe) and used a typewriter to create a cookbook in the early 90s. My dad and my sister still use the recipe from that cookbook to make fried chicken and noodle gravy for family meals.

Sara S. Winger, Resource Management & Data Services Librarian  

Christmas brings up the most food memories for me. My mom and all three of us kids would make cookies. My mom makes the best homemade caramels ever!! Both my grandmothers also baked cookies, pies, and all sorts of goodies all season long, so from Thanksgiving to New Years it always smelled awesome at their homes. My maternal grandmother made Scandinavian/Norwegian cookies and treats; my favorite was the fresh homemade lefsa. (She also made fresh bread every Saturday all year long.) One year for Christmas grandma gave all of us girls a cookie jar filled with Norwegian cookies and her handwritten recipes for each. A few years ago, mom and I got together to make Christmas cookies, including the caramels.

All images via Wikipedia unless otherwise noted