What’s my cooking methodology, you might ask?
Something old, something new, something borrowed….
Okay, not exactly, but almost.
Something old: These are recipes I love; cherished treasures that my mom or grandma or best-friends-mom or neighbor made for me growing up. They are in my rotation, and many of them are recipes I can make without even thinking. I have a lot of them on little cards or scraps of paper in my wood recipe box.
Something new: The something news are my white whale; I’m always searching for the perfect new recipe. I try to pick out a new one to tackle every week. New-to-me ingredients make my heart warm and fuzzy. My stack of cookbooks grows every day. I love reading and re-reading some of my favorites, scouring them for my next meal. But if they’re really something I love, they become my…
Something borrowed: I keep a special notebook where I can jot down the recipes I find so I can reference them again and again. And make changes, adapting the recipe to what I love.
I also write in the margins of my cookbooks. YES MOM. I WRITE in them. I’m not sure why not writing in cookbooks was such a big deal growing up, but let me tell you how AMAZING it is to have little notes to yourself in the margins of your favorite recipe:
“First time making this chocolate cake for Christmas 2019 was a success! It is a BIG cake. Made with cream cheese icing. Delicious! Simple! Make it again!”
“Made this chocolate cake for Eric’s Birthday, April 2020. Since we were in the middle of a global pandemic, I halved the recipe and used the big muffin tins to make a cake for each person, and Eric got a tiny cake with the 6″ springform. I used a basic buttercream.”
I digress.
I hope that among these recipes, you might find your “something new” or maybe even a “something borrowed”.