The Orange Recipe Box

Tuesday/Day 31 - Today I am thankful for my mom's orange recipe box. I wanted to make those cheesy cubed/hash brown potatoes my mom use to make every year for Christmas Eve. We are going to Brett and Rachel's for Christmas Day. Brett has ordered steaks for our meal, and I offered up fattening potatoes. This morning I dug the box out of the cupboard HOPING that is where I would find the recipe I needed. Sure enough, there it was near the front.

I suspect my mom got this recipe box as a shower gift for her wedding. It had many typed cards divided by category. There were a few hand written cards added in... then there were my mom's recipes on scratch or notebook paper written in pencil. Clearly, these were the ones she used. They were all stuck in the front, and not by category. I could tell where the recipe originated by the paper. If it was on paper with some manufacturing company logo or another, I knew the recipe was from Toot's. I can picture my mom jotting down the info at Toot's white round Formica table with the orange place mats. If the recipe was written on small notebook paper... then I knew mom had called someone on the phone for it, or gotten from someone at home.

Self professed by my mom, she was not a good cook or baker... and didn't really like to do either. That being said, she had a few items she did really well and was known for.

I am thankful for....
-Chocolate Chip Cookies (the regular Toll House recipe). She would make huge batches while listening to Carol King, Cat Stevens, or Simon and Garfunkel on the records. The cookies were perfectly round and uniform.
-Oatmeal cookies (NEVER with raisins, but often with chocolate chips for my Dad.)
-Baked rice dish with cinnamon on top (I did locate that hand written recipe)
-The beloved Poppy Seed Cake recipe from a church cookbook. I think it is St. Mary's... but I would have to look to be sure. I have now mastered this cake, but it took time. The first time I tried, I honostly didn't know what it meant to cream the sugar with the butter, or an 8" round versus a 9" round, etc. Every time I make it, I get a little bit pissed off. The recipe takes a bit of time. For goodness sake, you have to sift the flour and seperate eggs! (Please note I do NOT bake!) I never remember my mom crabbing about making this cake, but I DO know it was for SPECIAL occasions. Of course I now know why!