Must be Memorex!

(I wrote this post in mid-March, but it was when Blogger was being really stupid...so I just saved it and remember it today.)


March 24, 2006:

I was leaving my office suite today and in the hallway, there was a giant bin of trash. Another office on the floor was doing some spring cleaning. Good for them. As I was walking past the trash bin, my eyes connected to an item in there and the baseball bat of supressed memories came gliding down and knocked me right between the eyes. It is how those neurons can just bring up forgotten memories without a moments notice and leaving you dazed and cornfused.

I now have a moment, a point in my history, when I can say, without a doubt, this is when I became interested, scratch that, become obsessed with cookbooks and recipes. Sure, the years of being partially raised by my grandmother and early years of food programs on public TV had a role in what shaped me, eventually bringing me to where I am now.

Sometime approximately 25 years ago I found myself opening cupboard doors in the kitchen looking for something, a snack, a toy, a secret, I don't know what. And during that activity I found my mothers recipe box. It was hiding in the bottom cupboard, behind stacks of pans and generic brand canned veggies, you know, things mom would never use.

These were not heirloom recipes, passed down from my grandmother, recipes I would die to have now, as I can't remember but a few tasty treats. No, these were recipes in a box that were given to my mother as a gift sometime in the previous 5-10 years. Perhaps a sweet sixteen gift, a newborn baby gift, your first apartment gift, a 'thanks, but I can't go to the bar with that' gift. And as I discovered, they were recipes never used...and never opened.



I tore into that recipe box and card sets like a kid in a candy store. A lovely red plastic box, hinged and opening upwards. Cellophaned stacks of cards with titles and color coding at the top. And the piece de resistance, Divider Cards!!! Ahhhhhhh. The anal retentive angels sang!
I wish I could remember recipe titles, divider names, but I can't. But I remember sitting with this box for hours, organizing meals I knew I wanted. From some fried disaster for a snack to mashed potato/meat loafed entree, something molded or a pudding or cake dessert...those were my favorite cards, the desserts!

Eventually that recipe box found itself on the kitchen counter, sometimes clipped recipes would make there way in the box, but I never found mom opening it to look for a recipe to make for dinner. But I would find myself looking through it and reading the cards, and reorganizing them again and again, I think the last time I looked in that recipe box was around 12-13 years old.

I wonder if my mom still has her Betty Crocker Recipe Card set? It might be interesting to find out. Not that I need or want it...but if it was still around, it might make an interesting conversation piece about the evolution of the home cook from the 70's housewife to today's crazed, time consumed families. And to see where my obsession came from.