A Homespun Journey: {family) Aunt Vivian's recipe tin

I've posted before about my love for food, and cooking/baking, and where it's roots are. Knowing this bit of information about me will help you understand how excited I am about a little treasure I came upon while looking through some boxes at my parents' house this weekend.

Tucked away below some beautiful old glass dishes was a small pink tea canister FULL of recipes. This box had belonged to my Great Aunt Vivian. Now, when I think of my Aunt Vivian, I recall a home that was always full of wonderful food, yummy sweets, pretty hard ribbon candy that one doesn't see often anymore, a fridge stocked with glass-bottled Cokes, and listening to long talks between my mom and other family members at the table in an entirely blue kitchen. Blue. Everywhere. Blue flowered wallpaper, blue glasses and pieces everywhere, china plates with blue flower patterns hanging on the walls, and --now I was small mind you, but if I remember correctly-- blue counter tops and tiles. (Family, am I right? it's a bit blurry)

When my mom told me this little box had belonged to Aunt Vivian, immediately I said "But it's pink!?". She said that before the blue kitchen, there existed a pink one. And I will imagine it as wonderfully over the top as the blue one. I will always remember that great kitchen.

Right away I began shuffling through the clippings and little scraps of papers with recipes scratched on them. I found some treasures.

There are so many to share, so please bare with me. I may go a little overboard with photos. I love old things, and I have fallen in love with this tin of fun.

There were an high number of wrappers from things like Carnation canned milk, and Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk, and an even higher number of clippings from the newspaper.

I am going to try these!

I even found a recipe that, I assume, I had sent to her. This one was written in my hand, and it is a recipe that I've made several times.

And in a little bundle paper-clipped together, I found, along with some other things, a recipe written by my mom, and a note to my Aunt Missy.

Could they have made food MORE unattractive in photos back then?! ha!

Here is a fun little bit about making colored flames in your fire by using things like Lithium Chloride and Copper Sulphate. Um... ok. Crazy! I actually want to see about this.

There were lots of recipes for things I have never heard of before in my life!!

"yuck" what the first thing I thought. But these look similar to russian tea cakes.

"yuck" also entered my mind with this one. Might be like a custard?

um, I don't know... but I'm just curious enough to try this one. It sounds sort of like a cheesecake-type dessert

What in the world is corn pudding?! There were more than a couple recipes for it.

There were also some family favorites tucked in with all these other interesting recipes.

These were ALWAYS at her house at Christmas time.

This Dump Cake is different from the one we make now. This recipe uses a cake that has been baked and you break it up and put cherry jello over it, then cherries and whipped cream.

I had never heard them called "Preacher Cookies" until this past Christmas when my cousin told me.

this is the same recipe as above. We always called the No-bake Fudge cookies.

This was a little group of recipes that, i assume, was given to her by someone she knew.

I thought this one was too funny...

I can't figure out quite what this next recipe is for. It calls for a peck of green tomatoes and 3 pounds of onions, cabbage, vinegar, a gallon of cucumbers, pickling spices and sugar. Chow-chow maybe?

There are a lot of recipes in this box that I'd like to try.

Interesting name.

I haven't had this in so long... I need to make some soon!

And there are some things that I just think are cute...

even a couple little doilies in the mix :)

I don't know where all of these recipes came from. She may have not written them all out herself, but I love looking through this little treasure box. It's like a glimpse into her daily life. I wish she was still here so I could ask her about some of them. Sometimes I feel guilty about holding onto little things like this around my house. Little papers, and clippings from magazines. Little drawings and doodles that I've stuffed into boxes and envelopes. But one day, when I'm gone, I think that those are the things that those I've left behind will cherish as I cherish this little box of recipes.