Many memories are made in kitchens, watching your mama cook your favorite recipes. What happens when you grow up and want mama’s recipes and can’t find that little box of cards she wrote them down on? What happens when you want to share those recipes with your children or grandchildren? The Keepsake Kitchen Diary by Lily & Val is perfect for capturing all of your grandma and mama’s recipes, recording the memories about the recipes and to share them with your children later.
This diary is genius. So many memories are made around food. And today, food is a huge subject. Especially for those who pride themselves on being a “foodie” in a world of at-home chefs. Being from the south, I always find recipes that can’t compare to MAMA’s. Now, there is a way to capture the story of the recipe, get the recipe down and add a picture or two of the dish. This will become the heirloom that generations will want.
The Keepsake Kitchen Diary has many elements to it. I’m going to go through some of them, highlighting the parts that are perfect for this book. First there is the recipe pages, broken down into categories such as starters, soup, main courses, side dishes, desserts and miscellaneous. Each section starts out with a table of contents of the recipes in that section and it tells what page it can be found on.
Each recipe page contains a place for everything you’d need to record your recipe. You could even have your mama or grandma fill in the pages in their own handwriting to make it more special. There are places for the recipe name, the kitchen the recipe came from, ingredients, prep time, tools to be used, how many the recipe can feed, degree of difficulty, any notes that should be included and directions.
Each memory page (included on the opposite side as the recipe page) contains places to record dates – first time made and first time you tried the dish, who’s favorite recipe it is, when you make it and the occasion it is made for and any notes you wish to include.
The artwork makes this diary spectacular. There are sweet drawings that look like doodles throughout this book. You can add your own touch to each of the pages by coloring them, adding to them or leaving them the way they are. They make the best accompaniment to each page.
Each section of the book contains helpful tips and hints that any baker or chef would need. An example of what I mean would be Ingredient Substitutions…things that can be used instead of what the recipe calls for. There is also a guide to seasoning with fresh herbs, a meat roasting guide that tells the temperature in which meats are to cook, Cooking times for various grains and veggies, baking pans and measuring equivalents, and of course, a calorie guide.
At the back of the book, there are places for general notes that you may want to include. There are also tear away recipe cards should you want to share some of these recipes with others. Each recipe card is illustrated with the same artwork that is throughout the diary and they also have inspirational sayings, as well. Pockets are included on each front and back cover to be able to keep special mementos.
To say this book is a scrap book and recipe guide would almost be correct. It is well constructed and extremely well thought out. Lily & Val have overdone themselves when they created this diary. It would make a wonderful gift for those in your life who love to cook or create a family cookbook. I always think of my mama cooking, however, there are dads (or men in general) who love to cook. My husband, for example, is a trained chef. He has many recipes that I will be adding to my book. He even tells me what should and shouldn’t be considered a recipe in our family diary. I say all that to tell you this: Cooking is becoming a pastime that is so popular for everyone!