Grandma died in 2002 and some of her "things" have been floating around family member to family member. Saturday night my cousin Jane, who had aquired several boxes of Grandma's things, brought me 7 boxes to sort through. I must say....the buck stops here! I spent nearly 8 hours today sorting through only 5 of the boxes. This will be the first blog of several as I reminisce the life of Esther Drew....and other family members along the way. One entire box was full of yellowed and torn up newspaper clippings of recipes, ripped apart cook books, recipes of the month from Fred Meyer, Safeway and Albertsons.....stacks and stacks of slips of paper with typed and handwritten recipes on scraps of paper...always dated and where the recipe came from. 
I managed to sort through and discard...throw out...get rid of...lots of JUNK! Yes I said it. But there were some treasures as well....so not to fret family:) Last count Richard took 4 sacks of paper to the recycle bin. There were several really old booklets...products I had never heard of. Anyone ever heard of Ryzon?? It was a baking powder back in the early 1900's. The book pictured below was copyrighted in 1917. How about "10 Cakes Husbands Like Best"....
This one is old....BREADS Clever Housewives Serve. Wasn't life simple back then? I want to think I'm a clever housewife....and I guess you could say the bread I made for dinner tonight was clever. Me and Mrs. Rhodes...ha ha!
This one is very interesting....I can't do it justice. It's from 1918. It's an Official Recipe Book from the U.S. Food Administration...It says: The recipe book is offered to the women of the United States as a definite guide to food conservation. It is not a mere preachment upon the necessity for saving; it tells in detail how essential saving may be acheived" It was prepared during the war and tells what YOU can do. "Everyone MUST help if we are to win.....this is your war guide for use in YOUR home....It tells you what food we must save to provision ourselves and our allies; it tells how we can stretch our supplies so everyone will have enough..America and her Allies must not run out of wheat, meat, or fats. If we let that happen Germany will win the war. We must save sugar, use every drop of milk, and we must learn to follow directions." We are blessed to live in a day when we don't have to live like that....yet. So PREPARE yourselves family!!
This Watkins booklet from 1937 and Successful Baking Recipes booklets from the 1930's as well. They are chock full of little newspaper clippings and other handwritten recipes which Grandma has pinned or taped inside...and alway...ALWAYS everything is dated!!
Grandma did not waste ONE BIT of paper! She typed or handwrote recipes on anything and everything....one recipe from 1968 came from "A Cookbook for the Leisure Years" Some were typed on the back of and sometimes the front of (right over) Boise Cascade notepads (where in going through some things Uncle Robert worked) or Fruit Valley Elementary scrap paper (where Aunt Adele worked). There were it seems hundreds of papers typed up with recipes from someone named Mary Cullen. I finally found out who she was....a Oregon Journal contributor. Grandma had newspaper clippings with her recipes ....I can't imagine she could cook all those recipes. But then again, how many things do I have in my recipe files that I have yet to prepare. There were recipes sent to Grandma from Jane and Debi....some in shorthand. I have envelpoes for you girls. On the back of one of Mary Cullins newspaper recipes there was a Safeway ad....dated Dec. 11, 1947. Ritz crackers were 30 cents....a 1 lb. bag of coffee 43 cents.....vanilla wafers 19 cents. FUN STUFF!! Now what was I saying.......One mans junk is another mans.....JUNK....and sometimes with a few treasures to boot!! Stay tuned:)
