"Julie and Julia" and SHERRY!!

 Last night was the OSCARS, there was a time that I would be EXCITED to watch them.....NOW married, and three kids, somehow the appeal has been lost! I was craving, after the kids were down for the night, to watch something that I LOVE while browsing through my English Home Magazine.....a little ME time(which can be rare to find). I turned to "Julie and Julia".....I enjoy that film on many levels..... I can relate to both characters!! While watching the movie, I wanted to find my Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2. It was then that I came across my paternal Grandmother's COOK BOOKS!

When my Grandparents house went up for sale, I grabbed the books, notebooks and clippings and thought nothing more of it. I put them in a safe spot, with all my OLD books.... and there they sat. I would walk past them daily! Then when I moved the bookcase(which I do a lot...I have a disease where I  constantly move things) to the living room, I would sit beside these treasures, never fully understanding that they were treasures...my history! As we get older, we regret(or at least I do) not asking those questions that pester me now....where did we come from? How come I have that trait? That look? Why do I write things down while baking/cooking...improving on recipes, altering measurements...THEN I found the answer!!

How do you PRESERVE these OLD NOTEBOOKS!?

I can see clearly  two generations fusing into ONE! I know from my maternal side I got my love for writing/reading and my desire(aka disorder) for cleanliness and moving things(to find a better fit within our home) and refurbishing the OLD into NEW!! Last night I found out, that on my paternal side, I am the same as my Great Grandmother and Grandmother when it comes to cooking/baking. I too, like them(which made me emotional on this discovery) have cookbooks, recipes cut out from newspapers/magazines and hand written notes improving on recipes. Theirs were all tucked away in old, old notebooks! With in all this, there were also pamphlets from the Ontario Department of Agriculture, Women's Institutes Bulletin 252, June 1919. It was ALL on "the preservation of food, home canning!" This was the year that my Grandmother was born ,therefore all this information was my Great-Grandmothers!

These pamphlets let me into a world that I had not known.....they are all about canning fruit, vegetables and MEAT(that kinda scared me....).  It was a time where you made the most of what you had, you did not waste, you shared recipes and you made that bushel of apples stretch far into the next year! Something that I think this generation lacks......don't you agree!?

It was emotional going through these notebooks, old and withered...how do you protect this!? Some are over 90 years old....I was scared to touch them, but smiled as I went page by page, reading cookie recipes from neighbours....at the top of each recipe, if it was not hers, she would write who it was from and sometimes a date. There are X's and check marks on recipes! There were also cut and paste newspaper articles on household tips...how to get your lace white, how to clean brass, when loaning plates(a piece of sticky tape on the back with your name on it ensures a return), substitutes for egg....it goes on and on! And they took the time to read, cut and paste it into their own notebook...and now I have it!!! It made me miss them even more, even though I never met my Great-Grandmother! BUT I always wondered about her, more so now(cause I am older). She came from Liverpool, England....crossed over in 1914 with her siblings! Why did she settle in King City, Ontario...how did she meet her Husband!? All these questions will remain unknown, lost History, my History....and that makes me sad!

Albert Henry and Charlotte Jones...my Great Grandparents!

At least I know I little more now.....on where I came from! Do you?
(AND I know where I get MY NOSE FROM!!)