Here is a picture of my grandmother, Maggie Pearce, in her housedress maybe posing after having fixed a dinner for her husband, Dan, and their five children, Nelle, Nan, Harry, Leah and Ed. I have this old notebook that holds some of her "Old Fashioned Receipts", and I have scanned some of the pages for you to see.
This is the cover and written on the top is the title - it is very hard to read but if you click to enlarge you might be able to.
Here is a receipt for Annie's biscuits and another from a friend, evidently. On the biscuit receipt, the word "flour" is written very faintly right after "salt". Maggie probably forgot to include that when she jotted down the original and added it quickly the first time she used the recipe.
The first one is for Nelle's prune cake and then Margaret's Cookies. The cookies I remember were her icebox cookies which she would form into a roll, wrap in waxed paper (just think, no aluminum foil or saranwrap!!) and chill in the ice box. You would then slice off as many as you wanted and bake them. Where do you think Pillsbury got the idea? However, the ones they make are not as good as Grandma Pearce's. Don't you love all the spots and spills on the pages? A cookbook without them is an unused cookbook!! (Click to enlarge)
So wonderful seeing these and wonderful you have them in her handwriting. My grandmother was a cook for wealthy families in Harrisburg when she was young. She was always a great cook and taught my mother well. Me...not so much. I'll do it from scratch but it never tastes like what my mother and grandmother made.
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