New Year: Old (Tried and True) Recipes

My New Year’s Resolution? I think Ede would have said, “eat more cake!”

Happy 2023! The start of a new year always inspires me to do some reflecting, and that has me thinking about where to take my blog in the coming months. If you have a moment, please drop me a line and let me know if there are particular recipes you are looking for from me or the types of stories you’d like me to write about. More vintage recipes from church cookbooks? More stories of family recipes and where they came from? Dinner ideas? Desserts? All of the above?! I’d love to hear from you.

In the meantime, I thought what better way to kick off the new year than to revisit some of my most cherished recipes from the “OGs” who inspired this blog in the first place, starting with my Great Aunt Ede.

A Truly Great Aunt

Ede was my mother’s aunt who is responsible for many of our family’s favorite recipes! I have so many fond memories of visiting her and our uncle Johnnie’s home in northern Minnesota. Ede was such a gracious hostess, always with a smile on her face and a goodie of some sort (or a complete home-cooked meal if you were lucky) to offer her guests.

My mom likes to tell the story of when Ede married into the family her new mother-in-law worried that “poor Johnnie” may actually starve to death. Maybe her new family assumed Ede hadn’t spent much time in the kitchen, because Ede was well into in her established career path as an educator when she met and married my uncle. On the contrary, Ede turned out to be a true renaissance woman of her time! In addition to being an amazing cook and baker, she was a great gardener, a talented quilter and also demonstrated a knack for home decorating—all in addition to serving as a teacher and principal for more than 30 years.

See below for some of the tasty treasures that came from Ede’s recipe box including the BEST meatballs and gravy flavored with all the right cans of prepared soup (so easy, so good!), a scrumptious, make-ahead breakfast casserole, a fruit salad that I refer to as “sunshine in a bowl” and next-level chocolate chip cookies with a somewhat scandalous past.

Simply put, every dish Ede made was spot-on spectacular! Nothing she made was overly complicated or too fancy, it was just really flavorful, delicious food made with a simple ingredients and an abundance of love. Just the way it should be!

XOXO,

Sarah