{"id":575,"date":"2014-12-16T04:33:44","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T04:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aaronkuehn.net\/tol\/?p=575"},"modified":"2018-02-05T15:35:15","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T15:35:15","slug":"a-fathers-kitchen-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aaronkuehn.net\/tol\/?p=575","title":{"rendered":"A Father’s Kitchen Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Leonard<\/a>I venture to say that all parents leave some sort of impression on their children. Good or bad, if a parent is present, something gets passed along. My experience there is not unique.<\/p>\n

Most people who have\u00a0even a mild interest in cooking collect recipes with which they have achieved success. They are the go-to recipes for good-tasting creations that garner guest approval. Again, not a unique experience.<\/p>\n

This past weekend my wife and I were going through her own recipe collection to make selections for an upcoming party. Seeing her clipped and annotated collection reminded me of my father’s, stored away in a memory box in the basement.<\/p>\n

Dad loved to cook and bake. Within our family and circle of friends he was recognized for several creations: cake donuts, whipped cream and banana cake, and vanilla ice cream. Many of my best memories of time spent with my dad involve me sitting on a counter top “helping” him (I developed a special skill in the beater-licking department).<\/p>\n

The brief article above was published in his company’s employee magazine more than 60 years ago, in August, 1953. At that time I suppose it was a novel idea for a man to be in the kitchen, and baking no less. It was the common everyday of my dad for me.<\/p>\n

My dad, who never went to school, had the most basic of reading skills and wrote with a crude, block print, recorded his recipes on scraps of paper. As the article above states, he kept the records of his kitchen work in a wooden box. In the 1960s he transferred that collection to a small binder. By the early 1970s that binder was overflowing and he moved to a larger one.<\/p>\n

We RV camped a lot and he wanted a recipe book just for camping: a collection of recipes that were suited for whipping up in the outback. Our RV was a Terry model so he called the cookbook Mrs. Terry.<\/p>\n

The Mrs. Terry cookbook was Intended to be a small collection. Over time, however, it simply became home to the overflow of items that would not fit in the main book.<\/p>\n

Today as I peruse dad’s collection I remember the hours spent cooking with him, the flavor and texture of his donuts, the rich vanilla-infused whipped cream of his whipped cream and banana cake and the brain-freezing joy of his hand-churned ice cream.<\/p>\n

The haphazard collection of clipped and hand-written recipes, complete with misspellings, errors and marginal commentary reaffirms my dad’s kitchen legacy and the man, and foodie, I’ve become.<\/p>\n

My meager collection of recipes is on a computer, I’m more likely to wing-it when I’m cooking, watching cooking programs on TV is how I like to relax and I’m a sucker for a cool kitchen gadget. All thanks to my dad’s legacy.<\/p>\n

(Click on an image for a larger view).<\/p>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

A photo shot for the magazine article.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

A photo shot for the magazine article.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A photo shot for the magazine article.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

A photo shot for the magazine article.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

A photo shot for the magazine article.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

Dad’s primary recipe collection.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

The Mrs. Terry cookbook.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

This isn’t going to be pretty!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

Each alphabetic section has its own index.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

This recipe originated with Better Homes and Gardens. Dad rewrote it to group preparation methods together.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

Complete with arrows, boxes, and instructions here, there and everywhere, somehow he made it work.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

The index page for Section C indicates recipes that had been removed. They simply didn’t stand the test of time.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

Any scrap of paper, even a union Absentee Notice card, could be put to use.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

Dad went to the effort to measure the temperature output of the “Left front burner on medium.” 300\u00b0F<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

Dad proudly pasted the “professional” recipe along with his notes for “fixing” it.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

In case you wondered, this was the “good” donut recipe.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

Another donut recipe. Good? Passable? Decent? We’re left to wonder.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

When our strawberry patch produced, this freezer jam recipe would be put to use.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

Oooh, these pancakes are not only “very good” but they’re also “Great for camping!”<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

I can not convey to you how amazingly delicious dad’s pickled watermelon was.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

This recipe page shows the remnants of ancient cello-tape. This one was also a winner — even for camping in the woods!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

Dad’s dandelion wine. I sure did not enjoy my job of dandelion harvester.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

And then there was wine from the bitter and tart rhubarb plant.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

The importance of dad’s recipe book is proved by the back pages which include vital information about his kids and grand-kids.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

Further evidence of the place his recipe book held in his life, more family birthdates.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

Seriously, how many family recipe collections include blood types and dates of military service? Leonard Kuehn’s did!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Leonard<\/a>

Oh, let’s not forget the names and addresses of distant family members not seen for decades!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I venture to say that all parents leave some sort of impression on their children. Good or bad, if a parent is present, something gets passed along. My experience there is not unique. Most people who have\u00a0even a mild interest in cooking collect recipes with which they have achieved success. They are the go-to recipes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronkuehn.net\/tol\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronkuehn.net\/tol\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronkuehn.net\/tol\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronkuehn.net\/tol\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronkuehn.net\/tol\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronkuehn.net\/tol\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronkuehn.net\/tol\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions\/650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronkuehn.net\/tol\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronkuehn.net\/tol\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronkuehn.net\/tol\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}