Grandma's Recipe Box
After my grandmother died, my mother was the lucky recipient of her recipe box. I remember thinking, "I wish everyone in the family could have one."
So, I set out to make that happen.
Here's how:
First off, my mom trusted me to take the recipes for a short while. I told her I'd guard them with my life. Here's what the box looks like:
I decided to organize it based on her recipe tabs, so the first one was Appetizers, then Beverages and so forth.
Next, I created a folder in Google Drive. If you don't know how to do this, it's super easy, but I'm not going to go into those details, so if you need tech help, search the Google or ask a friend (or a small child, they seem to know everything).
I called my Folder "Grandma's Recipe Box." From there, I created subfolders for each of the sections on her recipe tabs, so once again, Appetizers, then Beverages and so forth.
Next, I took a photo of each recipe. I cropped them and then uploaded them to dropbox so that I could work with them on my computer. I'm guessing there are many way to upload photos to your computer from your phone, but this is the way I chose. You do you.
From there, I grabbed each photo from the upload, renamed it the same name as what is on the actual recipe, and then moved them to the appropriate subfolder.
Here's a screenshot of my drive with Grandma's Recipe Box and all of the subfolders:
When you click on the Appetizers, for instance, this is what pops up:
I opted to add every single one of her recipes in the box, except duplicates. Many of them I know and love and many I've never seen before and have yet to try. Some are her handwriting, some are taken from packaging, some are in her friends' handwriting, and many contain misspellings.
One of my favorites is written in her handwriting (Marie, my maternal grandmother) for a Whiskey Sour, though I've never made it myself. Marie did not drink, but my paternal grandmother, Ruth, sure did. This recipe has my paternal grandmother's name written in the upper right corner, Ruth. I like to imagine Ruth telling Marie the recipe, and her diligently writing it down so anytime Ruth came over, Marie could make her one.
I also particularly love the Better Than Sex cake. Not because it tastes good (I don't know, I've never made it), but because someone, I assume my grandma, scratched out the word "SEX." Too funny:
Those are just a couple of gems from her recipe box. The point is, I shared the link to all of the recipes with my family at Thanksgiving last year, so now everyone has a copy of Grandma's Recipe Box.
If you need a low cost gift idea, this is a good one. Time consuming, yes. But well worth the effort.
If you want to see the end result, click here for Grandma's Recipe Box.