Walter's Ice Cream

This is a photo of Walter's Ice Cream - homemade ice cream from Walter Peterson, my grandpa.

(photo: Andrea Peterson)

Advice from Cheryl Jamison

I talked to award-winning cookbook and travel writer Cheryl Jamison last night about this project. She advised me to make sure to photocopy any legible recipe cards. She emphasized the importance of capturing handwriting from family members, and wow, that was something I hadn't imagined being able to do, but of course it's possible! It will add so much to the family memories to have handwriting in there. Cheryl also advised me to store the cards in an archive-safe box to protect them from further deterioration. Great advice!

New Project - Family Cookbooks!

Last month my mom told me she has recipes from her mom, mother-in-law, and all the recipes she's collected over the years. She wanted to organize them and since I love cooking with recipes AND I love organizing, I volunteered. This is the first post about what I hope will only take 18 months to develop a cookbook for friends and family of "heritage" recipes.

My first steps:
1. Find software that will allow me to enter recipes and tag them by contributor and food type.
2. Begin making at least two recipes a week and photograph the food, to spice up the cookbooks.
3. Research "best practices" on food photography.

Well, that's enough for now. Suggestions welcome!

The Book of Bright Ideas by Sandra Kring

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I hope this is made into a movie someday. It's sad, funny and moving, and all of the characters seem so real.


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It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita by Heather B. Armstrong

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Everybody age 25-45 should read this book, especially people contemplating being parents and new parents. If I'd read this in 2001 I would have enjoyed my baby YEARS before I could enjoy him. People don't tell you the honest truth about having a child and this book really does give you one person's very real experience. Wonderful and funny writing.


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Delicate Edible Birds: And Other Stories by Lauren Groff

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read this like I read most books of short stories--if the story doesn't catch my attention, I move on after about 2 pages. That didn't happen very often in this book. Most of the stories were moving and a few were truly riveting. Good writing and interesting characters.


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Borders

I love getting instructions for making scrapbook page borders.  It’s fun to make a bunch of borders with different themes and then when you are scrapbooking something, say a night when you get snowed in, you have a ready-made “snowed in” border and matching journal box!