Liver and prunes, anyone? Or, Ode to my Grandma Lucy

Those of you who took a gander at my scintillating bureau-top saw a photo of my great-grandmother Lillian. Lillian's first child, the one daughter she had the privelege to know and love (for a couple years anyway) was my grandma, Lucy.

Lucy had her faults, I am sure. But she had many strengths. One of them was her generosity. She was generous with her time, spending hours playing with my sister and me when we visited. She was generous with money, slipping us tens from her insubstantial allowance so we could buy a trinket (that would soon end up lost or broken). And she was generous with her things, letting us drag out all her costume jewelry and every one of her pairs of shoes so we could play Store.

My grandma Lucy had a cookbook. It was called The Household Searchlight Recipe Book and was published in 1936. Somehow it has found its way to me.

The book is battered and stained. Full of recipes for things jellied. Prunes abound. Salads are not arugula and frisee, but are often made with gelatin and meat, then plopped on a bed of lettuce.

Throughout the 304-page tome, Lucy has made notes.

She was a jotter. Throughout her adult life, she wrote, in plain, small notepads, what she wore each day, what she cooked, her level of success with both. Her cookbooks were no different. She annotated tweaks she made to the recipes, what "Georgie", my grandpa, liked.

She was funny, self-deprecating, unafraid to call herself out.

Her oldest daughter, vanished from this life just a couple years after Lucy, scrawled across many pages with a fat, purple crayon. I imagine these doodles amused my grandma, rather than irritated her. She simply wrote: Marilyn, 17 months and etched an arrow to the first of the purple hieroglyphics.

Most of the recipes she claimed to have tried at some point in her marriage were fairly sensible. It seems, by her lack of annotations, that she avoided the Creamed Brains (ingredients: one brain, white sauce, paprika, salt and pepper), Egg coffee and Prune Onion Salad.

Her favorites were meatloaf and fudge.

The Household Searchlight Recipe Book is 72-years-old now. Just two years younger than Lucy was when she died in the late eighties. I miss her. I miss her generosity.

I even miss her cooking.

Comments

[M]

I miss her, too! She was never famous or wealthy (with money, anyway), but she was rich with love and successful because of that love. I'm glad that you have that cookbook and enjoy reading it.

[BethanyWD]

Wow, that is so cool that you have this! I love stuff like this.

[daring one]

I completely love this post. I want to be that lady when I grow up.

[Tootsie Farklepants]

Meatloaf and fudge. I would have LOVED your grandma!

[JCK]

This is just one of those treasures that gives infinite pleasure - on SO many levels. I love the "make WH first dummy!" She was obviously a woman rich in character.

Now, in my house I serve up my Creamed Brains every day...

[Wendy]

What a marvelous family heirloom! You are lucky. Meatloaf and fudge are MY favorites, too!

[noble pig]

Oh my gosh I love that comment she wrote to herself. Obviously she screwed it up at one point before.

[Burgh Baby's Mom]

That is a beautiful book! I love that she made all the annotations in it; it's all the more special for that reason. You're a lucky one for managing to snag that heirloom.

[kendra]

Oh, heart be still. These kind of treasures melt my heart. You are fortunate to have obtained this book.

[apathy lounge]

That book is an absolute treasure! Under no circumstances should this ever leave your possession until you're ready to hand it down to one of your kids. The jottings are what really make it extra wonderful. I have one of my grandmother's recipe books. She saved odds and ends of papers, etc, but she never jotted in it that I can see. I wish that she had done so.

[Madame Queen]

I love that cookbook! How fantastic is it that you've got it.

My mom has a cookbook like that that I'm hoping to snag one day. It doesn't have Creamed Brains in it, though. Thank goodness.

[Izzy]

Wow, what an amazing treasure! I mean yeah, people made some nasty sounding stuff back then but Lucy sounded perfectly awesome.

[foolery]

Angie, I arrived here via Bossy, but this post is right up my alley as I am doing a lot of writing about my family lately, and one grandmother in particular. Great story!

-- Laurie @ Foolery

[Lulu]

Oh, that is so very awesome! I love it that she scribbled notes in her cookbook. I'm guessing that it was her only one? How wonderful that you can one day pass it down to Kitty Cat.

[Belinda]

I love this post, and am so glad that the precious cookbook is now in loving, appreciative hands. You will honor it appropriately.

[Nora Bee]

Ooooh! I adore old cookbooks, especially ones with comments. How cool that you have it, even cooler with the purple crayons. Awesome.

[Sheri Clyburn]

Holy Moly, I have this book also!!!!!!! My great grandma Daisy used it. She also left comments scrawled on different pages. It is spattered with years of cooking. I just didn't expect to see another one JUST like it.My daughter gets it next.
So cool you and Bossy got to hang. Sheri

[pam]

I have that book. I love it. Mine was given to me by my grandma. The cake section is great. For a minute there I thought I was special.

[magpie]

I love that. I love that she wrote all over it, and that you have it.

I have my grandmother's "Joy" and it's annotated too, but not so much.

[Mary]

I would love to have a copy of the fudge recipe. My father taught us to make fudge using that recipe. My mother gave my brother the cookbook when he went to college and he forgot to bring it home.