This blog post was very difficult for me. I don’t really have many objects that have been passed down throughout my family and have a “chain of ownership.” However, as I was reading back through last weeks blog posts I thought of the only object that I remember my mom telling me that has been passed down through the years. I responded a little bit in a comment, but these are little recipe cards that my family still makes around the holidays that they are associated with. It has become a tradition in my family. We always have my grandma’s quiche Christmas morning, my Nana’s sugar cookies and “butterscotchies,” also at Christmas, and my Nana’s ambrosia salad at Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, I could not get a picture of these cards because my mom is currently visiting my grandparents and these index cards are at home. Also, these recipes are very secretive in my family and so when I called my grandma to get these recipes she did not want to send a picture of the recipe itself. The first one that I’m thinking of is my Nana’s (great-grandma)  Ambrosia salad recipe. Although, my grandma believed this recipe actually started with her 98-year old aunt. This recipe stuck out to me first because it is probably the most “secretive.” My mom used to tell me that my Nana never gave out this recipe until she got older. She would only make it for the family; however, would never give anyone in the family this recipe. Once she got older, she finally revealed her secret and passed it down to the rest of us. I’m glad she did because my Nana passed away before I was born and so this recipe is a piece of her that I will have for the rest of my life and be able to pass down to my own kids, when they’re old enough of course.

The next recipe cards are oriented around our Christmas traditions. These include my grandma’s quiche recipe and two of my Nana’s cookie recipes that we make every year. These traditions started on my mom’s side of the family with all of her relatives; however, even after my parents divorced my dad still makes quiche for my brother and I every Christmas and my mom always makes my dad a batch of the butterscotch cookies for us to bring over. Something that I like about these recipes though, is that even though they originated with my family as these special recipes they have changed over time within my family. When my aunt makes the butterscotch cookies she always adds peanuts to them (as the original recipe calls for), yet when my mom makes them she leaves out the nuts because she doesn’t like them as much. Also, the quiche recipes change slightly from year to year to. The base and basics always remain the same; however, sometimes we change what else goes in them. My mom’s new boyfriend hates onions and so now when she makes the quiche she leaves out onions in one of them, so we can all enjoy it.

Although, these index cards don’t seem like much, they mean a lot to me. I love cooking, if I wasn’t currently in college on a criminal justice/ law path, my second plan was to always go to culinary school. These cards are tiny and worn down and constantly changing, yet they’re one of the very few traditions my family treasures and still participates in every year. It’s not a crazy chain of ownership, but every member on my moms side of the family holds these recipes and continue to pass it down. There’s no real historical significance to these cards; however, to my family the history of these recipes is priceless.