A family of food lovers

Three of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received are cookbooks and not just any cookbook. A family of cooks have inspired my love for cooking and love for trying something new in the kitchen almost every day.

First, for my bridal shower my family started a new tradition and it was the greatest gift I’ve ever received. My amazing aunts put together a cookbook of family favorites to start my kitchen off right. Now I want to try them all! I love seeing what other families prepare and I think this is such a great gift for a newly married couple. It gets them started down the right path.

Since my wedding, my aunts have worked together to add more recipes to every book created after mine. I love this recipe book and go to it often. There’s just something about a family recipe…

Another incredible gift I received was a collection of recipes from a very dear friend. When I was in college, I wanted to cook more and was looking for recipes. She put together a recipe book with all of her favorites handwritten. I treasure this book for the time it took, the love that was poured into it and the incredible recipes that are in it. I still haven’t tried them all, but I will some day.

Last, for Christmas one year I received a recipe book that didn’t seem like much at the time. It was a church cookbook with a collection of recipes from people from all over the church. Little did I know that it had several recipes from my late grandmother that I never saw. I was so blessed by this book. My grandma made a rhubarb pie that my brother loved more than anything. I was able to find the recipe and surprise him with a pie one day. Having those recipes means the world to me because my grandma always seemed to enjoy cooking for her large family of nine. That in and of itself is inspiration to me! If she can cook for 11 people every day, surely I can cook for three.

Giving the gift of family recipes is a gift that continues to give. I love finding new recipes in my family cookbooks and remembering times I shared those meals with family. It inspires me to make those same memories with my family so my daughter can look back on a book of recipes from our family some day and think of all the times we shared those meals together.

So for the next bridal shower, wedding or baby shower you go to, can you put together a personalized recipe book?