"...she went to the cupboard where the old recipe books were stored.... Mrs Bridge began looking through them, seeing pencil notations in her own handwriting, scarcely legible anymore. Her husband liked more pepper in this, no bay leaves in that - whatever he wanted and whatever he did not like was expertly registered in the margins, and as she turned through these recipes she thought how strangely intimate the faded penciled notes remained; they brought back many scenes, many sweet and private memories; they brought back youth." Evan S. Connell Mrs Bridge
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My recipes books do have faded and splattered pencil notes in them, about who they've been cooked for, whether they were adapted, how they turned out. They do not have any comments about how Warmth likes his food though!
I have a cookbook of my Mum's from the 70's - it has her notes, and mine as I learned to cook from it growing up. Not to mention the fabulous Fanny Craddock-esque dishes and styling!
ReplyDeleteTonia - Oh I love the thought of generational learning notes in the margins of recipe books.
DeleteI mostly print out recipes from the Internet so don't have any cookbooks to notate, but this quote makes me want to start a collection.
ReplyDeleteHope your meals went well!
Anbolyn - I live the Internet for researching recipes & need to get better at printing them out to out in my from magazines recipe book. Meals a success, tummy full & a little left over as well!
DeleteWhat a beautiful quote - Mrs. Bridge is on my tbr shelf and I just know I'll love it! I have many notes in my cookbooks and often print recipes from the internet. The 'keepers' are annotated, placed in a protective sleeve, and inserted into my 3-ring recipe binder.
ReplyDeleteJoAnn - I look forward to reading your thoughts on Mrs Bridge.
DeleteI read this a few months ago and absolutely loved it. Now I must read Mr Bridge.
ReplyDeletemary - Yes it would be interesting to read his side of their life.
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