I love old photos, so I asked my parents for some pictures of their parents cooking old recipes. My dad came up with this image of his mom, affectionately known as Grammy Bell, baking some delicious sugar cookies. He remembers coming home from school and finding some freshly made cookies. She always knew how to time it so that the cookies would be coming right out of the oven as he walked in the door. My dad said he would want to eat all the cookies at once, but she would only let him have a couple. He would later be angry when the soft cookies turned into hard crisps and say that she "should have let him eat them all earlier because now they're not good anymore!"

Sometimes cooking is hard work, especially when you have to prepare for the whole family. This Thanksgiving (2010), Gwen and her husband Randy held Thanksgiving dinner at their house. Luckily, everyone else brought something of their own to add to the table. I love the tradition of everyone coming together for a big holiday dinner, but it makes it even better when you get tastes of many dishes from different people.

The holiday season is definitely my favorite time of year. It is the season of family and traditions and making memories. I love seeing so many people that I care about at once. I can always count on family to be entertaining and fun. Of course, there's plenty of food to eat, which makes everything even better.

Cooking doesn't always have to be hard work. It's fun to make something as simple as a smore. Cooking with friends brings you even closer together. My best friend, Mariel, and I love to just be messy sometimes, like when we made these smores with giant marshmallows. They were very tasty!

Baking can definitely be messy. Often it's the flour and sugar that gets all over the counter. Somehow, things usually have a way of turning out beautifully in the end.

While those tried-and-true recipes are always favorites among the family, it's also exciting to try something new. Don't be afraid to experiment with ideas. You might find something that becomes a new family tradition and gets used for years to come.
One of my friends baked me these turkey cookies for my birthday. They tasted okay, but they are really cute, and I was very impressed with her creativity.

 

One tradition I have with my best friend is that starting in the spring and throughout the summer, we bake birthday cakes for many of our friends and family (lots of people have birthdays during this time of year, so it can get kind of crazy). We love searching for unique ideas, and we make different desserts for each person. This was one of the first cakes that we made. It was for our friend Lilly, and it is a sleepover cake with representations of our best friends. (I am the one with the letter "A" and the glasses.)

Here's one of our more recent cakes from the summer of 2010. We made it for a friend who loves the singer Jason Derulo. It is supposed to be a replica of his face.

Now explore the recipes on this website, and come up with some of your own. Take lots of pictures to help you remember your favorite traditions and best times spent with the ones you love. Visit the Recipe Scrapbook page to post your own stories, pictures, and recipes to share with everyone.


"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." - J.R.R. Tolkien