“The Search That Never Ends!”

Jan 5th “The Search That Never Ends!”

I was looking for a special recipe – one that my Aunt Irene gave me in her own handwriting – for “Whiskey Balls” – and so far have not found it. In my looking I did find a small “recipe box” with some really old recipes and along with that box some old and small booklets – one small “Ring-Lox Book” belonging to my Mother. This book is 100 years old this year. This is the book that my Mother used for her “Cooking Classes” – there is no year – but only dates at the top of pages – – 10/2 – 10/14 – 10/28 and only some pages are dated. So I can only guess the year maybe “1915” – and or – as a good guess – while she was in High School?

The recipes are very good as some of them are marked “good” and some “very good!” I remember that when I was in “HIGH SCHOOL” – that my Mother and I would make some of the dishes that has a recipe in this little book. Some of these we would make quite often as she and I like a lot of the same kinds of food. And – of course this is back then and when everything was made from scratch! Also, we did not use an electric mixer – we just used the spoons that were made for the type of blending and then used lots of the old elbow grease – something that in today’s world – young people would not know what we were talking about???

When I first went through this cook-book of my Mother’s – in the 1950’s – there was a note on the inside of the last page. Here is what is written on that last page; “Bet you sure can cook! How about a chicken sandwich or a lunch on you some time?” – (Hiland 3342) — Tony Ketchum – 7061 Tholozsan Ave., South Saint Louis, Mo.

After reading that note – I had ask my Mother if anything became of this request for a sandwich or a lunch – and she said – that “she was just lucky to get her cookbook back! “The boy’s hand writing is very good – it is written with pencil – but the letters and words are so very well formed – I’m guessing way back then – the kids in school spent lots of time with their penmanship – that they probably all received “A” on the report cards!

When you start to look through old books and especially – books with lots of hand written information – there just seems to be a type of “Mystery” – to what you are reading and after all these many years – trying to see if there are pieces of the puzzle that are missing – and what is the next step to take – – it seems – that is to me, that – “The search is started – – that never – ever – ends???”