The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: COOKBOOK

<!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> <br /><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4dF8FTWVrN..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4dF8FTWVrN..." width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bobbie, cooking<br />(from a page in the scrapbook-<br />cookbook I gave her in 2005)</td></tr></tbody></table>For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Butterfly-Hour... BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.</a><br /><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;">I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rZ9pEXdr8h..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="231" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rZ9pEXdr8h..." width="266" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;">In January I wrote about: <i>apron, bar, basketball, bed, bicycle, birthday, boat, broom, button, cake, car.</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><i><br /></i></div></div></div><b>Here are February's prompts:</b> <i>chair, chlorine, church, concert, cookbook, couch, dancing, desk, dessert, dining room table, diploma.</i><br /><b><br /></b><b><br /></b><br /><b>COOKBOOK</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-De6ygwf0yA..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="363" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-De6ygwf0yA..." width="178" /></a></div>While the primary cooks in my life during childhood were my mom and my Grandma Dykes, I probably learned the most about cooking from my mother-in-law. She loved cooking – and eating – the holiday feasts. But she was very much the a-little-of-this, a little-of-that kind of cook, seldom using a written recipe. So one year I shadowed her through the Thanksgiving meal preparations. I wrote down how much and what. From that I created a cookbook-scrapbook for her that contained recipes from her early marriage (she learned to cook using the classic <i>Better Homes and Gardens</i> cookbook) on up to the present-day. I included family photographs in the book, and also comments from family members about certain dishes. She loved it! And now, after more than a decade since her death, I still pull out her cookbook to make the recipes she brought into our lives. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So: for anyone out there reading this who enjoys a loved-one's cooking, maybe shadow them through a meal? They will love the attention, and you will be so glad you took the time!</div><br />