Strengthen Family Ties by Creating Your Own Legacy Recipe Book
- April 10, 2008

Last summer Brenda Williams decided to create a family cookbook, illustrated with cherished family photos, for her son and daughter, who are now grown and on their own. Feeling that it is as important for family recipes to be passed down as it is to pass along family photos, Brenda joined thousands of Americans who are putting their culinary legacies down on paper.

The trend for legacy recipe books seems to have intensified since 9/11 as people seek to evoke "some of the security they felt in childhood," according to Thomas Shipley, a professor at Temple University. The availability of computers has certainly helped spark the trend. Brenda used a web site, www.blurb.com, to create her book, but there are many others, including www.thesecretingredients.com, www.cookbookco.com and www.heritagecoookbook.com. Whether you use an online program to publish an actual book or simply create a scrapbook or notebook of recipes for your family, here are some helpful tips adapted from a Christian Science Monitor article:

• Start to gather recipes and stories while your elderly relatives are still alive or some may get away from you.
• Keep all your recipes in one place.
• Test older recipes and make any necessary updates or adjustments.
• Make sure the older recipes are explained well enough that even beginning cooks can use them.
• Include caption information with the photos so future generations will know what each one represents and who is in it.
• Include letters or other items that will tell more of your family's story.

Brenda said she found the project to be very rewarding. The cookbook enhances the lives of her children, both as a link to family members that have passed and as a way to keep their own family memories alive.

Brenda's Cherished Memory

One of the photos Brenda used in her family cookbook was of herself as a child of five dressed as an advertising icon popular at the time, Sunbeam® Bread's Miss Sunbeam®. Brenda's children decided to make copies of the photo to decorate her 60th birthday party. Bob Baesler, owner of Baesler's Market at 29th and Poplar in Terre Haute, was at the party and was intrigued by the photo. "I stock Sunbeam Bread and not that many stores do. That picture of Brenda looked just like the little girl on the package," Baesler said.

In the 1950s, various bakers of Sunbeam Bread across the country held contests to find wholesome, happy little girls who looked just like the girl on the bread package. The winners represented the product at fairs and other events around the region. One such contest was held in 1953 by Purity Bakery of Evansville, Brenda Williams' home town.

Brenda's mother was a hairdresser and knew she could make Brenda look exactly like the girl on the package. "My mother pin-curled my hair into the style of the little girl on the bread wrapper," Brenda said, "I don't remember for sure, but I think she must have had someone make the dress, because it looks so much like the dress on the little girl. We had my photo and sent it in for the contest."

The photo secured Brenda a place in the competition. "I remember holding up the bread and smiling, all dressed up in my Sunbeam dress and with my hair in curls." The judges chose another girl as the Purity Bakery winner, but everyone in Brenda's family agreed that she looked much more like Miss Sunbeam than the winner. "After that we always said that the girl who won ’Äòmust have known somebody,'" Brenda joked.

A Recipe to Share

Favorite meals and dishes from the past can trigger wonderful memories of safety, warmth, holidays and cherished family members, but sometimes they're not as healthy as dietitians and doctors recommend today. "It seems most of my recipes are ’Äòcomfort food' rather than healthy," Brenda says. "I am a product of good Southern cooking."

One of the dishes from Brenda's cookbook that qualifies as a hearty but healthy meal is Three-Cheese Veggie Quesadillas. Brenda says, "This is a fairly healthy snack for veggie lovers! Better yet, prep time is five minutes, and cooking time is eight minutes. It's about 100 calories a wedge as written. If you add cooked chicken, it's a heartier dish! Serve it with a salad and you have a meal. It fills you up without filling you out!"

Three-Cheese Veggie Quesadillas
(serves 4, but can be doubled or tripled for a crowd!)

Ingredients:
1/2 c. mozzarella cheese
1/2 c. crumbled feta cheese
2 t. crumbled blue cheese
2 med. tomatoes, diced
6 scallions, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 T. chopped fresh cilantro
8 flour or wheat tortillas

Directions:
Combine cheeses in a bowl; set aside. Heat 1 T. oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add tomatoes, scallions, jalapeno, garlic, and 1 t. oregano. Cook 2 minutes until fragrant. Stir in cilantro. Remove veggies from pan; set aside. Return skillet to heat (spray with Pam) and add 1 tortilla. Top half the tortilla with 2 T. each cheese and veggie mixture. Fold over untopped side and cook 1 minute on each side, until cheese melts. Repeat with each tortilla. Remove from pan; cover with foil to keep warm. Cut each quesadilla into 3 wedges and serve warm.

Brenda Williams is a Terre Haute resident who travels to five elementary schools in the Vigo County School Corporation teaching writing to second graders. She is a frequent shopper at Baesler's Market, where she still buys Sunbeam Bread!