A Recipe Treasury

My well used Recipes, memories included

One of the things that I found it difficult to downsize when we moved into a Motor Coach, was a 40 year collection of recipe notes and cookbooks
. 
There are so many memories associated with food and it's preparation.
Parties
Holidays
Birthdays
Time spent in the kitchen with my Mom, her sister my Aunt Millie, Lissa and Becky, and our  grandchildren is precious and I didn't want to throw those little scraps of paper with their associated treasured times away.

It would have been easy to type them into a recipe program, or to share them on a recipe site but that didn't seem personal enough.

I wanted to preserve them. Many of them are hand written by the person that shared them. They have conversions and alterations scribbled in the corners. The favorites have been splashed and splattered on and even though they have no scent my mind conjures the aroma of vanilla and cinnamon whenever that metal box is opened.

Enter Evernotes.
Evernotes is a program that I have been using for a few years to collect and store information. It allows the user to create notes and to organize them into Notebooks. The notes can be tagged and the best part is that all of the notes and notebooks are searchable.
Evernotes also stores pictures.

Today I took photographs of all of my recipes.
I uploaded the photos each into it's own note, where it can be easily read. All of the notes are then organized into a Recipe Notebook. Each note has been tagged as to the type cooking method and key ingredients. I was also able to put information in the note about it's source and any favorite facts associated with it.

I can look at the Evernote version of my Mom's Molasses Cookie recipe and see the molasses stains. The well used card reminds me that although it is a favorite of mine to make, they still taste the best when made by her hands.
The Evernote version of Aunt Millie's Bread and Butter Pickles is still written in her hand and brings to mind the day she taught me to make them using her huge double stainless steel sink as the bowl to slice and brine them in.
The Evernote version of Pumpkin Muffins still has little fingerprints on it that remind me of teaching our children and grandchildren how to crack eggs, measure, pour and mix.

I think this is going to work.

Day 2 of the black and white photo challenge features my favorite Florida bird, the Brown Pelican.
This photograph was taken on the St Johns River at Fort Caroline in Jacksonville, Florida.

Today I challenge our niece Stacy to post a black and white photo each day and to challenge another each day to do the same.
Stacy's photographs are delightful and her skilled eye has captured happy moments of many events for her family and friends.

Building Relationships

Fred and I had the pleasure of lunching with friends Jim and Diana Belisle on Sunday. 
We met Jim and Diana last fall at an RV Dreams rally in Indiana and felt like friends by the end of that week. We have been following their blog since then as they wintered in their RV in Michigan. 
They are great planners with a sense of adventure, so it has been fun following their story at ExploRVistas.
Jim and Diane headed south to get a break from Michigan's cold weather and ended up visiting family not to far from Ocala. 
We had a great lunch and got a glimpse of The Villages, when we went to lunch at TooJays Gourmet Deli.
It was fun to spend a few hours catching up comparing notes about the fulltime RV lifestyle.

Jim is participating in a photo challenge. It asks only that we post a black and white photo of our own every day for 5 days and to pass along the challenge to another blogger at the same time.

Day #1 photo is of our beautiful daughter Becky and her 3 boys in one of our favorite places.  The photo was shot on Bearskin Neck in Rockport Massachusetts Summer 2014.

We nominate Lissa and Clay of The Sunday Supper Club to participate.  Your beautiful foodie pix would look great in black and white.