Moments & Memories

Tuesday, September 16, 2008, by Leigh Anne & Sherra

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We have designated Tuesday as a day where we will have different women share “Moments & Memories” in their lives.

We plan to feature women from all walks of lives – it may be in the form of an interview or as a guest writer. The column on Tuesday will be centered around our word of the month. We’d love to feature you as a guest writer. Qualifications: No experience necessary…just be willing to share a great moment or memory with other women. Send us an email and we’ll schedule a date. We thought we’d kick it off this month by writing what our theme word means to each of us.

Connecting with Food

Leigh Anne says…

I have spent the last 17 years of my life helping people connect to their families and their history through their pictures. By helping them preserve and organize their photos and memories those connections were strengthened and preserved for generations. I have learned that there are many different ways that we connect with those we know and love.

A couple of years ago my daughter worked along with my mother to put together a family cookbook. A collection of our families “best” recipes was affectionately named The Best of the Best Family Recipes as my maiden name is Best. They spent hours and hours pouring over and copying recipes. Recipes that were our favorites or recipes that had come from members of our family or friends, recipes that reminded us of them.

One thing I discovered during this project was that just about every recipe that we love is somehow connected to someone else. Each recipe had a connection – to a person or a place. A connection to the person who prepared it or the place we were first served that dish. As they put the cookbook together each recipe was identified by its connection to either a person or an event.

We make connections in our life, every day, all day long, whether it is in a face-to-face conversation, a phone call, an email or through the food we serve and eat each day.

Life is about connections – to our present, to our past and to our hopes of future connections.

Fixing meals for those we love is not only a necessity but it is a way of strengthening and creating bonds that will last for generations. A certain smell or a taste of a spice, can bring memories instantly flooding back into our minds. A reminder of joyous times – the families favorite birthday cake that is served at everyone’s birthday and sometimes sorrowful ones too – the funeral potatoes that we take when asked to bring food to a funeral.

Certain foods/recipes will be forever connected to specific people and certain events…

I will never be able to make chili relleno casserole without thinking of my Aunt Dottie.
Each time I make our family’s favorite chocolate chip cookie I will be reminded of my neighbor Shari – I am sure even after we are no longer neighbors.
My college-age boys first request each time they are home is flank steak – I don’t think they will ever eat flank steak without thoughts of home or their mother!

The smells, the flavors, the textures – these are the things that we remember. These recipes and favorite dishes are the connections that keep us bound together from generation to generation.

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.”
–Laurie Colwin

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5 Responses to “Moments & Memories”

Thanks Leigh Anne for jogging our memories on food and connections. Mint Fudge will always remind us of Grandma Wilkes along with steak, potatoes and gravy, and strawberry pie. WOW! Is she an incredible cook!!!! So many comfort foods flood our memories and help us ponder those that are truly important to us.

I’d love to share sometime about connecting with relatives through family history.

Hugs and thanks for all you are doing to CONNECT US!

My children are only 5 and 7 and they already associate specific foods with a person or event. My sister is working on a family recipe book because last Thanksgiving we realized how many recipes have been lost when the person who made them passed on. Like my Aunt Edith’s Coconut Cake. No one else made it and no one got the recipe. I’m STILL trying to find one that comes close!

Thank you for sharing those memories. What a cool maiden name to have I think you are right about your boys always associating that meal with you. I have many foods that I am sentimental about because they remind me of my mother, my family and special occasions. This is really one of the greatest motivators I have to become a better cook! I think it really is such a memory maker and builder.

What a great post Leigh Anne! And, so very true!

This year we are planning on putting together a cookbook of holiday recipes as well. I realized the other day that all my mom’s recipes for our holiday meals are in her head. The thought of not having cornbread dressing or trash bag turkey again made me realize that we need to get these preserved for generations to come! I can’t wait! Although, I don’t know about you but even if I follow the directions to a tee, it never tastes quite like mom’s!

Leigh Anne, I love this blog.I have long thought I need to make a recipe book for my “bachelor” sons.Pictures need to be included with a shopping list!! Your comments surely reminded me of this project!

I have so many recipes to still try, even at my age,and I loved the connection of memory..especially good ones.Even though my mother was a horrible cook, it makes me laugh to think that our family dog would bury his dish if we put mom’s leftovers in it…I don’t know, maybe he was saving it for later?