About
There were no ‘secret recipes’ in my house growing up. In fact as a visitor one of the biggest compliments you could pay my mom was to ask for the recipe to something she just served you. She would be happy to share it with you.
Oh just ask Kay, she’ll have a recipe
Mom knew how to cook just about anything, and all her recipes were meticulously filed on index cards that she could pull up at a moment’s notice. She was like the neighborhood recipe search engine before there was an internet. There was nothing gourmet about her cooking mind you. It was just good old American, Italian and Irish cuisine that would feed a family of 8, and occasionally she’d find something ‘exotic’ like a new recipe for Chinese style Spam. Maybe we’d call it comfort cuisine today.
When mom passed away she had 3 recipe boxes fully stuffed with index cards. A lifelong collection. Rather than trying to divide them up among us, I thought this website would be a good way to share them with her family and friends, and anybody else who wants to drop by. The cards themselves tell a lot. The most stained and worn were definitely her favorites. For now the cards are the only images, but if you make a recipe take a picture and share!
I’ve done my best to transcribe all of the cards, though her Mission Grammar School cursive writing was notoriously hard to decipher sometimes. Also I’m not sure how to interpret measurements like ‘some’ or ‘a good amount’. Sometimes we’ll just have to guess and put our own spin on it
I hope you enjoy the recipes, maybe find some long lost ones you’ve been looking for, or discover something new. And if you knew Kay, remember her as you open the can of cream of mushroom soup.