Everyone has a least one, it seems.

Kitchen stories and recipes that dish up the heart and soul of your family’s heritage.

A Grandma’s grease-stained and tattered gravy recipe framed by her son and hanging on a living room wall.

A friendship bread starter that has traveled across 13 states and through four generations, and is now bubbling away on a kitchen counter in Arizona.

A story about a great Aunt who loved family gatherings so much that she would wash and re-wash clean dishes from her cupboards, just so no one would ever leave the kitchen.

Family stories behind the recipes we love; German chocolate cake. Polish Kolache. Jewish Kugel. Italian Cannoli. Sugar Pie and Fatback Sandwiches.

We all get the importance of these stories because their memories are the heirlooms of our lives. And, because either we have one or two of our own, or we wished we had.

Now, we are going to give these stories and recipes a place of honor. We’re going to laugh and cry about your family’s fondest kitchen memories and I’ll ask you to share the recipes that have been –or at least should be- passed along from one generation to the next. Was it your Mom’s Matzo ball soup? Did it fill your childhood kitchen with comfort? What do you remember about you Mom’s apron and that incredible shortcake recipe? What about your grandfather? Was he anything like Grandpa Grala, who sat at the family table every evening and never took a single bite until all ten children had eaten? Yep. These are the treasures that need to be remembered.

 

Can you see how this idea came about? It’s almost as though it couldn’t have been ignored. Nothing connects people like their stories of food and family and kitchen memories. “I wish I would have written down the recipe,” is a phrase I hear all too often.

A loved one passes, and with the passing, a cooking method or family heirloom recipe is gone as well.

So far, I’ve stumbled across some scrumptious dishes and inspiring tales from every generation and ethnicity—stuffed in shoe boxes, hanging out of well-worn cookbooks and scribbled across crumpled and torn scraps of paper. I can’t wait to share them all with you and gather more!  So, pull them out of wherever they’ve been hiding all these years—even if they’re just in your memory. Dust them off, and share them with us. If you’re starting a new kitchen tradition in your family, please share that, too! I think we’re going to have some fun rescuing recipes and savoring stories one delicious bite at a time. I promise that there will always be a place setting for you right here in this column.

Click Here to share your Rescued Recipe with us!

 

Don't forget to take a look in the archives for past Rescued Recipes we know you'll love! 

 

Here’s A Rescued Recipe that won our hearts!