The Prairie Cookbook

I never met my great auntie Lily, or at least I have no memory of meeting her. In fact, I never consciously knew that I had 2 great aunts until I was about 18. In the photos, Auntie Lily was this beautiful thin woman, with long blonde hair that was always in this huge braid wrapped around her head. I heard stories that when she was young she used to order tape worms from ads in comic books so that she would stay skinny.I don’t know if she really did it or not, but she was still skinny in the photos and she must have been in her late 70s or 80s.

 

Years ago my mother found her cookbook. Lily had written out several of her mother’s recipes, for a very similar reason as my motivation with this cookbook. She did not want these fabulous recipes to be lost as the older generation died off. She laments in her introduction that an “old old cookbook called the White House cook book” from 1890 had been misplaced when they moved. Lily, I empathize. There are so many recipes and recipe books that have gone missing in our family too over the years.  I’ve featured a number of Lily’s cakes and cookies recipes and featured them in this section.  Other notable contributors to this section include my mother.